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HIGHLIGHTS
Won ICDL Digital Challenge (Business Track) National Level
Won ICDL Digital Challenge (Business Track) at the National Level on 7th July 2021 and will represent Malaysia to the International Level
Won ICDL Digital Challenge (3D Design Track) National Level
Won ICDL Digital Challenge (3D Design Track) at the National Level on 7th July 2021 and will represent Malaysia to the International Level
Pursue Bachelor in Geology at Imperial College London
Scored 44/45 in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program at Kolej Mara Banting and received offer to pursue Bachelor in Geology at Imperial College London
Selected to Participate in the Global UGRAD Program
Selected to Participate in the Global UGRAD Program for Academic Year 2021-2022 sponsored by US Department of State
M’sian Student Wins 1st Place In Korean Speech Contest In The US, Netizens Inspired By His Fluent Korean
Malaysians are always happy to celebrate each other’s achievements. So when one of our own is abroad achieving noteworthy things and spreading the good word about our country, you can bet that we will rally around them and give them the cheers that they deserve.Malaysians are always happy to celebrate each other’s achievements. So when one of our own is abroad achieving noteworthy things and spreading the good word about our country, you can bet that we will rally around them and give them the cheers that they deserve.
This is what happened when Malaysian student Izzat Zuhailee from University of California, Berkeley shared on Twitter that he had won 1st place in the 2020 Online Korean Speech Contest hosted by the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles and King Sejong Institute. Along with celebrating his achievements, Malaysians back home are also applauding his fluent Korean and getting inspired by him.
Presentation for speech contest given in fluent Korean
Zuhailee shared the good news on his Twitter account, @izzuhailee, on 17th October 2020, tweeting: “Guys, I won first place for Intermediate/Advanced division in this nationwide Korean Speech Contest. Thank you Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles and King Sejong Institute for the event.” Along with it, he shared the full video of the speech that won him the award.
While most of us struggle to get through a presentation in our native tongues, the video showed him confidently speaking in fluent Korean for a 3-minute long presentation on “Twinkle Twinkle” – or the K-pop lightsticks that fans of the music genre wave around in concerts to show their support for the bands of their liking.
He also got creative with his presentation, styling his video with a “Present 101” news-style banner to reference popular South Korean reality TV show Produce 101, in which K-pop trainees compete against each other for a spot in a project K-pop group.
In the video, Zuhailee explained how he got to know and experience Korean culture – which is one of 2 topics that participants of the Korean Speech Contest are required to talk about while showing off their Korean language skills.
He began by saying that he had been studying the Korean language for 2 and a half years at his university, where he majors in Biochemistry, Korean Language, and Literature. He also shared that he is a big fan of K-pop music, having attended several Korean music shows and concerts before.
To show the judges of the contest just how well he knew the language, he gave a detailed history lesson on the use of lightsticks. Without any pauses or slip-ups, he concluded his creative presentation by showing off the features of a lightstick from global K-pop group, BTS, and saying that the use of lightsticks at concerts is one of his favourite part of K-pop and Korean culture as it lets fans get closer to their favourite groups.
This presentation earned him the coveted first-place title in the speech contest. He also shared another video on Twitter that showed the exact moment when he was announced as the winner. Further flexing his skills, he gave his acceptance speech in Korean even while the judge had been talking to him in English.
Beat out over 200 contestants in the US
Zuhailee also shared the video of his presentation to his Instagram account, @izzuhailee, where he revealed that he had won 1st place out of over 200 contestants from the US.
According to Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles’s official website, the evaluation criterion for winning the 2020 Korean Speech Contest was based on preparation and originality, fluency and appropriateness to the language level, accuracy of grammar and vocabulary, and pronunciation and enunciation. Winners were broken up into 2 sections, basic and advanced, with only 1 first-place winner, 2 second-place winners, and 3 third-place winners in both categories – which makes Zuhailee’s placement in the contest pretty impressive.
The contest is also only open to students of King Sejong Institute and Korean learners in the US for whom Korean is not their native language.
