“In Search Of” (ISO) Study Trips
The extracurricular ISO study trips were started by Dr Yeoh Seng Guan
based on two basic objectives. They were to allow student-travellers to:
1) Practise their journalistic, organisational, and documentation skills in an unfamiliar environment
2) Be more literate with the Southeast Asian region
The moniker for the study trips was inspired by a well-known book entitled,
“In Search of Southeast Asia”, edited by David Joel Steinberg et al.
The inaugural ISO study trip was to Georgetown, Penang, in 2004. It lasted only five days.
Since then, about 240 competitively selected student-travellers and about fifty student-guides
from host universities have been to Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand,
and Vietnam. Some countries were visited more than once but to different regions.
Student-travellers stay and work together for between ten to fourteen days.
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In 2017, the last ISO study trip organised was to Sabah. It was led by a former-student traveller,
Dr Tan Meng Yoe, who participated in ISO Georgetown (2004) and ISO Bangkok (2005).