Last year, Lissuzianah Lawrence's English classes helped SMK Kanibungan achieve its highest-ever number of As in SPM English. (Lissuzianah Lawrence pic)PETALING JAYA: Every afternoon after school, Lissuzianah Lawrence and her students from SMK Kanibungan in Pitas, Sabah, headed not to the library or the sports field - but to a construction site.For seven months in 2011, the English teacher and 15 teenagers spent their afternoons mixing cement, laying bricks and cutting timber to build a hostel for youths.The reason? Students from villages more than 100km away were dropping out because they had nowhere to stay near school.
So Lawrence took an unusual step to address the situation."I had zero knowledge about construction. I learnt how to operate a chainsaw. I learnt how to lay bricks," the 41-year-old of Rungus descent told FMT Lifestyle.When the final brick was laid, they stood back to admire what they had built.
"We all said, 'Wow, we built this!'"The hostel cost about RM60,000 to construct - far less than the RM1.3 million contractors had quoted - and gave dozens of rural students a place to stay.Raised in rural Pitas, Lawrence returned home to help children stay in school and fulfil their potential. (Lissuzianah Lawrence pic)That willingness to learn whatever is necessary has long defined Lawrence's life.Raised in a farming family as the eldest of five siblings, she grew up in a village without electricity or clean water. Her childhood revolved around helping her parents grow food, while books became her window to a world beyond Pitas.One biography about Abraham Lincoln sparked her love of reading.
She also admired former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz and her father, the late Royal Professor Ungku Aziz, dreaming of one day following a similar path in public service.Teaching, she admitted, was never part of the plan until she attended a youth camp. There, she experienced what she describes as a vision of herself standing before rows of secondary school students."From that moment, I set in my mind that I was going to study so I could become a better teacher and reach out to these young students," she said. "That became my motivation."Lawrence and 15 students spent seven months building their first hostel by hand in 2011.
(Lissuzianah Lawrence pic)After graduating from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2008, Lawrence asked…
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