May Person of the Month — Elisia Engku Kangon

Elisia Engku Kangon is a final year student in the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya

Elisia Engku Kangon is currently a final year student in the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya. She is known to be an astounding 5-times Dean-lister while still excelling in other activities such as mooting and Legal Aid.

When asked about her key to success, she listed several pieces of advice for her juniors:

First, allocate enough time for every single task. Time management is essential to accomplish all obligations.

Second, besides putting in more effort to understand what is being taught in lectures such as carrying out additional research, she emphasises the importance of reading the full case laws of any subject. "I enjoy reading full cases, and it is important for us, the law students to read the full case in understanding the legal reasoning."

Third, make one’s own notes for the syllabus. Elisia makes handwritten notes that will take up a lot of time, but she assures us that it would be beneficial and helps to facilitate speedy recall especially when there is limited time between exam papers to digest everything all over again.

Fourth, attend all lectures and tutorial classes. "Maybe most people will think it is funny for me to say that attending lectures would be crucial”, Elisia jokes.

Last but not least, utilise the law library. Elisia could always be spotted in the law library, and she tells us that it is because the library contains a myriad of resources and useful information that would be useful in achieving academic excellence.

Apart from excelling in her academics, Elisia is also well-known for her mooting achievements. To cite a few, she was an oralist in the national round of the International Humanitarian Law Moot 2015 (IHL) in her second year, a researcher in the international rounds of the Asia Cup International Law Moot 2015, and an oralist for the UM-NUS 2016 as well as the Asia Cup International Law Moot 2016.         

Elisia and her UM-NUS team 2016.

In 2015, the UM team in which Elisia was a part of was crowned champion of Asia Cup 2015, effectively establishing the University of Malaya as one of the most formidable mooting powerhouses in the region. Asia Cup is one of the most anticipated events in the faculty, co-organized by the Japanese Society of International Law and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. In 2016, Elisia then took up the role of being an oralist in the same competition, and after battling through the preliminaries, the UM team emerged as the Second Runner Up and was also awarded second best memorial. She credited the achievement as the team's effort for the countless days and nights of preparation.

Elisia was part of the team representing the University of Malaya in the Asia Cup International Law Moot Court Competition 2015, which emerged as champions of the tournament.

Elisia took apart again in Asia Cup 2016, and the team emerged as second-runner-ups and received the second best memorial award.

Elisia is passionate about mooting and highly encourages juniors to partake in moots. She sees moot competitions as a platform to meet people from different backgrounds and spheres of interest in the spirit of competing. She recalls teamwork as being one of the core values she learnt from mooting. "Mooting has personally helped me in a way to allow me to improve my communication skills by having different team dynamics in each moot competition,” Elisia recalls.

Besides mooting, Elisia is also active in the faculty’s student bodies and clubs. She was an Academic Officer of the Law Society in her first year, the Head of Publicity of ALSA in her second year and a volunteer reader for disabled students since her first year as well as a student advisor in the faculty’s Legal Aid Clinic in her final year.

As someone who gives off the image of being able to cruise effortlessly through law school, Elisia finally comes clean by telling us that some of her biggest challenges are time and stress management. With her high level of commitment to whatever she sets her mind to, there is bound to be despair and negativity when something does not go as planned. Nonetheless, Elisia reminds us to find the simple pleasures in doing what we do and to find the tasks’ worth. Heartily and sincerely, she is grateful to those who have always helped her at various points in her life especially her batch-mates who have approached her, involved her in activities and those who helped transform her from being an anti-social and introverted law student.

Elisia and all the committee members of the Law Career Convention under UM Law Society.

When asked about the sources of her inspiration, Elisia told us that she derived inspiration from her parents who have always told her to prioritise her goals and to then revisit them regularly so that whatever she does brings her one step closer to reaching her end goal. She is also thankful to have them as her backbones, and for always keeping her in prayer through the many challenges she faced and for celebrating the many victories she accomplished in varsity.

Elisia ends by proposing that the faculty or seniors initiate an interaction program between batches. Currently, in her final year, Elisia's short-term goal is to finish her chambering and to pursue a Master's degree after completing her pupillage. Elisia finally advises juniors to be positive and to take everything at a slow pace as they walk through the ups and downs of law school. Spend time with family too. “Try to be yourself but a better version of you.”

Elisia signs off by saying “Remember that I am a Sabahan, not Sarawakian.”

Elisia and her current Advocacy group mates.