MALAYSIANSKINI | ‘Age is just a number’ is a mantra for Calvin Woo.

This is what he tells the youths from underprivileged backgrounds that he works with. At only 20 years of age himself, Woo is walking the talk.

Not even old enough to vote, the unassuming youngster is the only Malaysian among 60 from across the Commonwealth to receive the Queen’s Young Leaders Award.

Flying to the UK to receive the award from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in a few weeks, Woo is in a frenzy to prepare for the trip while squeezing in interviews with reporters lining up for his time after he announced as award recipient this week.

“I really, really want to do something for Malaysia,” Woo told Malaysiakini.

“I really want the youths to change their mindset. They need to know that age is just a number,” he said.

Sitting down with Malaysiakini for an interview - second media interview for the day, even before lunchtime - Woo spoke about his award-winning work at the speed of a bullet train.

“ Laju ke? ” the Muar native asked, his Bahasa Malaysia as fluent as his English and Hokkien.

“I am not bored telling this story,” he said. “It comes from deep down in my heart.”

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#MalaysiansKini - Queen's Young Leaders Award: Calvin Woo, 20 year old young Malaysian was the sole Malaysian among 60 from the Commonwealth countries to receive the award from Queen Elizabeth II.Wo, is very passionate about his work to improve education and alleviate poverty amongst young people in Malaysia. Want to know more? Head on to malaysiakini.com !

Posted by Malaysiakini on Saturday, December 12, 2015

Empower youths to believe in themselves

The story he told featured an introverted small-town boy, who would become the head of programmes at social enterprise which impact is so significant that it reverberated all the way to London.

Through the social enterprise, Sastra Education Development, Woo develops modules for personal, career, academic and technical programmes, which his team of six teaches to underprivileged students aged between 15 and 17.

His pilot project has so far been executed at one school in Kedah and another in Kuala Lumpur. The eight-month after-school programme involved 50 students at each school.

The idea, he said, is to empower them to make decisions for themselves.

He said the youths he works with feel disempowered, and have little belief in themselves or the value of their lives.

“This is the very reason why they have a lack of interest in school so we try to create a sense of ownership through participation in our programme.

“Why do you think they join gangs? They want to feel like they belong. What we need is for them to stay in school,” he said.

This empathy was perhaps cultivated from a young age, when the bespectacled lad found himself as one of the few ethnic Chinese students admitted to a Mara Junior College (MRSM) in Mersing.

Two-years of being at a boarding school, Woo said, gave him a platform to develop himself and be independent.

‘I won’t die in a rat race’

Graduating with straight As in SPM, Woo shunned the well-trodden paths of MRSM graduates who often find their way on the fast track from pre-university to high-flying corporate careers.

“I don’t want to die in the rat race.”

Instead he decided to follow in the footsteps of his English teacher father and the schoolteachers whom he credits for coaxing his talent and building the confidence of the introverted boy he once was.

“Teaching a kid to read, the satisfaction can last forever,” said Woo, a devout Christian.

He went on to enrol at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (Upsi) and took up a teaching diploma.

“In Upsi I spent a lot of time in the library alone, sedih kan kehidupan (wasn’t I so sad ) ?’,” he said, ever self-effacing.

With few friends among his peers, Woo found himself spending time with lecturers to the extent that one of them appointed him to tutor a post-graduate students in language and presentation skills.

“I can still remember that I didn’t tell them (the students) my age until the end. When I told them, they were shocked!,” he said, laughing.

Not your average 20-year-old

With reading PhD theses as a past time, it would not be too far off to describe Woo as a nerd of the first order, but the high-achiever could be less bothered.

“ Lantak lah!” he said, reverting again to the colloquial Malay he is comfortable in.

The young man’s musical tastes, too, seems to depart from his peers, preferring classical music over pop and finding refuge at the Malaysian Philharmonc Orchestra Hall in KLCC.

In fact, Suria KLCC appears to be his favourite haunt, with Japanese book store Kinokuniya a “heaven” for the middle child of four.

“I spend time with my books,” he said.

Brushing off suggestions of snobbery, Woo nonetheless admitted that he swims against the tide.

“(We) are so fitted in this society that we need to run the rat race but I always liked to challenge the status-quo.

“My friends tend to decide for me and I don’t like it…My mother and Ananda, they don’t do that. They presented me with the opportunities and allow me to make up my own mind,” he said.

He was referring to Sastra Education Development founder Ananda Devan, one of several he credits for his achievements.

The ripple effect

Never one to sit idly at home, Woo was part of the US Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiave and a fellow with Malaysian think tank the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).

Ideas chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan and chief operating officer Tricia Yeoh, he said, also helped in developing his views on education policies and the role of social entrepreneurship.

Woo said a social-entrepreneur approach can help to address societal problems from a “bottoms-up” manner, by first ensuring that people are able to put food on their table.

“From there, the ripple effect goes on,” he said, hoping for a regional ripple which will see countries progress at equal pace.

Where will the ripple of this prestigious award bring Woo?

“I am so proud but yet at the same time humbled by the award. It has been a very, very challenging, very difficult journey,” he said.

“We’ll see which university will accept me. The right opportunities have helped to propel me this far already.”

But no matter how far he will go, one thing for sure, he said.

“Malaysia will always be in my heart”.

Pictures and video by Sonia Awale

MALAYSIANS KINI is a series on Malaysians you should know.

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