Meixi Ng (SESP11)
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Meixi Ng is now a senior in college, but this summer, she'll be returning to high school.
The current School of Education and Social Policy senior wil be going to six different high schools on four different continents, as she is the 2010 recipient of the Circumnavigators Club Foundation’s Around-The-World Travel-Study Grant. Ng will take her studies abroad in order to study schools in marginalized communities.
“I love the energy that schools have, and the potential for them to be real catalysts for change, and I also think the community can be a mutual asset to the school,” Ng says. “It’s a really exciting relationship to look at and study, especially in six different countries of the world.”
A native of Singapore, Ng’s academic and humanitarian adventures have taken her from the slums of Hyderabad and Calcutta to the rural mountain tribes of Thailand. In addition to addressing schools’ immediate needs – such as concrete platforms for students to walk on during the monsoon season – Ng uses her diverse background and talent for leadership to bring often-disadvantaged people into community.
For one, the International Students Association, which Ng co-founded along with a small community of international friends, has grown tremendously in the two years since its birth. For Ng, the organization has provided not only a home away from home, but an invaluable international network for her travels.
“[International students] are such an asset in terms of the network and contacts they have in so many different countries, and not even that, but their perspective on issues. It always reminds me that Northwestern has such a rich culture, and I wanted to really bring that out.”
Still, whether Ng is working with anthropologists and engineers at Northwestern or with the volunteers of her Singapore-based organization, the Amber Initiative, she says the same principles apply.
“No matter where you are, the concept of learning from other people that you work with and how they each have different gifts and talents…that doesn’t really change,” she says with a knowing smile. When it comes to making inner visions into tangible realities, Ng names the Northwestern professors and the students that came before her as her greatest sources of inspiration.
“The biggest thing to remember is that you can never do anything alone. If you take everything that I’ve done, it’s always been with an amazing crew of people. It’s truly not about me and my idea, but about our ideas and our collective vision, and, of course, having fun with it as well.”
Read more alumni and student spotlights.
Posted June 14, 2010.
