Rotaract Treasurer Mei Jun Tan

The Club’s guest speaker was Mai Jun Tan, a student studying Chemistry at the University and Treasurer of the Rotaract Club there. Her talk - which was really her life story - was full of interest and scattered throughout with humour and much fun.

Born in Australia into a medical family from Malaysia, Mai has travelled extensively from the age of sixteen weeks when she made her first journey back home to Malaysia. Since then, her parents have taken her on countless trips throughout the world, the last one to Taiwan shortly before Covid effectively closed down world travel.

Educated at various schools in Malaysia, she was sent aged thirteen to Fettes College in Edinburgh where she spent five very happy years. Mai describes herself as ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’ but happily played the piano, violin and cello to a high standard and joined in all the strange sports - at least to her - at Fettes, such as lacrosse and hockey. She enjoyed neither of these sports until she discovered that a hockey goalie never had to run! On discovering this she became the school goalie and continues to play in that position for the University.

Her choice of university was a hard one - she swithered about Oxford or Bristol in England or Edinburgh or St Andrews in Scotland, eventually settling on St Andrews. Her time in St Andrews has been very happy and she is now looking forward to a career in all likelihood in industry somewhere in the UK.

The Pandemic has adversely affected her to some extent. She had been selected to be Rotaract’s Intern at a girls’ school in India but sadly this had to be cancelled. Likewise, she was unable to return home to Malaysia to see her parents and her extended family there. She did however make good use of her time, working for minimal pay in a burger stall, acting as a tourist guide and making money busking with her cello in the streets of Edinburgh.

Mai is a wonderful example of all that’s best in today’s young people. She seizes the opportunities which present themselves, she volunteers to help those less fortunate than her, she throws herself into sport, music and travel, she attends to her academic obligations. She has much to offer this troubled world.

The meeting concluded with a warm and appreciative vote of thanks from Dr Michael Carslaw.