Tuesday, July 24, 2007

DECC Call For Assistance

Below is a message from Tee Sui Seng, recently gradauted from Cambridge University, who has offered to assist with DECC. Thanks a million, Sui Seng. ;)

The Descartes Education Counselling Centre (DECC) is a non-profit organisation which hopes to act as a port-of-call to ease some of the problems regarding opportunities for furthering education. Previous activities have included helping students in the application process to top universities such as Ivy League, Liberal Arts Colleges and Oxbridge in England and also providing guidance for career and employment opportunities

We are now looking for a more permanent establishment to provide for continuing service to students. This inaugural DECC Committee will oversee the setting up of the DECC as a permanent feature in the Malaysian educational landscape and will be heavily involved in determining the long-term role of the DECC.

Positions include:
  1. Director – to determine the direction of the organisation and to ensure the smooth operations of all projects

  2. Publicity manager – to ensure the objectives and activities of the DECC are made known to the target audience

  3. Web development manager – to set up and maintain the DECC website

  4. Educational Co-ordinator – to liase between students and regional co-ordinators to ensure efficient response of enquiries

  5. Regional Co-ordinators – divided by regions, including local, Asia-Pacific, UK, US and Europe, to have knowledge on opportunities for tertiary education in the regions

  6. Graduate Co-ordinators – in charge of enquiries regarding graduate education opportunities and employment
Do note that the positions do not require more than a couple of hours of work a week, and will mostly involve pushing e-mails. This is a great opportunity to contribute to improving the situation in Malaysia in a pro-active, hands-on manner, while building a network of acquaintances with similar visions and aspirations.

Just drop an e-mail to teesuiseng(at)gmail(dot)com, with a short description of your background and how you think you can contribute to the DECC; either by filling one of the positions above or any other way. Any enquiries or suggestions are also welcome and we hope to hear from you soon!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Strange is this a classified advert for jobs and appointments or a true blog? Can't make out which is which?

Anonymous said...

i recommend tony only to recruit graduates from oxbridge or the ivy leagues as they are the ones most qualified to guide our younger generations to better academic opportunities. we do not want the blind leading the blind right?

malaysian and aussie graduates are just not that up to par. for the sake of elite education for our kids, i suggest tony only hire those from the best, which is none other than oxbridge and the ivies.

clk said...

"i suggest tony only hire those from the best, which is none other than oxbridge and the ivies"

Presumably coming from someone who is also "educated".

Without sounding personal, there are many aspects of what is the "best" or what is "par" and elite education is just one of the many. Similar to equating success to monetary parameters, success can and should be measured by other aspects as well.

Based on your comments here, I rest my case and leave the conclusion to other readers.

Anonymous said...

Hey I think this is a great initiative. Try to make it as informal and as open as possible so that students won't feel intimidated about coming to the center to ask for advice and help. Many students avoid the Educational Counselling Centres around mainly because they charge and are very formal. Its also great that it'll be students and alumni helping prospective students, instead of counselors/directors.

One suggestion I have is that apart from just focusing on university applications, it'd help if you can give guidance/talks/seminars as well on how a student can make the most of the opportunities in the universities and countries they're in(whether its local, in Asia, Europe, etc). Many students go to universities and just fulfill necessary requirements to obtain a degree. They miss out the opportunities like for example, the networks of their faculty/deans/professors whom they could have leveraged on while studying for projects/research/business ideas they plan to have after graduation.

Anonymous said...

hehe...its time wasting spending time with our local academics....they are too bent on R&D (rihat dan duduk)
Some of the academics acting as Penasihat akademik dont even know their students.....Wonder why they appoint penasihat akademik if its merely to get compulsory signatures at the term's end...Another ISO project!

Anonymous said...

I think the regional posts are pretty ambitious, e.g. each country in Europe is different.

~

Anonymous said...

Canada?

Anonymous said...

It is a great idea, I wish there are more Malaysians get into and get support to study in the top univsersities of the world. It is even a greater challenge trying to be good and not arrogant.
Depending on the goals of DECC, having graduates from the top uni only may not be the right answer. I have organised university admission seminars in the US for a group of parents and students before, in some seminars, I had students from Stanford, Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley to share their experience in uni application and college life, parents were very interested, some students were interested, but I got feedback that there were students felt it was depressing, seeing all the high achievers spoke thinking there was no chance for them to do the same.
So, part of counselling is to give hope, not only to the best students, but also who need them most. Let people have the feeling that they can achieve great things too if they try hard enough. Even if they do not get to where they wanted, they would be much further ahead compare to not trying it.
We may need to start to think about life after good grades. Grades are important, but not the only thing and good grades alone is not good enough if you want to be great.

regards,
Frank_c

Anonymous said...

"i suggest tony only hire those from the best, which is none other than oxbridge and the ivies"

WHAT a dimwit