Penang teen Lee-ding the way

Tenacious teen: The desire to have a positive impact on the lives of those who need it the most motivates Jia Yi to overcome challenges that come her way.

AS people around her were thrown off course by the Covid-19 pandemic, Jia Yi Lee remained steadfast in her vision to live a life characterised by service to others. Over the past year, the 18-year-old has immersed herself in building a product prototype, as well as in carrying out a community campaign, with the goal of “having a positive impact on the lives of those who need it the most”.

“That motivates me when things get difficult,” she told StarEdu.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) student at the International School of Penang (Uplands), who aspires to be an engineer, has taken it upon herself to design and build a three-dimensional (3D) printed orifice meter. Her aim is to alleviate the cost of building distribution pipelines in rural farms and estates that participate in water trading during times of water scarcity.

By using 3D printing technologies to develop the prototype, she said, her orifice meter would cost no more than RM15 to build.

“As I constructed my prototype, I had to reflect deeply on the sustainability, properties and biodegradability of various 3D printing filaments,” she said, pointing out the importance of considering factors such as the environment, ergonomics, finance and aesthetics when working on a prototype.

The British Physics Olympiad 2021 Bronze Award winner also attended a series of online lectures to learn how to tackle and analyse ways to refine her designs.

“I have been working on my 3D modelling skills, which will hopefully help me come up with an improved design soon. Refining flawed concepts is often an incredibly iterative process, and my design still has a long way to go before it can work as I intend it to,” she said.

Initially a side project, the orifice meter has become the inspiration for the subject of her IBDP extended essay.

Another project that Jia Yi had been involved in was an initiative to lift the hopes of cancer patients.

While spending three weeks shadowing an oncologist at Mount Miriam Cancer Hospital last year, Jia Yi saw firsthand the strength and courage of the patients as they underwent chemotherapy.

Inspired by a phrase uttered by a patient, she started a community campaign from April to November with her schoolmates with the motto “The most important thing a cancer patient needs is hope”.

The campaign involved collaborating with her school’s parent-teacher association to sew two types of cancer comfort pillows from old school uniforms.The first type was seatbelt pillows for patients with breast cancer or nodes along the chest.

“After surgery, the patient’s chest area will be tender anywhere an incision was made and sometimes in other places. Thus, the seatbelt pillow is placed between the chest and upper body seatbelt to protect those areas from chafing and distribute pressure over the surface,” she said.

The second type was armrest pillows, which are also known as chemo pillows.

“This is especially useful for those who do not have a chemo port or peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line, and will be receiving treatment through an intravenous (IV) injection in their arms.

“It can also be used while lying down to support their arms over their chests, and elevating their arms while resting, which may ease lymphedema symptoms. It could also be used as a neck pillow while resting or travelling to ease muscle strain,” she explained.

She added that the pillows were distributed by the nurses to the patients who needed them the most.

Apart from driving the initiative and sewing the pillows, Jia Yi and her team encouraged Penangites to submit kind messages, which were then written and decorated on a board that currently hangs in the in-patient ward at the hospital.

Looking back on the work she has done, Jia Yi said, “The biggest contributor to me being able to juggle all these different pursuits was that I truly had an interest in what I was doing and studying. So, most of it did not feel like work at all!”

“Seeing the smiles on the cancer patients’ faces while using my hand-sewn pillows, or the 3D-printed orifice meter in action spurred me on even more,” she added.

Jia Yi, who is set to graduate from the IBDP in May, has her sights set on pursuing her tertiary studies abroad.

“If my grades meet the offer conditions, I hope to be furthering my studies in the University of Oxford or Imperial College London where I will be majoring in engineering science or mechanical engineering.

“Overall, it is the pursuit of fostering a deeper understanding of the physical world and proceeding to transform imaginations into utilities in people’s lives that drew me towards engineering,” she said.

Allison, 18, a student in Penang, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team.

1. Look in today’s copy of the Sunday Star newspaper for three examples of people creating positive impact on the lives of others. Cut out the articles and/or pictures, and paste them in your Star-NiE scrapbook. Then, list out five characteristics shared by these people. When you are done, reflect on whether you yourself have these characteristics.

2. There are many ways teenagers such as yourself can create positive impact on the lives of others. Can you think of three ways you can set about doing it?

Since 1997, The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) programme has supported English language teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools nationwide. Through Star-NiE’s teacher and student workshops, annual contests and monthly English language resources for classroom use, participants of the programme reportedly showed marked interest in the language and progress in their proficiency. Now in its 25th year, Star-NiE is continuing its role of promoting the use of English language through a weekly activity page in StarEdu. These activities are suitable for use individually and in groups, at home and in the classroom, across varied proficiency levels. Parents and teachers are encouraged to work on the activities with their children and students.

In addition, Star-NiE’s BRATs Young Journalist Programme will continue to be a platform for participants to hone and showcase their English language skills, as well as develop their journalistic interests and instincts. Follow our updates at facebook.com/niebrats. For Star-NiE enquiries, email [e-mail].