My Search for Higher Education

Born in Java Indonesia into a Chinese Indonesian family of Hakka ethnicity, That T. Ngo who is also known in Mandarin as Wu Da Ying was sent to a Chinese Indonesian school where he graduated high school in 1963. The governmental regulations during that time did not allow graduates of any Chinese Indonesian school to apply to national universities. Ngo was melancholic, and struggled to find a way to achieve his aspirations for higher education. Throughout the process, Ngo experienced a blatant racism that no one should have to endured it. In the xenophobic Indonesian society in the 1960s, it was difficult to obtain even the mailing addresses of foreign universities, let alone information about the institutions. Ngo overcame many challenges simultaneously, learning English and German, securing a letter of acceptance by a foreign university and securing enough funding for one year's living expenses and tuition fees. The last issue proven to be most challenging, because the Indonesian government had strict control over the transferring of fund to foreign countries. One such restriction was that airline tickets had to be purchased in US currency. Ngo's hard struggle in achieving a higher education was not unique, many Chinese Indonesian students experienced similar ordeals. Through it all, after three years of struggles, he managed to leave Indonesia shortly after the anniversary of the notorious September 30th, 1965, the night 6 army generals were massacred. The following 6 months witnessed the most horrific and inhumane killings in the history of the world, more than 500,000 Indonesians were summarily executed. It was a very traumatic experience for the nation, especially for Chinese Indonesians.This book summarized the heart break of leaving his family, friends and the country where he grew up, and the challenges, difficulties and rewards of studying in a foreign land. The uncertainty of his family financial support weighed always heavily on him. Nevertheless through hard work and determination he managed to complete his study. Seven years after he set foot in Canada, Ngo received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan. Since then Ngo worked diligently in biochemical research and published many biochemistry research articles, obtained patents for his work and contributed in a fundamental way toward the advancement in the practice of clinical biochemistry. He received awards in recognition for his work, and was recently honored by the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan with an Alumni of Influence award.