200 Sabah, Labuan students in Petronas competition
KOTA KINABALU: A total of 1,000 Form Four students across the nation, including 200 from Sabah and Labuan, are vying for the Petronas All About Youth (AAY) grand prize as they welcome the return of the competition for its fourth year.
AAY is a key Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programme for Petronas which aims to nurture well-rounded youths in social development, community wellbeing and environment.
“Petronas AAY is a CSI programme developed to empower youths and is being implemented at selected areas near Petronas’ operations.
“We have seen many inspiring projects by students in the past and we look forward to seeing more creative proposals in addressing community issues by the participants this year,” said Petronas Senior General Manager, Group Strategic Communications, Zahariah (Liza) Abdul Rahman in a statement yesterday.
Endorsed by the Ministry of Education in support of the National Education Philosophy, Petronas AAY 2017 sees a new lineup of students from 50 schools in Terengganu, Kelantan, Malacca, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.
Participating schools, each represented by 20 Form Four students, have submitted proposals to address a community issue in their respective area. A grant of RM1,000 has been awarded to each school for them to kick-start their projects.
The participating schools from Sabah are SMK Benoni, SMK St Mary Limbahau Papar and SMKA Limauan Kimanis in Papar; SMK Gadong in Beaufort; SMK Membakut; SMK Padang Berampah, SMK Pengiran Omar and SMK Sindumin in Sipitang; and SM St Anne in Labuan.
In preparation for the competition, the teams were briefed at the AAY Boot Camp which took place last month. More than 70 Petronas staff have volunteered to serve as “buddies? to provide guidance and support to the teams.
All teams were given eight weeks to complete their final projects and judging will be based on the project’s creativity, originality, sustainability, impact on community and clarity of presentation.
Upon selecting the finalists, a Grand Finale will be held in Kuala Lumpur in November to celebrate the participants? efforts and success.
The winning school, to be announced at the finale, will receive a grand prize worth RM50,000 for the purpose of further enhancing their projects and refurbishment of the school.
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.
In 2015, SMK Tamparuli was crowned the winner of the national-level Petronas AAY competition, defeating with their project titled “Awas! Bahaya Di Hadapan?(Caution! Danger Ahead), a flood alert system installed at the low-lying Tamparuli Bridge.
Last year, SMK Tatau from Sarawak was crowned the winner of the AAY All Star edition, defeating teams from 29 other schools with their winning project titled “Green Toilet? an ecofriendly toilet built to effectively save energy using solar gutter lights and rain water.