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#InLivingColour - The Giftmakers
Stories by alumni for alumni
In this edition of In Living Colour, the KLASSics team shares the philanthropic work of 4 of our alumni who choose to give back to society in their own way.
MEET THE GIFTMAKERS
Gerald Bishop, Alumnus 2003 - 2009
Gerald first came to Alice Smith in 2003, after living in Qatar. He studied at the Secondary Campus in Equine Park between 2004 and 2009, where he proudly captained the rugby team and was busily involved with sports. He later went on to Leicester University to study Geology and Geophysics.
A modern day treasure hunter.
Gerald’s work takes him all over the world, particularly to the depths of the sea where he specialises in seismic processing and geophysical data interpretation. “I assess various geophysics datasets to build up an ‘image’ of what is on, and beneath, the seabed. I often live on the survey vessel for 4-8 weeks while we complete a survey grid and process the data on board” says Gerald. In 2018 he started running his own company that does marine survey data acquisition, data processing and interpretation, mainly for renewable energy companies.
Although he spends most of his time with an oceanic view, when on land Gerald has always tried to involve himself with community work. In 2018 he ran a fundraising campaign aimed at assisting the development of a training village in a remote location of Lilongwe, Malawi. The training village, named ‘Sam’s Village,’ teaches groups of vulnerable individuals’ crucial skills in order to help themselves, and their communities, become more efficient and self-sustainable.
A year long campaign, in May of 2018 Gerald went out to Malawi with a group of volunteers and cycled 500km across the country, from Blantyre to Lilongwe and raised over £2,500 for African Vision Malawi. The #pledge4pledge campaign helped the charity’s outreach programmes where they develop really poor regions of Malawi, while also helping individuals with disabilities, sponsoring maternity units, building wells and much more.
So what does the future hold for Gerald...
Some day I’d like to be a pioneer in advanced energy. My background and experiences have shown me the many ways of producing energy. Perhaps I’ll run one, or several, businesses, coming up with solutions to reduce carbon emissions and stabiles the planet’s environment so that humanity can focus its time and resources on advancing as a species.” and Gerald continues, “Short term, though, more money would be nice…”.
Hannah Kam, Alumna 1995 - 2008
Our next alumna, moderation advocate and lawyer Hannah Kam shares her journey in community work during a recent trip back to school this year.
Having long been interested in community work, upon her return to Malaysia in 2014, Hannah and her friends decided to start an initiative aimed at encouraging young people to be more active in building their own future - a future that they wanted for themselves and their future generations.
They started developing several programmes under their flagship theme of Our Future: 2057, which symbolises 100 years post Merdeka and the progress they hoped to achieve in nation-building by then. “We wanted a comprehensive framework and we therefore drafted our own ONE Charter, which is like our constitution, and this Charter comprises the different areas of national life in which we want to make a difference going forward, including Education, Economy and Women Empowerment. Our starting focus was on education”, said Hannah.
Hannah and her team endeavoured to create projects or programmes aimed at expanding youths’ imaginations and methods of thinking. A great example would be their Pitch for Progress (PfP) programme, where both public and private university students from around the country competed in an elevator pitch style competition, where a specific topic was chosen, such as how education in Malaysia could be revolutionised. In fact, PfP was not simply about the pitching competition: during the three day event, students also participated in various workshops led by Hannah and her colleagues, which included practical training on methods of presentation and public speaking, where the skills practiced and honed by the participants would stand them in good stead in the future.
Hannah and her team then developed a programme called GROW, a workshop that offered career and education advice for students from technical colleges and SPM leavers which includes how to prepare for an interview. Hannah says, “Our belief is that not everything is about academic education. Young people should be encouraged to follow their individual talents and preferences, and must be taught a broader perspective on life.”
So what’s next for Hannah Kam?
Having devloped and run youth programmes for more than four years, Hannah stepped down from the ONE committee last year to pursue other interests. She wrote a book entitled “How I Co-Founded an NGO: ONE Vision, ONE Future” which was published by MPH Group Publishing in 2018, and she is now also a columnist at TwentyTwo13 (https://twentytwo13. my), an online news portal, where she publishes work ranging from poetry to opinions on political events. She’s also been busy running a female empowerment mentorship programme for young Malaysian women and is looking forward to launching a cultural and heritage themed initiative later this year.
Tricia Yap, Alumnus 1988 - 1998
Our alumna Tricia Yap was a part of the Alice Smith School from Year 1 all the way to Year 12 (albeit a short gap in between Year 3 till 6 in Australia), and was proudly a part of the first ever graduating group of Year 12’s.
Currently Tricia is a health and wellness entrepreneur, and a prominent motivational speaker. At one point in her career, she became the first professional female mixed martial arts fighter in Hong Kong.
What an achievement, especially taking a risk to move into a completely new line of career.
Being a motivational speaker, it must be an impactful line of work for you. I had done a TedXWomen talk on grit and success, and regularly speak at corporates, schools, and at wellness events on leadership, health and wellness, and entrepreneurship. In my spare time, I help other young female entrepreneurs as a mentor” and Tricia shared with us, “On a daily basis, I hope help empower women (and men too!) to take back control of their lives, live life more authentically, to be brave and do things that they otherwise thought impossible.
Zachary Liew, Alumnus 1996 - 2010
Tell us abit about yourself.
I went to Alice Smith throughout my whole schooling career - all the way from Reception to Year 13. Following that, I studied Law at the University of Bristol and then got called to the UK Bar a year later upon completion of the BPTC (Bar Professional Training Course).
However, I decided not to pursue a legal career (took me 4 years to realise that!) and then worked for various companies in banking and tech in London. I’ve now moved back to KL and started my own company that does financial technology.
That is indeed a big jump, from law to finance. So what are you working on now?
I’m a co-founder of a FinTech startup called Curlec, that makes it really easy for businesses to collect recurring payments online. We started up the company towards the end of 2017 and since then have picked up a lot of traction. Up until us, the infrastructure to do this hasn’t existed for most companies in Malaysia and we’re now bringing this to the mass market, particularly targeting the SME segment.
This sounds like a great opportunity, especially for SMEs to improve accessibility for their customers using an online payment platform. Certainly this has helped made a difference?
At Curlec, our big value proposition lies in the fact that we help businesses of all sizes manage their cash flow and finances better. Traditionally, banks have overlooked these guys so we’re stepping in to allow them to use this service. We’re helping bank the underbanked business. Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business so I guess a difference we’re making in society is helping business owners throughout Malaysia manage this better and ensure that they can stay alive, pay employees etc.
What are your future aspirations in the current work that you do?
Become the Number 1 player in our space in Malaysia, then across South East Asia and maybe even beyond!
