{"id":5058,"date":"2012-12-28T05:46:56","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T05:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/from-one-cohort-to-the-next\/"},"modified":"2012-12-28T05:46:56","modified_gmt":"2012-12-28T05:46:56","slug":"from-one-cohort-to-the-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/from-one-cohort-to-the-next\/","title":{"rendered":"From One Cohort To The Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

2012 Fellow, Abel Cheah, welcomes the 2013 cohort to the Teach For Malaysia family and shares his reflections on being a year into the Fellowship. Abel speaks from his experience, sending a heartfelt message out to 2013Fellows to continue to press on and to\u00a0keep striving for excellence.\u00a0His speech<\/a>\u00a0is captured below:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Yang Amat Mulia Tengku Ali, Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Abd. Ghafar, Tan Sri Dr Jemilah, Board of Trustees, guests of honours and the entire TFM Family. Good evening to all of you.My name is Abel Cheah and I\u2019m a 2012 fellow. On behalf of all of us here, we congratulate you, the 2013 fellows, and warmly welcome you as the second Teach For Malaysia cohort.<\/p>\n

When we, the 2012 cohort, sat in your seats this time last year, we had the same emotions as what you are probably feeling now. All of us knew why we signed up for this mission, but none us were fully prepared for everything we would soon face \u2013 and are still facing today.<\/p>\n

Like you, we were apprehensive, anxious, excited, ecstatic \u2014 and we had a very vague idea of what to expect, except that the journey would be long and hard, but immensely rewarding and inspiring.<\/p>\n

Like you, we began our journey as strangers from a diversity of backgrounds who were united by a common cause \u2014 but have today, the bond of a family (some of us will actually be real \u2018family\u2019 after the Fellowship\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

Like you, we gave up something to commit to this mission \u2014 including the comforts of our homes, the luxury of our jobs and the solace of being close to our families.<\/p>\n

A year has now passed since we embarked on the journey you are starting today. And the question that is being asked, is how has it been for us? What have we experienced and done in the past year \u2013 that you will?<\/p>\n

As an English teacher, I wrote down some verbs to answer this question. And because we\u2019re still only a year into the fellowship, these action words are written in the\u00a0present tense<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Learn<\/strong>\u00a0at the Institute.\u00a0Practice<\/strong>\u00a0at Kem SKORlah.\u00a0Sleep\u00a0<\/strong>little.\u00a0Prepare<\/strong>.\u00a0Laugh<\/strong>\u00a0heartily.\u00a0Weep<\/strong>\u00a0for our country.\u00a0Step<\/strong>\u00a0into school.\u00a0Crawl<\/strong>\u00a0back home.\u00a0Squa<\/strong>t with the students to learn about plants.\u00a0Look<\/strong>\u00a0into their faces as they tell their stories.\u00a0Read<\/strong>\u00a0about their broken homes and lofty dreams.\u00a0Brace<\/strong>\u00a0for 200 more days of school.\u00a0Celebrate\u00a0<\/strong>the small successes.\u00a0Recover<\/strong>\u00a0from the daily disappointments.\u00a0Stay up<\/strong>\u00a0working on the Kertas Kerja, Buku Kehadiran, Buku Program, PBS filling, exam paper setting and\u00a0essay<\/a>\u00a0marking, etc.\u00a0Stay back<\/strong>\u00a0to teach in extra classes.\u00a0Converse<\/strong>\u00a0with the teachers in the staffroom about the latest kuih muih to order in town.\u00a0Connect<\/strong>\u00a0with business leaders and future partners.<\/p>\n

Rest<\/strong>\u00a0dan\u00a0reflect<\/strong>.\u00a0Start<\/strong>\u00a0over again, but this time, better.<\/p>\n

Teach<\/strong>\u00a0for the kid who works in the workshop every day after school.\u00a0Teach<\/strong>\u00a0for those boys who walk to your house every week to learn the difference between \u2018is\u2019 and \u2018are\u2019.\u00a0Teach<\/strong>\u00a0for that girl who is abused by her father, but wants to be a teacher herself, someday.\u00a0\u00a0Teach<\/strong>\u00a0for your country.\u00a0Teach<\/strong>\u00a0for Malaysia.<\/p>\n

2013 Fellows, once again we congratulate you and we know you\u2019ll do a great job! All the best.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2012 Fellow, Abel Cheah, welcomes the 2013 cohort to the Teach For Malaysia family and shares his reflections on being a year into the Fellowship. Abel speaks from his experience,…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,128,103,113],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-community-movement-2","7":"category-fellow","8":"category-impact","9":"category-movement"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}