NEWS: Tuition for needy teens

WITH the aim of giving back to the community, SEGi University College (SEGi) and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (a restaurant chain), recently had a signing ceremony to mark their collaboration in providing free tuition to underprivileged students.

Held at SEGi’s campus in Kota Damansara, the event saw SEGi vice-chancellor Prof Dr Muhamad Awang signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bubba Gump senior operations manager Rizal Ross.
Prof Muhamad (left) and Rizal exchanging MoU documents at SEGI’s campus in Kota Damansara.

The MoU formalises the efforts to offer free Mathematics and English language tuition to needy Form Three and Form Five students in the Klang Valley.

A total of 100 students from four schools are currently benefiting from the tutorial classes, which commenced last month and will last for 12 weeks.

The classes serve to guide and coach students for their upcoming final examinations.

“The classes were entirely conducted by volunteers, all of whom are academic staff from our foundation studies centre,” said Prof Muhamad.

“These volunteers were instrumental in making the project work — from sacrificing their Saturdays for teaching to taking the time taken for planning.”

He also said that the main reason for the initiative was to give underprivileged students a chance to fulfil their potential.

“We recognise the fact that education has a role in improving people’s lives — if these students can do better in their exams, and go on to college, they will then be able to contribute to their families and society at large.”

SEGi hopes to continue the programme in future so that it can reach out to more deserving students. Meanwhile, Bubba Gump’s involvement was to provide free meals for students on tutorial days.

“We’re happy to work on this project as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) scheme,” said Rizal.

“Our CSR budget runs on a quarterly basis, but we carry out a programme once a month. So we welcome projects that will benefit the community at large.”