M’sian Self-Taught Coder & Tech-Creator Gains Acceptance Into Harvard College

By Lara Kramer • 01 Apr 2022 in News

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This morning, Malaysian Techmaker and Education Content Creator Chooi Je Qin (@chooi_jeq) took to Twitter to share news of his acceptance into Harvard College.

He tweeted a screenshot of his approved application with the caption, “Good morning Malaysia, your kid is going to Harvard.”

Chooi, a self-taught coder, has initiated multiple open-source projects, including a light pollution meter, which serves as a tool to measure night sky brightness, utilising the Moon itself to calibrate zero point… and that’s just one of his many unimaginable innovations.

The rest of his projects as well as a few articulate blog posts are accessible to the public on his personal website, chojeq.com, where he touches on topics such as trans-generational crises and generously provides training material as well as analyses.

Back in January, he also created and pinned a link on his Twitter profile to a SAPS translator in order to aid SPM students looking to further their studies in the United States.

The nineteen-year-old co-directs student-led organisation (@tutors.in.action) made to ease the preparation process for less fortunate SPM students.

In his post, he says he will come back to serve his country upon graduating, shutting down advice from another Twitter user prompting him to find a job overseas.

Chooi is currently on tortee.my, a platform where students can apply as mentors or mentees. Through this, he continues to drive forward his agenda of curbing Malaysia’s issue with inadequate educational opportunities. He commends the teachings of Google as well as the Holy Quran for assisting him in times of need.

Besides his achievements, netizens also applauded his determination and resilience, maintaining a hopeful perspective even when his other applications were rejected or deferred prior to getting accepted into Harvard. As he quoted on Twitter, “The only two unsolvable problems are death and income tax.”