http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090830-164396.html
Mon, Aug 31, 2009
The Straits Times
Benefactor to foreign students
By Cassandra Chew
LANGUAGE school director Edwin Chan, 60, firmly believes that everyone deserves a shot at a good education. He had one, thanks to the kindness of a benefactor.
Orphaned when he was just 15, he would have been forced to abandon his studies if not for a family friend who took him in and kept him in school for several years.
[ Mr Ma Gang (left) and Vietnamese student Ms Dang Thuy Chi (right) credit Cambridge Institute director Mr Edwin Chan (centre) for turning their lives around.]
So when Vietnamese student Dang Thuy Chi, 21, was cheated of nearly $10,000 when her private school shut down abruptly in February, Mr Chan offered her a free place to learn English at his school.
And when an 18-year-old Turkish student lost his parents in a 2003 earthquake, Mr Chan paid his fees and gave him a monthly allowance to keep him in school here.
Altogether, he has helped nine foreign students, spending more than $53,000 of his own money since 2002.
The quiet and unassuming man is director of Cambridge Institute, an international language school with seven campuses in three countries, 120 staff and 7,000 students. The company's annual turnover is $10 million.
'As long as students who want to study get into problems, I want to help them,' says Mr Chan, who feels he owes his success today to his own benefactor.
As a child, he lived with his parents and four siblings in St Matthew's Church in Tiong Bahru, where his father, the sole breadwinner, was a cleaner. His family could not afford their own home.
Immigrants from Canton, now Guangzhou, in China, his illiterate parents placed great importance on education. They could not pay for books or uniforms and relied on donations from churchgoers.
Life was hard. When he was 14, Mr Chan's mother died while giving birth to his youngest sibling, who also did not survive. His father died after taking expired medication just a year later. Left with no other relatives in Singapore, the Chan siblings were taken in by a family friend, who supported them financially.
'He paid for our housing rental, food, school fees, everything, until after my A levels when he died from an asthma attack,' recalls Mr Chan.
It explains why he thinks nothing of doing the same for others today. 'I have to pay back what I've received,' says the devout Catholic.
'I don't want these foreign students to be cheated. Their relatives and friends send them off at the airport, expecting them to come back with qualifications. I want to help them all the way.'
And he has done just that with Mongolian native Ma Gang. The 29-year-old arrived in Singapore four years ago only to discover that he had been cheated by his agent. 'My agent from inner Mongolia charged me $10,000 to arrange for me to study English here. He told me I could work and study here, but I couldn't,' said Mr Ma, who was banking on part-time work to support himself here.
To make matters worse, he was put up in a twin-share HDB room, instead of his own room. His landlord did not allow him or his roommate to use water, electricity or gas unless they paid extra, on top of their $300 monthly rent. The flat was also located in Bukit Gombak, a full 40-minute MRT ride away from Mr Chan's school in City Hall.
'I was very angry with the school and the agent. I thought he was a liar for cheating me, I was angry with Mr Chan,' recalls Mr Ma, whose father is a government official and mother, a sales representative. He did not tell his parents of his predicament because he did not want them to 'lose face'.
Mr Chan does not work with Mr Ma's agent, and did not know about the arrangement the latter had made for the student. But when the director heard about his plight, he acted quickly to help.
First, he offered Mr Ma free English lessons. The latter started out with basic-level classes, and progressed to take his Test Of English as a Foreign Language (Toefl) and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examinations at no charge.
Then, Mr Chan found him new housing at Aljunied. He also convinced Mr Ma's former landlord to refund his rent deposit. Between June and December 2006, he gave Mr Ma from $300 to $350 a month to help with rental costs.
He even applied for an employment pass on Mr Ma's behalf, and gave him a job at Cambridge. Mr Ma took care of administrative and operations tasks, and drew a monthly salary of about $1,000.
In 2007, Mr Chan spent over $24,000 supporting Mr Ma's pursuit of a master's in business administration with Australian James Cook University here. Mr Ma graduated in March. He is now pursuing certification with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, and hopes to return home soon.
'Mr Chan is just like my second father. He gave me a future and a new life,' says Mr Ma, who adds that he would do anything Mr Chan asks of him.
