Malaysian student share story at UW-Madison Winter Commencement

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -- Around 1,200 UW-Madison students gathered in the Kohl Center Sunday morning to receive bachelor's, masters and doctoral degrees at the university's Winter Commencement ceremony. They were joined by over 6,000 family members, friends and other supporters.

One international student from Malaysia was among them, celebrating this milestone with her family, after spending the last four years more than 9,000 miles from home.

Lisa Kamal shared the story of how she got to UW-Madison in front of her classmates, as the chosen student speaker at the commencement ceremony.

"I came here on a scholarship, a long way from my home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia," Kamal told her peers.

Lisa was born in the U.S., while her parents were studying, but she grew up in Malaysia all her life. She knew she wanted to follow in her parents footsteps and go to college in the states.

After high school, Lisa applied for a sponsorship program run by Petronas, a Malaysian oil and gas company. The company pays for Malaysian students to study abroad.

"I was visiting some old friends and I kept checking my email because I was waiting for the announcement to come out," Lisa remembered about the day she found out she was accepted.

After being accepted to the program, she was accepted to UW-Madison, but she still was not sure what to study.

"From high school, I was already in the science stream so I knew I was going to go into STEM," she said.

Lisa chose geology, one of the majors listed under the sponsorship program and found she enjoyed it, participating in field research and working for the Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey.

However, Lisa's college career was not always easy.

"My second year in college, I suffered burnout to the point of losing motivation to finish this degree," she said in her speech, going on to share her struggles.

Support at school got Lisa through those times.

"I could not have finished college without the friends that I made here," Lisa said, adding with a laugh, "They got me through a lot of late nights at the library."

Lisa also missed her family, seeing them just once a year.

"I try to go back every summer, and that costs a lot," she said.


However, her parents finally saw her cross the stage on Sunday. Lisa's father, Kamal Mustapha said he was extremely proud of her.


"We traveled 23 hours to get here and braved the winter cold, but it's all worth it," he said.

Seeing his daughter share her story in her speech was icing on the cake.

"I remember when she was six years old, performing a short dance, it had me crying. But now at 22, giving a speech for a crowd on a big screen, that's amazing," Kamal said.

Lisa said she is just grateful for the experience and opportunities she had.

"I just want to say thank you to the school, thank you to the Department of Geoscience and to everyone who got me here today, I'm just so grateful," she said.

Lisa will be heading back to Malaysia where she has a five-year work commitment to Petronas, the company who sponsored her time at UW.

Commencement