This month’s featured alum is Joanne Mun, alumna of both New Generation Seminar (2016), and Asia Pacific Leadership Program (2023). Joanne gave our East-West Center alumni ‘Ohana a behind the scenes tour of Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, a community urban farm and linear park located in the suburb of Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. We had a chance to sit down and hear about her East-West Center experience.   

Introduce yourself.  

“I'm Joanne Mun. I am APLP Generation 21, so I’m in the current batch. I am still in the program. In Malaysia, I help two organizations. One of them is Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, and I've been there for five years, and the other one is a vocational school for underprivileged girls. [I have] also been there for five years, and I run creative projects with my students. 

Professionally I’m an architect, but I sort of take many years of gap year to be in civil society and just try to make Malaysia a little bit a better place to be.” 

How did you hear about the East-West Center? 

“I first heard about East-West Center in 2016 because I was working for a nonprofit called Think City, and we were into heritage conservation. One of the [directors] whose [a] Heritage conservationist introduced the New Generation Seminar to me. In 2016, it was the 26th New Generation Seminar. So, I applied for it, with his help. And I got in. I was [at] East-West Center in Honolulu in 2016. I'm actually an alumni. And I'm back again this year to East-West Center.” 

How did your time at the Center impact your career and life?  

“...I actually have made really good friends in the cohort, I feel like they are my cheerleaders sometimes. Even if you are the smartest person, and you have all the skills to do your job, sometimes all you need is for people to share your success and people to cheer you [on] when you're down. And I found two of them at the cohort and we are still talking. I think that sort of friendship is not that easy, that sort of people is not easy to find, especially people that's not even in the country. So, if you say impact, whether friendship [is a] part of my career or not, it doesn't matter. 

In all this volunteer work that I'm doing, I'm still doing it because of the people. If it wasn't for the people I work with, in volunteering, I would have gone a long time ago. Why would you want to work for free? Yeah, you're helping someone. But you can also get paid and still help someone, right? It's because of the people. Because, the people [are] willing to do so much more at no monetary exchange. And I admire them. I'm very, very inspired by them. To me the people, the relationship, what I do at this moment of my life, that brings me joy. Happiness is very important to me.” 

What makes you proud to be an EWC alumni? 

“Yesterday when I was dressing up [for the East-West Center Alumni and Friends Reception in Kuala Lumpur], I [kept] reminding myself that I need to wear my red pin. I need to wear my red East-West Center pin. And then I put on a few different [outfits] and I was like, “I'm going to go with black because then my East-West Center pin will be seen.” It’s not what I look like, it’s me wearing my pin. 

So, if you asked me, what am I proud of? Wearing the pin, I'm proud. The second thing is, the people that work [there], people like Gretchen and Philippe, they have so much passion. And the good things that East-West Center's doing. Keep it up. And I will try my best to bring in more scholars from Malaysia. Thank you.” 

Joanne Mun (New Generation Seminar, 2016; Asia Pacific Leadership Program, 2023) is an architect‐urbanist with two decades of professional experience in the fields of urban design and architecture in Australia and Malaysia. In 2015, Joanne returned to Kuala Lumpur and joined Think City as a Community Architect. Her passion for community empowerment continues after her stint in Think City: since late 2018, Joanne is deeply involved in education and urban farming with two NGOs – YWCA KL’s Vocational School and Kebun-Kebun Bangsar. She is currently the Chairperson of Kebun-Kebun Bangsar and was listed in the Wiki Impact’s 100 Malaysian Changemakers. 

Note: This interview was revised for clarity.  

This month’s featured alum is Joanne Mun, alumna of both New Generation Seminar (2016), and Asia Pacific Leadership Program (2023). Joanne gave our East-West Center alumni ‘Ohana a behind the scenes tour of Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, a community urban farm and linear park located in the suburb of Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. We had a chance to sit down and hear about her East-West Center experience.   

Introduce yourself.  

“I'm Joanne Mun. I am APLP Generation 21, so I’m in the current batch. I am still in the program. In Malaysia, I help two organizations. One of them is Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, and I've been there for five years, and the other one is a vocational school for underprivileged girls. [I have] also been there for five years, and I run creative projects with my students. 

Professionally I’m an architect, but I sort of take many years of gap year to be in civil society and just try to make Malaysia a little bit a better place to be.” 

How did you hear about the East-West Center? 

“I first heard about East-West Center in 2016 because I was working for a nonprofit called Think City, and we were into heritage conservation. One of the [directors] whose [a] Heritage conservationist introduced the New Generation Seminar to me. In 2016, it was the 26th New Generation Seminar. So, I applied for it, with his help. And I got in. I was [at] East-West Center in Honolulu in 2016. I'm actually an alumni. And I'm back again this year to East-West Center.” 

How did your time at the Center impact your career and life?  

“...I actually have made really good friends in the cohort, I feel like they are my cheerleaders sometimes. Even if you are the smartest person, and you have all the skills to do your job, sometimes all you need is for people to share your success and people to cheer you [on] when you're down. And I found two of them at the cohort and we are still talking. I think that sort of friendship is not that easy, that sort of people is not easy to find, especially people that's not even in the country. So, if you say impact, whether friendship [is a] part of my career or not, it doesn't matter. 

In all this volunteer work that I'm doing, I'm still doing it because of the people. If it wasn't for the people I work with, in volunteering, I would have gone a long time ago. Why would you want to work for free? Yeah, you're helping someone. But you can also get paid and still help someone, right? It's because of the people. Because, the people [are] willing to do so much more at no monetary exchange. And I admire them. I'm very, very inspired by them. To me the people, the relationship, what I do at this moment of my life, that brings me joy. Happiness is very important to me.” 

What makes you proud to be an EWC alumni? 

“Yesterday when I was dressing up [for the East-West Center Alumni and Friends Reception in Kuala Lumpur], I [kept] reminding myself that I need to wear my red pin. I need to wear my red East-West Center pin. And then I put on a few different [outfits] and I was like, “I'm going to go with black because then my East-West Center pin will be seen.” It’s not what I look like, it’s me wearing my pin. 

So, if you asked me, what am I proud of? Wearing the pin, I'm proud. The second thing is, the people that work [there], people like Gretchen and Philippe, they have so much passion. And the good things that East-West Center's doing. Keep it up. And I will try my best to bring in more scholars from Malaysia. Thank you.” 

Joanne Mun (New Generation Seminar, 2016; Asia Pacific Leadership Program, 2023) is an architect‐urbanist with two decades of professional experience in the fields of urban design and architecture in Australia and Malaysia. In 2015, Joanne returned to Kuala Lumpur and joined Think City as a Community Architect. Her passion for community empowerment continues after her stint in Think City: since late 2018, Joanne is deeply involved in education and urban farming with two NGOs – YWCA KL’s Vocational School and Kebun-Kebun Bangsar. She is currently the Chairperson of Kebun-Kebun Bangsar and was listed in the Wiki Impact’s 100 Malaysian Changemakers. 

Note: This interview was revised for clarity.