When Chow Ying Lee stepped off the plane in Ithaca for the first time in 1996, she felt the August heat and thought how mild the weather must be in her new home. But that year's blizzards changed her mind.
The native of Singapore had never seen snow before.
But she was so taken by it, she learned to both ski and ice skate during her first year of school. She spent a vacation taking downhill skiing lessons at Killington, Vt. and followed that up with a physical education class in skiing her next semester. Now also an avid figure skater, Lee practices at Lynah Rink at least three times a week.
Lee is used to gliding through challenges. She is one of a select few college students in the United States with a scholarship from the Singapore government. She earned a four-year scholarship from the Ministry of Defense to attend Cornell -- but through her hard work, she will receive a B.A. in mathematics next week after only three years. She'll spend the final year of her scholarship doing graduate study here.
And now she's thinking that one day she'd like to become a professor and, perhaps, teach in the United States.
"Education is a pretty good way to go," Lee said, "even though I didn't think that three years ago."
Lee formed her desire for teaching during her stay at Cornell; when she arrived, she said, she was less sure of her goals.
"In one sense, when I took the scholarship, it was before I started to think about my future," she said. "I spent two summers working in the Math Support Center. I tutored summer school kids, and I thought it was great."
And she gained respect for her field. "Now I find there's a lot more to it than when I started out," she said. "It's very exciting."
So exciting, in fact, that she was named a co-winner this year of the Harry S. Kieval Prize in Mathematics, which goes to the outstanding graduating senior mathematics major at Cornell.
Although a professorship may be a long-range goal, in the more immediate future, after her graduate year at Cornell, Lee will be returning to Singapore. Her scholarship requires her to devote eight years working for the Ministry of Defense after graduation. She will be returning to her home in Bukit Timah, and to her parents and three siblings, but she sighs when talking about leaving the United States. Her three years at Cornell have made a strong impact.
The open curriculum of the College of Arts and Sciences has benefited her educational development, she says. "Universities in Singapore are more focused. Cornell has more opportunities to look into other classes."
She has taken several courses in operations research and, in her first year, took courses in French and Chinese literature.
But even with an intensive academic schedule, Lee has not missed out on other more social and recreational aspects of college. She describes, with a laugh, an honors class she took in which she joined a group of students in a study group that would often stay awake all night, studying or not.
Such breaks, she says, help her to stay focused, as do her other activities and hobbies. She is the business manager of Cornell Science and Technology Magazine and a three-year member of the Cornell Figure Skating Club. A figure skating club set up by Cornell students, in which Lee also takes part, won a silver medal last semester at a competition at Princeton.
"There's a lot to do here," Lee said. "I took up skating three years ago and now I'm sort of addicted. Right now it's the only thing that keeps me sane because I tell myself that when I go into the rink, I won't think about work. It's really an escape for me."
Still, it looks like Lee is skating into a bright future.
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