He is not the only one who is grateful. Ms Chi had left her hometown of Ho Chi Minh City in August last year to pursue a 1 1/2-year English course at the Britannia School of Education in Tanjong Pagar. But barely four months later, the school closed for a break and did not reopen.
Mr Chan first heard about her when she sought help from a teacher at his school.
He got his administrator to help Ms Chi file a claim with the Small Claims Tribunal against Britannia. The court ordered that school director Zuliana Ibrahim, 38, pay Ms Chi $9,425 by Feb 16, but Ms Zuliana has been uncontactable since the school's closure and no money has been paid.
Ms Chi says: 'I couldn't believe that such a thing could happen in Singapore, but I am grateful for Mr Chan's help, and I feel I can trust Singapore again.'
Six years ago, Mr Chan met another Vietnamese girl at an education fair in Ho Chi Minh City. Ms Nguyen Thi Na wanted to pursue a master's degree in Singapore, but hardly spoke English.
Moved by her determination, Mr Chan offered her a full scholarship to study at Cambridge for 18 months. She only needed to pay for her own airfare.
During this time, she studied English and Chinese and did a diploma in marketing. She ended up marrying an Australian she met here.
She now lives in Brisbane and often credits Mr Chan for turning her life around. She visits him whenever she is in town.
Mr Chan does not believe in trumpeting what he has done for these students. Nor does he expect them to repay him. For instance, the Turkish student, now a hotel manager in Istanbul, offered Mr Chan an all-expenses-paid trip to Turkey to show his gratitude. The latter graciously declined.
In fact, Mr Chan's family and staff did not even know about his magnanimity until long after the fact. 'My daughters were very surprised that I did this all this while without them knowing, but they told me they were proud of me,' says the husband to Ivy, 56, a homemaker, and father of two daughters. Shireen, 30, is a veterinary student and Sabrina, 26, is pursuing her doctorate in psychology.
Mr Chan tells The Straits Times that he hopes other schools will also help foreign students in need.
'When others helped me, they didn't care about money, so I shouldn't think about that also. I'm just paying it forward.'
[email protected]
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
Read also:
» Only 25, she's 'mum' to 55 students
Mon, Aug 31, 2009
The Straits Times
Benefactor to foreign students
By Cassandra Chew
LANGUAGE school director Edwin Chan, 60, firmly believes that everyone deserves a shot at a good education. He had one, thanks to the kindness of a benefactor.
Orphaned when he was just 15, he would have been forced to abandon his studies if not for a family friend who took him in and kept him in school for several years.
[ Mr Ma Gang (left) and Vietnamese student Ms Dang Thuy Chi (right) credit Cambridge Institute director Mr Edwin Chan (centre) for turning their lives around.]
So when Vietnamese student Dang Thuy Chi, 21, was cheated of nearly $10,000 when her private school shut down abruptly in February, Mr Chan offered her a free place to learn English at his school.
And when an 18-year-old Turkish student lost his parents in a 2003 earthquake, Mr Chan paid his fees and gave him a monthly allowance to keep him in school here.
Altogether, he has helped nine foreign students, spending more than $53,000 of his own money since 2002.
The quiet and unassuming man is director of Cambridge Institute, an international language school with seven campuses in three countries, 120 staff and 7,000 students. The company's annual turnover is $10 million.
'As long as students who want to study get into problems, I want to help them,' says Mr Chan, who feels he owes his success today to his own benefactor.
As a child, he lived with his parents and four siblings in St Matthew's Church in Tiong Bahru, where his father, the sole breadwinner, was a cleaner. His family could not afford their own home.
Immigrants from Canton, now Guangzhou, in China, his illiterate parents placed great importance on education. They could not pay for books or uniforms and relied on donations from churchgoers.
Life was hard. When he was 14, Mr Chan's mother died while giving birth to his youngest sibling, who also did not survive. His father died after taking expired medication just a year later. Left with no other relatives in Singapore, the Chan siblings were taken in by a family friend, who supported them financially.
'He paid for our housing rental, food, school fees, everything, until after my A levels when he died from an asthma attack,' recalls Mr Chan.
It explains why he thinks nothing of doing the same for others today. 'I have to pay back what I've received,' says the devout Catholic.
