UCSI ARchitecture
Humble Beginnings: The story of Assoc.Prof Ir. Dr.Jimmy Mok
SUKHJIT SIDHU
When you first meet Associate Professor Ir. Dr. Jimmy Mok, you will be disarmed by his jovial and frank nature. Currently the Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Built Environment, Dr. Jimmy tends to be very serious on matters close to his heart and yet believes that staff and students should work and study in a constructive environment that nurtures their talents and passions.
No one would have guessed that this confident and robust man came from very humble beginnings and was a self-proclaimed introvert. Growing up in a small village in Setiawan, near Pangkor, Dr. Jimmy was the middle child of two siblings and the son of a hard labourer. Life was hard and his family was very poor. He recounts of times when the only thing his family could afford to eat was rice mixed with water and sugar, but these moments drove his father to make it his mission to ensure his children were educated so that they may break the cycle of poverty. His father enrolled his children in one of the best government schools at that time, the Anglo-Chinese School, which was famous for being the alma mater of many Malaysian politicians.
As a kid, Dr. Jimmy was initially not very confident and felt that he did not speak well. Most of the children that went to his school had educated parents who were lawyers, teachers, accountants, etc. Coming from a background where his parents were not educated, initially, made excelling in his studies hard as his parents could not guide him. However, Dr. Jimmy pushed himself to do well and obtained good results in his SPM. Sadly, the only thing that he failed in his SPM was Bahasa Melayu, which is a key component in furthering his studies in government universities in Malaysia.
Dr. Jimmy’s father, understanding the situation, prompted his son to enter a Chinese Private School which was costly for the family, but it did not matter to his father as education was crucial. Seeing his father struggle, Dr. Jimmy looked at other options of education, so as to ease his family’s financial problems. During that time, Dr. Jimmy’s friend encouraged him to use his good results to apply to a University in Singapore that was giving out scholarships to Malaysians. However, the scholarship was only for a certificate, however the scholarship included an allowance of five hundred Singaporean dollars which was a lot at that time. Considering that he could send back a hundred and fifty Singapore dollars to his family monthly as well as getting a free education, Dr. Jimmy took this opportunity and completed his Certificate in Mechatronics for 2 years.
During that time, Dr. Jimmy had to overcome one of his biggest obstacles which was language. He realized that he could not communicate well with others as he was only fluid in his local dialect Ho Chew. Armed with only very poor English, Dr. Jimmy trained himself to speak English, Mandarin and Hokkien. Jimmy remembers picking up English from the newspapers and working very hard to ensure that he could speak fluently. Furthermore, he picked up English Grammar from books on his own as he had to save money to live, work and study in Singapore.
After completing his certificate, Dr. Jimmy was bonded to a company for five years. During which time, Jimmy continued his education by doing a part time diploma that was also for five years. It was a five day part time class, and even though he had to juggle between his studies and working full time, Dr. Jimmy managed to top his class. He was immediately offered a scholarship to do his degree in Warwick University in the UK but had to be bonded for eight years. Instead of accepting the offer, Dr. Jimmy used his own savings to further educate himself and graduated with a Bachelor Degree from the University of Manchester and was among the top four in his university. He was then offered a scholarship to do his PHD in the UK and took the opportunity. After completing his PHD, Dr. Jimmy returned to Singapoore and was given the opportunity to work in the National University of Singapore (NUS). NUS allowed him to build networks and that served as a platform for him to meet Dato’ Peter, the owner of UCSI University. Dato’ Peter asked Dr. Jimmy to join UCSI University as an Engineering Lecturer and Head of Center for Research Excellence.
Dr. Jimmy has come a long way, especially in UCSI University and appreciates all the lessons and memories made throughout his journey. When asked of his experiences as the Dean for the School of Architecture and Built Environment (SABE), Dr. Jimmy believes that SABE has great potential with very creative students that work well in a team. He considers architecture student’s to be fun, innovative, and creative and he values that the students are bold and distinguish themselves from other university students. He was very impressed with last year’s University Malaya’s Dualism national architectural competition and was humbled by the student’s appreciation of him taking the time to be there during the awards ceremony.