Patriotism fills the air at Curtin Malaysia

Miri – 8 September 2022 – To mark the recent National Day, the student-run Nescafé pop-up store at Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) ran a ‘Write a Note to Malaysia’ campaign to give the campus community the opportunity to express their patriotism.

“After two years of muted celebrations due to COVID-19, we are excited to see students back on campus again and commemorating this big day together,” remarked Dr. Fayrene Chieng, lecturer-in-charge of the Nescafé Youth Entrepreneurship Programme (NYEP) at Curtin Malaysia.

In the weeks leading up to the National Day, the Nescafé pop-up store operators served their coffee in paper cups featuring hand-drawn patriotic messages. At the coffee pick-up point, customers were also encouraged to write national day messages on colourful sticky notes and post them on a board provided at the front of the store.

Dr. Chieng said these activities were held to instill love for the nation among Malaysian students who come from all over the country, as well as international students who make up about 20 per cent of the student body at Curtin Malaysia.

The NYEP, established by Nescafé Malaysia in 2016, promotes decent employment for young people and nurtures diversity by empowering and grooming youths in local universities to absorb first-hand lessons in business operations. As part of the NYEP, students have the opportunity to operate fully-equipped pop-up stores as stand-alone businesses on their campuses with start-up capital provided by Nescafe Malaysia. Since its inception, the NYEP has engaged 5,000 youth entrepreneurs and served more than 1.2 million students via the pop-up stores.

The NYEP at Curtin Malaysia is a collaboration between Curtin Malaysia’s Faculty of Business and Nescafé Malaysia initiated earlier this year when the campus reopened fully for face-to-face classes and a return of both current and new students.

As youth entrepreneurship is an integral component of student learning at Curtin Malaysia’s Faculty of Business, the programme empowers and grooms students involved to be competent in business operations through operating the pop-up store, which has become quite popular among students, staff and visitors to the campus. Beyond learning to prepare and craft delicious coffee beverages, it more importantly exposes the students to key business learnings such as supply chain management, marketing, sales and customer service.

For more information on Curtin Malaysia, visit www.curtin.edu.my or look for Curtin Malaysia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or Tik-Tok.

Patriotic messages posted by the campus community.

Student operator at Nescafé pop-up store putting hand-drawn messages on cups.

Faculty of Business Associate Dean of External Engagement Yip Ka Yii leaving a patriotic note.