SERDANG March 24 - An eight to 10-hour journey from home out to Miri town did not stop Kelvin Niyok, 25, from becoming the only ethnic Penan Sarawak from Kampung Long Meraan, Baram, Sarawak to earn his degree.

He who graduated with the Bachelor of Agricultural Engineering and Biosystems with Honours said with the success achieved today, it will be possible to change the fate of the minority tribes in Sarawak for the better.

"When I became the first person to successfully pursue my studies at university I had planned from the beginning to succeed and showed my people that education is not for a few communities."

"I have a responsibility to my tribe because we will decide the next generation," he said after receiving his degree at the 45th Convocation Ceremony of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

However, Kelvin admits that he once felt hopeless during the first semester of his degree studies when he did not manage to get a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.00. "I'm close to quitting my studies but I'm grateful to be surrounded by encouraging friends and I'm determined to improve my performance in the second semester and I finally made it past 3.75 in the second semester." Kelvin Niyok with his degree at the 45th Convocation Ceremony of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) on 22 March 2022.  "For me where we have the determination, that success will definitely be there.

''My message to the children of Penan is to take the opportunity to further their studies to further raise our tribe," he said, who is the third of four siblings. Prior to this, he continued his studies with Diploma in Agricultural Engineering at UPM Bintulu Campus (UPMKB) and graduated in 2018.

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Date of Input: 24/03/2022 | Updated: 12/10/2022 | lanz