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Foundation Scholar Meixi Ng

 

The Chicago Chapter of the Circumnavigators Club and Northwestern University are sponsoring Meixi Ng to make a circumnavigation in 2010 to conduct research on a topic she selected and which has not been previously studied by other Foundation Scholars. See news story on her selection. Follow her circumnavigation on her blog.

Meixi is studying the topic: Education as Transformation: a multi-continent survey of successful educational approaches to integrating marginalized groups into the mainstream.

Background on Meixi Ng

A Social Policy and International Studies major at Northwestern, Meixi began working and volunteering in the slums of India at 11 and then continued to work in Myanmar, Thailand, India and Cambodia on education in various slum communities and educational settings for children living in the red light district areas.

She also worked with Evanston Township High School to create a service-learning curriculum for the teachers at the high school.

Mexi loves working in schools and building their capacity. She also co-founded The Amber Initiative, an organization dedicated to building a movement for youth in Southeast Asia. Meixi has been at the forefront of leading youths in various movements and conferences in the region.

Meixi worked with the UN Interagency Project on Human Trafficking in Thailand and was selected to be a delegate at the Global Engagement Summit for social entrepreneurs and the 5th UN Youth Assembly for the Millennium Development Goals.

Back home in the sunny island of Singapore where she was born and raised, Meixi initiated a youth conference in 2007 with 1000 youths in attendance and founded a youth group under Eagles Communications that looks at youth empowerment issues in Singapore.

On campus, Meixi co-founded the Northwestern Engagement Coalition and initiated the Northwestern World Cup to celebrate the diversity on campus. She was also elected to officer positions in the Undergraduate Priorities Committee and the Ballroom Latin American Swing Thing (BLAST) dance group. She is a Senior Community Assistant in the Freshmen Quad and tutors frequently at the Jonquil Hotel and Centro Romero in Chicago.

Meixi was also selected to be Goldman Sachs Global Leader in 2009. She is excited to look at schools as tools that can transform educational spaces into catalysts for change in individuals and communities.

Itinerary of Meixi's Circumnavigation

  • June 27- July 12 - Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
  • July 12- July 22 - Venezuela
  • July 26- Aug 2 - Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Aug 4- Aug 13 - Tema, Ghana
  • Aug 16- Aug 26 - Honeydew, South Africa
  • Aug 26- Sept 11 - Singapore
  • Sept 12- Sept 19 - Sydney, Australia

Meixi's Research Topic

"Education as Transformation: The Power of Schools" Meixi will visit schools that are focusing on transformative education in marginalized communities, seeking to find best practices and guiding principles that can be then shared in a broader context.

She has identified schools in Guatemala, Slovakia, Ghana, South Africa, Singapore and Australia that have a dual objective of academic development and social justice and wants to understand how a school's definition of success translates to change for individuals and communities.