Elisha Rehan grew up in Malaysia and dreamed of pursuing an environment-related career. Here she explains what it was like to study her undergraduate degree in the US and how it led her to her postgraduate studies in Australia. 

Growing up in Malaysia in a household of six people made overseas vacations for our family rare. My ayah (father) and grandparents would continuously remind us that education opens more doors for us to explore the world. They were correct. 

At 21 years old, I have been lucky enough to have lived in several countries, including the US and South Korea, because of my education journey. Now, I am pursuing my postgraduate degree in Australia. I am forever grateful to the Malaysian government agency, Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), for trusting in my passion and abilities to sponsor me for my overseas degrees. 

I always wanted to study a degree focusing on the environment as it has been my passion since high school. When MARA offered me a scholarship to pursue environmental engineering in the US, I jumped into it as fast as I could. Students from all over Malaysia were given six months of intense maths and English classes to prepare us for both the SAT and TOEFL exams in June before we even applied for universities.