Form 4 student bags top prize in ESUM essay competition

KUALA LUMPUR: A form four student from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) USJ 12, who wrote on the importance of culture as an element of tourism, won top prize in an English essay writing competition here today.
Veyrroshen,16, received certificates plus a cash prize of RM750, along with two other winners in the competition organised by the English Speaking Union of Malaysia (ESUM) and sponsored by Berjaya Corporation.
The writing competition with the topic, 'Making Malaysia, Asia's Top Tourist Destination' drew some 250 entries from students nationwide.
Divided into two categories, A (Ages 16-18) and B (Ages 13-15), the competition was judged based on good grammar, sentence structure and creative ideas.
Veyrroshen, who won the Category A competition said he chose culture as the main element in promoting Malaysia because the country was among few countries with cultural diversity.
"The unique multiracial background of its population helps create Malaysia in having a variety of cultures representing Asia as a whole, you don't need to go anywhere else," he told reporters when met at the competition's prize-giving ceremony here today.
Ryanna Lynn Rozhan Shariff, from Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM), Alor Gajah, Melaka took the second place in the Category A competition while Megan Chi Wing Yan from SMK St Francis Convent, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah was third.
Meanwhile, ESUM founding chairman Tunku Dara Naquiah Tuanku Ja'afar said since it was founded in 2000, ESUM focused on the importance of human achievement through the widening use of the English language.
"With this mission in mind, various activities are organised each year to help achieve this goal, and the competition is one of them. (The) Panel of judges was really impressed by the high standard of performance of all the participants this year," she said. — Bernama