Seven Sabah schools in All-Star contest
Kota Kinabalu: Seven schools from Sabah are competing in this year’s Petronas All About Youth (AAY) competition, which kicked off recently with an “all-star” participation.
Endorsed by the Ministry of Education, the AAY All Star 2016 sees the return of 30 schools from Terengganu, Kelantan, Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak selected from the list of former participants of the programme.
The schools are represented by their respective Form 4 students and have been awarded a grant worth RM1,000 each to further enhance their projects.
Last year’s competition saw SMK Tamparuli winning the top prize with their flood alert system at Tamparuli Bridge.
“AAY is a Corporate Social Investment programme developed to empower youths and is being implemented at selected areas near Petronas’ operations.
“We decided to go with an ‘All-Star’ edition this year to ensure past projects can be further enhanced to ensure the sustainability of the projects,” said Petronas Senior General Manager, Group Strategic Communications, Zahariah (Liza) Abdul Rahman.
The three-year old programme, which started out as a pilot project, aims to nurture well-rounded youths in the areas of social development, community wellbeing and environment.
The participating projects from Sabah are a community bus stop in Telupid by SMK Ulu Sapi, uplifting of facilities at Kibambangan Tagal Centre in Penampang by SM St Michael, portable water filter by SMK Bongkol of Pitas, beautification of Kota Belud tamu besar site by SMK Arshad, river clean up using bokashi mud balls by SMK Kota Marudu, community one-stop centre by SMK Penangah in Tongod, and hall cooling system by SMK Badin of Tuaran.
Petronas AAY activities commenced late last month. Each school team, made up of 20 students, will be provided with a refresher course and a volunteer serving as a “buddy” to provide guidance and support. Each team has four weeks to complete their final projects and judging will be based on creativity, the project’s enhancement and sustainability, impact on community and clarity of presentation.
Upon selecting the finalists, a Grand Finale will be held in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate efforts and success.
The winning school, to be announced at the finale, will receive a grand prize worth RM50,000 for the purpose of upgrading their existing projects.
In addition, each member of the winning team will receive RM1,000 worth of cash and prizes, while team members in the second and third place categories will receive RM800 and RM500 worth of cash and prizes respectively.
To monitor the participants’ long-term development, an “AAY Alumni” will be formed where former participants can converge to share their success stories and provide peer support to each other.
“There will be opportunities for alumni members to attend Youth Development Conferences and engagements across Asia.
Our end goal is to coach alumni members and prepare them for the workforce,” said Zahariah.
Source: Daily Express
