Soo Hooi Oh
If Soo Hooi Oh ’06 was looking for a metaphor for her own experience as a Malaysian student blending into a distinctly American university setting, she need look no further than the march she wrote for the Lehigh University Very Modern Ensemble (LUVME).
“One of the challenges of being a composer is finding your own voice,” says Soo, who has been composing music since she was a child. “I wanted to write something that means something to me.”
Last year, Soo had the honor of hearing her original composition, “Once Upon a March,” brought to life during a LUVME performance. The piece opens with a snare drum and piccolo, and segues into a blend of instruments that represent selected snippets from her favorite fairy tales and bedtime books.
In the march, American instruments performed Asian pentatonic scales or five-note scales, blending unique elements to create a distinctive experience.
It’s a formula she’s employed in her approach to her Lehigh education as well, where she managed to combine three demanding majors: the highly selective integrated business and engineering program (IBE), electrical engineering, and musical composition.
To be accepted in the IBE program, Soo had to compete against some of the top high school seniors in the country for one of only 50 spots. The program combines engineering and business into one degree over a four-year period. Students can also choose to graduate in five years with a degree in both areas – an option that Soo selected early on.
The IBE program requires students to complete a capstone project during the junior and senior year. Soo fulfilled that requirement by marketing products, creating a strategic plan and designing systems for a company called hField Technologies, Inc., which was created by another Lehigh student.
Soo and her fellow students designed an antenna that could enhance WiFi signals, and ultimately identified targeted markets and developed distribution channels for the company’s first product.
“On the technical side, this project definitely taught me a lot about how antennas work and the different kinds of wireless network protocols,” she says. “On the business side, it provided me with a hands-on experience, and it gave me very valuable insight into the challenges behind starting up a small company.”
In short, she says, “it summarized what the IBE program is all about.”
Soo initially learned about Lehigh through an exchange program between the university and Petronas, a Malaysian oil company. She describes her transition into American culture as a “very smooth one.”
“I was fortunate to meet a group of friends who were very open-minded and patient,” she says. “The professors were very helpful, too.”
After graduation, Soo will return to her native Malaysia to find a profession that utilizes her unique skills, but has a long-range goal of eventually returning to the U.S. to attend graduate school.
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