Netizens inspired by Malaysian student’s fluency
His Twitter post has been garnering attention from fellow Malaysians, who have been praising him for his impressive win, with over 1,000 retweets and 2,000 likes garnered at the time of writing.
His Twitter post has been garnering attention from fellow Malaysians, who have been praising him for his impressive win, with over 1,000 retweets and 2,000 likes garnered at the time of writing.
This included netizen @DUKLIN84, who tweeted, “Congratulations. You make Malaysia proud. Power [to you] for knowing how to speak Korean.”
GENIUS STEM Talent Harnesses Nation’s Best Brains
PUTRAJAYA (Bernama) – An education system can only develop a nation’s human capital if, besides academic subjects, it also focuses on the development of critical thinking skills and leadership qualities.
Ahmad Faisal Hamdan, 24, and Abdul Razzak Khan Rustum, 18, who are alumni of GENIUS@Pintar College and GENIUS Insan College respectively, are among the students who have excelled under the GENIUS programme and they told Bernama they feel lucky and grateful to have been selected for the programme.
GENIUS@Pintar College, which was introduced in 2011 and is run in collaboration with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, caters to gifted and talented students who possess an IQ of over 130 (score based on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale) so as to leverage their potential.
GENIUS Insan College, run in collaboration with Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia since 2015, focuses on developing the potential of gifted and talented Muslim students with the aim of producing more Islamic scientists, technocrats, leaders, inventors and thinkers in the future.
Ahmad Faisal, who was among the first batch of students to undergo the GENIUS programme (previously known as the PERMATApintar Education Programme), said it provides a fast track education process for students.
“After I completed my Sijil Pelajaraan Malaysia (SPM), I didn’t have to undergo a foundation course, instead I received an offer to pursue a degree programme in the United States. This saved me about two years of my study time,” he said.
MONITORING ALUMNI PROGRESS
Ahmad Faisal, who has a Master’s degree in physics from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and is now a failure analysis engineer at Infineon Technologies (Kulim) Sdn Bhd, said students who have undergone the GENIUS programme would have their performance at the tertiary education level monitored by GENIUS STEM Talent through its GSDB alumni information management system.
“The monitoring is carried out continuously to ensure that the alumni are giving their maximum contribution to the nation in various fields such as education, science and technology,” he said.
He said GENIUS STEM Talent also offers the alumni career paths through collaborations with various industries so that the nation benefits from their talents, as well as prevent a brain drain.
Kolej GENIUS Insan alumnus Abdul Razzak Khan, who is currently taking an A-Level course at Kolej Yayasan UEM, said GENIUS programme students are given the opportunity to carry out research with university lecturers as early as the first year of their secondary-level education – Form One.
“I have published materials and articles (that were presented) at national- and international-level conferences. The exposure and experience have been invaluable to me,” he added.
GOOD PLATFORM TO HARNESS POTENTIAL
Abdul Razzak Khan also said that the GENIUS programme’s education system does not only pay attention to the individual student’s academic achievement but also focuses on unearthing and developing their potential.
He said his own skills in mathematics allowed him to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad at the Asia Pacific level.
“We did not compare our academic achievements and results but we helped each other. For example, if a friend of mine was doing a study in biology and since I was good with statistics, I helped him with some of the relevant tasks,” he said.
Both Ahmad Faisal and Abdul Razzak Khan hoped that the GENIUS programme would be expanded further as they believe that there are many students in rural areas who are not able to realise their true potential as they are unaware of the existence of this programme due to the lack of Internet access.
Since the establishment of GENIUS@Pintar College in 2011 and GENIUS Insan College in 2015, more than 700 students have successfully completed their studies at the two colleges. In fact, some of the GENIUS@Pintar College alumni have made it to the top universities of the world, namely the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Stanford University and Cornell University.
The implementation of various activities such as mentoring programmes, workshops and courses, in addition to sponsorship support, has created wide opportunities for the students to tap their potential.
The GSDB system, which links the alumni management centre with the alumni and enables them to update their data, is used as a platform to ensure that students who “graduate” from the two colleges continue to excel and improve their skills and competence in line with the nation’s and global needs.