'I don't want these foreign students to be cheated. Their relatives and friends send them off at the airport, expecting them to come back with qualifications. I want to help them all the way.'
And he has done just that with Mongolian native Ma Gang. The 29-year-old arrived in Singapore four years ago only to discover that he had been cheated by his agent. 'My agent from inner Mongolia charged me $10,000 to arrange for me to study English here. He told me I could work and study here, but I couldn't,' said Mr Ma, who was banking on part-time work to support himself here.
To make matters worse, he was put up in a twin-share HDB room, instead of his own room. His landlord did not allow him or his roommate to use water, electricity or gas unless they paid extra, on top of their $300 monthly rent. The flat was also located in Bukit Gombak, a full 40-minute MRT ride away from Mr Chan's school in City Hall.
'I was very angry with the school and the agent. I thought he was a liar for cheating me, I was angry with Mr Chan,' recalls Mr Ma, whose father is a government official and mother, a sales representative. He did not tell his parents of his predicament because he did not want them to 'lose face'.
Mr Chan does not work with Mr Ma's agent, and did not know about the arrangement the latter had made for the student. But when the director heard about his plight, he acted quickly to help.
First, he offered Mr Ma free English lessons. The latter started out with basic-level classes, and progressed to take his Test Of English as a Foreign Language (Toefl) and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examinations at no charge.
Then, Mr Chan found him new housing at Aljunied. He also convinced Mr Ma's former landlord to refund his rent deposit. Between June and December 2006, he gave Mr Ma from $300 to $350 a month to help with rental costs.
He even applied for an employment pass on Mr Ma's behalf, and gave him a job at Cambridge. Mr Ma took care of administrative and operations tasks, and drew a monthly salary of about $1,000.
In 2007, Mr Chan spent over $24,000 supporting Mr Ma's pursuit of a master's in business administration with Australian James Cook University here. Mr Ma graduated in March. He is now pursuing certification with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, and hopes to return home soon.
'Mr Chan is just like my second father. He gave me a future and a new life,' says Mr Ma, who adds that he would do anything Mr Chan asks of him.
He is not the only one who is grateful. Ms Chi had left her hometown of Ho Chi Minh City in August last year to pursue a 1 1/2-year English course at the Britannia School of Education in Tanjong Pagar. But barely four months later, the school closed for a break and did not reopen.
Mr Chan first heard about her when she sought help from a teacher at his school.
He got his administrator to help Ms Chi file a claim with the Small Claims Tribunal against Britannia. The court ordered that school director Zuliana Ibrahim, 38, pay Ms Chi $9,425 by Feb 16, but Ms Zuliana has been uncontactable since the school's closure and no money has been paid.
Ms Chi says: 'I couldn't believe that such a thing could happen in Singapore, but I am grateful for Mr Chan's help, and I feel I can trust Singapore again.'
Six years ago, Mr Chan met another Vietnamese girl at an education fair in Ho Chi Minh City. Ms Nguyen Thi Na wanted to pursue a master's degree in Singapore, but hardly spoke English.
Moved by her determination, Mr Chan offered her a full scholarship to study at Cambridge for 18 months. She only needed to pay for her own airfare.
During this time, she studied English and Chinese and did a diploma in marketing. She ended up marrying an Australian she met here.
She now lives in Brisbane and often credits Mr Chan for turning her life around. She visits him whenever she is in town.
Mr Chan does not believe in trumpeting what he has done for these students. Nor does he expect them to repay him. For instance, the Turkish student, now a hotel manager in Istanbul, offered Mr Chan an all-expenses-paid trip to Turkey to show his gratitude. The latter graciously declined.
In fact, Mr Chan's family and staff did not even know about his magnanimity until long after the fact. 'My daughters were very surprised that I did this all this while without them knowing, but they told me they were proud of me,' says the husband to Ivy, 56, a homemaker, and father of two daughters. Shireen, 30, is a veterinary student and Sabrina, 26, is pursuing her doctorate in psychology.
Mr Chan tells The Straits Times that he hopes other schools will also help foreign students in need.
'When others helped me, they didn't care about money, so I shouldn't think about that also. I'm just paying it forward.'
[email protected]
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
Read also:
» Only 25, she's 'mum' to 55 students
Well done Mr Chan!
