Dato Kho Hui Meng Career Center

Okay. You know it's a dream come true. And I told you when I first started I looked at all the wonderful facilities that we had in other career centers, career services in the U.S and other places. I said why can't we have this for our students? And back in my mind, (I see that) we have simulation labs, we have all sorts of labs. Why can't we simulate the corporate working environment? So as the students step up into that plate, the floor plate, they are stepping into a corporate working environment. They encounter the working environment before they actually go to the place of work. If I could simulate that, that would be great. And because we also have people coming in from overseas to interview, and even now employers come to SMU to use our interview rooms (it had to be of a corporate standard). So, why can't I have that? And the interview is typically, you know, one or two of them (employers), with the student. Do I need a huge meeting room for two or three people? Why can't I better use that asset? Can I have smaller rooms? Could I have smaller syndicate rooms? Can I have technology that's so wired that should New York want to interview my student, yes it can be done with today's technology.  Yes, it can be done but they need a conducive environment and they need a (good) place. So, all these things were working in my mind.  Some people have asked me When do you want these things done? What can we do for you? But nothing came out of it. Okay we will work (and make do) with the (given) office space. 

One day, Joan Toh, one of the ladies with the Office of Advancement [(then) - came to my office and said], Ruth, let me introduce you to Dato Kho Hui Meng. It came out of the blue, I was totally unprepared. He asked me, What is your dream? Tell me your dream. I want to do something for the students. I told him my dream, Go ahead. Give me a proposal. Do it. Wow, I had the opportunity to dream and to make it come true. So you know, we put in facilities for training, we put in facilities for smaller meeting rooms, we wired it with the technology, we created the space for networking and we created the whole corporate environment. So when you step up into the 7th floor, the atmosphere changes. And that's what we want for the students. So I stayed back to help finish that dream , working with the contractors, the designers (and put) everything (in place) - small little details like the wiring, and the facilities and all that. And also the (revamped) Finishing Touch.