Teacher Becomes First Iban Woman with PhD from Columbia University, an Ivy League School
Viewed as some of the most prestigious universities in the world, Ivy League schools are notoriously hard to even enter, but Dr Felicia Genie Tersan has made Ibans proud by becoming the first from the community to receive a Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD) from Columbia University in New York. Note: it is hard to verify if there are any other Iban PhD holders from other Ivy League schools.
As reported by The Borneo Post, on 17 & 18 May, the 38-year-old received her scroll during the convocation ceremony for a PhD in English Education from the Teachers College in Columbia.
Columbia is one of the elite colleges of the Ivy League including Princeton University, Brown University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. It is ranked no. 11 on the World University Rankings 2023 and its notable alumni include former US President Barack Obama and Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest people.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I would be given the opportunity to enter Columbia because firstly, the fees are expensive, and I come from a modest family. Secondly, I didn’t feel I was good enough to go to this university. However, due to my research interest in teacher professional development and rural community education, I set a goal to continue my PhD under my supervisor who happened to be at Columbia and had the same research interest in this field.”
Felicia had to go through many hurdles before being able to add the title of ‘Doctor’ to her name. Firstly, she had to go through a complicated and time-consuming application process. Her parents also had to sacrifice a lot to ensure that she was able to start a new life in the US.
During her time there, her husband’s grandmother died of cancer, and they were unable to return due to Covid-19 restrictions. Her father was also diagnosed with cancer, and she could not be there to take care of him.
Her PhD studies were funded by the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MoE) under its Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan (HLP) programme, where successful educator applicants are offered a fully paid study leave with a scholarship. However, her sponsorship allowance was only sufficient to pay the house rent of more than US$2,000 (RM9,300) a month, and she sometimes had to get items from Columbia’s free food pantry for meals when things were desperate.
On top of hailing from the Iban community, Felicia also research delved deeper into her culture with a thesis titled ‘Coaching Across Cultures: A Narrative Inquiry of Instructional Coaching in Rural Sarawak’. This ultimately resulted in her achieving a double victory on top of her PhD by being selected to receive the Doctoral Dissertation Award.
“From the results of my search in the list of Columbia University alumni, as far as I have found, there has never been an Iban student who obtained a PhD from Columbia. Therefore, I decided to highlight the Iban identity while I was there, including in my thesis.”
She further highlighted her culture on the world stage while wearing an Iban scarf to her ‘doctoral hooding’ and by bringing along a bag woven using pua kumbu, a ceremonial cotton cloth used by the Iban people.
Felicia holds a Bachelor of Education (Hons) in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and a Master of Education in TESL from Universiti Teknologi Mara.
She hails from Sungai Tanduk, Undup in Sri Aman and has 14 years of experience in the education service. She previously worked as an English teacher at SM Sains Kuching Utara and went on to serve as a SISC+ Language Officer at the Padawan District Education Office from 2014 to the present day.
Looking ahead, Felicia hopes to contribute to improving the quality of English teaching and learning through programmes that capitalise on the strengths of the multicultural diversity of Sarawak.
Image credit: The Borneo Post