Indonesian wins Lee Kuan Yew award

Indonesian wins Lee Kuan Yew award

SINGAPORE: Mariati Zhang Si Wei, 22, could have gone to a top
Indonesian university, but chose to study biomedical science at
Temasek Polytechnic instead.

On Monday, she graduated as one of its top students, receiving
an award at its 13th graduation ceremony.

Three out of the polytechnic's four award-winning students
this year were women, two of them from overseas. Mariati, who
topped her high school class in Batam in 1999, said her parents
advised her to pick Singapore over Jakarta because of the trouble
which had erupted in the capital.

Even though she had to work as a waitress during vacations to
help pay for her education, she said the move was worth it.

"I made friends with students from Uganda and China, the
facilities were outstanding, and I even had a chance to learn to
play the pipa," said Mariati, who was in the polytechnic's
Chinese orchestra.

She took home the Lee Kuan Yew award, for the top technology
or computer science graduates, and will study molecular biology
in the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Pattarin Kusolpalin, 22, from Thailand, received the all-
rounder award. -- The Straits Times, Asia News Network