New Goal for CHHORN DARO's Life in UTP

It is very honored that a student from a poor family without father was able to be given the chance to study abroad in Malaysia.

“In our life, we have to try our best to study no matter what.” is the sentence which drives a student, sponsored by Muhibbah Engineering (M) BHD and offered pre-internship at Muhibbah Steel Industies SDN BHD in March 2014 (there was even an international magazine which interviewed him about his study too), to try his very best to study in Malaysia.

CHHORN DARO, whose dad passed away since he was 16, is currently studying civil engineering at Univesiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia. He humbly said during the interview, “ in fact, I am not an outstanding student, not at all. I just try my best to study and try to contribute more to the society by doing good. “

He always dreamed when he was a child what he will become a Civil Engineer when he grow up, just as anyone else.

When he was 10 years old, he asked his brother how to live well to be able to get enough food to eat as other families. His brother, Chhorn Rotha, told him that “there’s only one thing that you can do, that is to try your best to study. And always remember: time passed can never go back”. Young Daro also wondered if the role of friends is also important in one’s life? And his brother wisely added that without friends, life holds no meaning.

Since he was young, he tried his best to study English 5 hours per day - listening to the English news and reading English newspaper. Daro recalled, “ When I was young, I liked watching Hong Kong and Singapore movies, especially those that have their main plots circulating around certain job-roles. For me, it was very educational to the audience as it shows how to be a successful person in the society. However, there was a question that always bugged me. Back then, in the Kampong Cham province, there was a bridge – KIZUNA - that was just beginning to be constructed. I asked myself how to build it”. To solve this question, my brother told me that you must try hard to study math and physics.

First step to be successful: the goal

Due to the poor family living standard, Daro taught his neighbors English just so that he would be able to buy books to study. Apart from that, he also gave tuition to the students near his house to be able to earn money as much as USD30 per month. In addition to all these, he was, at the same time, preparing himself to join the annual national physics competition, which was a huge deal to high school students back in Cambodia. With his hard work and his resilient nature, he successfully passed with flying colors for the state level competition, and was then sent for the national level as one of the seven representatives of the Kampong Cham province when he was grade 9 – all these, at a mere age of 14.  He also joined quite a number of voluntary activities along with other youths to teach the public in Cambodia on the true meaning of democracy, awareness to HIV & AIDS, collection of funds for the homeless, and many more. 

In grade 12, he was again the Outstanding Student (or so what they call the representatives) of the province for the physics competition. From the competition, due to his exceptionally good results, he got offered scholarships from both the Cambodian Mekong University and Royal University of Phnom Penh. However, in order to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer, he chose to major in the engineering course in the Institute of Technology of Cambodia even though he has to pay by him self to study there. He attained a GPA of 3.0, making him one of the top students from the university, and from then on he tried his best to study abroad. On the 19^th November 2011 he was awarded the Muhibbah-UTP prestigious Scholarship to study Civil Engineering at UTP.

“When I first arrived in UTP, the first thing that I found out was that communication is extremely important. There are a lot of foreign students studying in this university, just as I am myself. In this unfamiliar environment where so many languages and cultures are blended together, this was the first time that I can finally do actual interactions with English - but I realize it was not as easy as I thought it would be. Back in Cambodia, I learned everything in Cambodian and French, but the moment I stepped off the plane in LCCT, I was immediately bombarded with English, everyday and every minute since then onwards. It was a very hard time for me. With all the courses in UTP completely in English, I find some terms in which other students are already accustomed to very unfamiliar. Therefore I needed to spend extra time to study – When other students were out watching movies, I was busy flipping through dictionaries for words I don’t understand; while others were having lunch at the nearby town Tronoh after class, I had to stay back to meet lecturers to ask questions regarding stuffs that I have a hard time to grasp on. I have to plan very well every semester, just so that I can do well in my studies to achieve my goal – to obtain Dean’s List. All the hard work paid off when I tried to apply the pre-internship at Muhibbah Steel Industries (M) Bhd and I successfully got it. I was even interviewed by UTP Alumni Transform Magazine.”

Communication is very important because some work cannot be done alone, so Daro started reaching out to other friends, both foreigners and locals. He said, “ even though I try my best to study but I also join activities such as public speaking, joined homestay program where I experienced living with a local family that made me understand their cultures. I was being fed traditional food everyday and was trying to speak Malay with them, in which I did pick up some simple terms such as Terima Kasih, Pasar Malam, makan, minum... I felt that I am living with my beloved family in Cambodia. It made me feel like home.”

Daro said, “ studying might be the obvious way to find a good job, but good communication is the key point to live because we must work and live with other people in the society.”

Lastly, Chhorn Daro would like to thank his beloved mother, sister, brother and friends and Muhibbah company which sponsored him to make his dream come true to be a Civil Engineer.

Figure 1. CHHORN DARO in Paris

Figure 2. CHHORN DARO with Korean and Vietnamese friends in Busan, South Korea