Sunway-Oxbridge Essay Competition

Reported by ELC

      THE Sunway-Oxbridge Essay Competition was open to all secondary school students using the Malaysian  education syllabus.

      It was jointly organised by Sunway Group, The Oxford & Cambridge Society Malaysia, Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, Sunway University and Monash University Malaysia, and endorsed by the Education Ministry.

      This year’s competition explored the topic of gambling, its negative impact and why people should give up such habit.

      There were two categories – Category A for   students from Form One to Form Three, and Category B for students from Form Four and Form Five.

       Under Category A, participants were required to write a 350-word essay on the effects of gambling while participants in Category B were required to write 650 words or less, on why people should quit gambling. They had to submit their essays online any time between April 11st and May 10th  through www.sunway.edu.my/essay. The top 100 finalists were then required to take part in a sit-down essay writing competition held on June 13 at various locations nationwide.

      Our students Chua Ben Shern from J3 Birmingham and Lee Mei Chie from J3 Washington won a consolation prize each. They both walked away with a cash prize of RM 500 and a Sunway bursary of RM5,000 each. We would like to extend our heartiest congratulations to them for their great achievement. We hope there will be more students participating in this essay writing competition in future.

Chua Ben Shern (J3 Birmingham)
      I’ve never really had a passion for writing, but for some reason, the Sunway Oxbridge Essay  Competition attracted my attention. Perhaps it was the prizes, perhaps it was for fun, or both. Anyway, thanks to Ms Chua for ‘forcing’ us to take part in it. I wrote, revised and submitted the essay eventually. The chances were slim as it was a national level competition but I kept my fingers crossed.
      A few weeks later they sent me a message saying I had been shortlisted for a final sit-down writing competition. I was overjoyed! I could not believe it! After that I worked harder through    additional reading just for that competition, and it all paid off when I won myself a prize. It may not be the best, but it has motivated me to keep on   improving my English writing skills. I hope to   participate in the competition again next year with a better result.

Lee Mei Chie (J3 Washington)
      Taking part in the Sunway Oxbridge Essay Competition was truly an experience that I will never forget, as it was the first time I participated in a competition like this. At first, I thought that there would be no chance at all in winning, but after   receiving a message saying that I’d got into the final, I was very surprised. Taking part in the final round was more challenging than the preliminary round, but it was well worth it.    Being one of the top 13 is a dream come true, and I’m very grateful for that. I would like to thank Ms Chua for giving me tremendous support, and I promise that I will keep working hard to improve myself