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