This is one of those essay where I write and suddenly I just spew everything out from my finger. Be careful, this articles maybe too frank.
Details of extra-curricular activities. And reason for applying.
Assalamulaikum, and hello. My name is Muhd Amirul Ashraf and this is my testimonial on my co-curriculum activities and also reason for applying for The Star Education Fund.
My primary school is SK Sungai Binjai. Needless to say, many of my activities there, is quite irrelevant right now. In my secondary school which is SK Meru, I do hold several position. Unfortunately I cannot say that that many of my position bring any meaning. Being a normal school instead of cluster or boarding school or MARA, many of the club there are simply just for “name”. Since I join the club in CFS IIUM I learn that the structure of (some) clubs in SMK Meru are simply wrong. In SMK Meru, most of the club advisor tend to just “veto” who get the position. Due to my academic standing which is quite good, teacher do tend to pick me especially since I’m quite active in volunteering on activities like the annual camping or cleaning up the mosque and also once become the access room prefect and later on my form 5 an actual prefect.
In form four, I was CEO of the young entrepreneur club. The young entrepreneur club is a little bit different that other club because it has a subclub called “Permata”. I was the CEO of that club. Under the program of “Permata” or “PUM”, a group of 25 student of each school (preferably form 4) will make a company, and do business. I won’t lie. My company went horribly wrong. That is why you don’t see the certificate of it. Because I do not want to put it in there. I could blame it on the Principal for being biased toward the Koperasi and Canteen, or the advisor for not allowing us to actually hold the money as the requirement of the program, making a real company. Or I could blame the economic downturn that year. But at the end it seems that it is actually my fault for not doing much to help it. The CEO next to me have the same problem (the implementation of program) and so do the CEO after him.
Also in my form four, I was the Director of the Theater team. That went quite well, as you could see on one of my certificate, my team won the Klang Theater competition in 2009. So the directing went well, everyone gave input, and I actually do something. Although the state competition was canceled do to H1N1 plaque, because it was the school’s first theater team, the accomplishment is quite appreciated. On the next year, we only get the third place in Klang’s Theater competition. The first place is won by Semetis, a new contender, which I agree they should win. The second place is won by Dato’ Hamzah, which I totally do not agree. Many competition, that I enter seems to have this strange attribute of “something is really wrong with the judge”.
Aside from that, I had also participated in numerous competition, like the Media Competition, Public Speaking, Chemistry Experiment, Biology Quiz, Forum and stuff like that. Notably the Physic Quiz, in which I received a national silver certificate which mean secondary level. Other than that, I cannot say I have any higher level certificate.
In CFS IIUM (Center for Foundation Studies IIUM), I mostly join a club called PEERS. PEERS is basically the club under the Counseling Unit, or in secondary school term, “pembimbing rakan sebaya”. There I volunteered and join many activities, like Mahabbah Visit to School to MATIQ, the syawal gathering, Counceling week, and others which I cannot recall. I did not accept any position as I fear things would get horribly wrong as in my secondary school. Other that that, I also volunteered on the IPTIM(Institut Pengajian Tinggi Islam Malaysia) Sport Festival 2012 as a committee of the Liason and Welfare biro.
Since I was young, computers has been very interesting for me. My secondary school is not really cooperating in allowing me to enter the IT class. And so, you see that I do not take ICT on my SPM. They say that I am too clever, “why would you want to be a programmer when you can be a doctor?”. So, when I get B+ in biology in SPM, I’m quite happy. Regardless of what people say, I started to learn programming on my own when I was form 3. At first I learn JAVA, and from there I’ve learn a lot as you can see in my resume. I’ve made several project of my own. None is really successful. I mean, if one of my project can generate some revenue, I won’t be applying for this scholarship right? Anyway, a project that I would like to point out here is the Automatic IIUM School Formatter. For me, that is my only project which people actually use. You can see it at http://iiumschedule.appspot.com/. At the start of a semester, I can say that at least 20-60 people use it. Not much, but these are people which is not in my social circle. Not to mention that it has only recently been ported for Main Campus user instead of CFS user. So, for me this project is noteworthy.
The reason I am applying for this scholarship is to get financial aid for my study. I did point out in my resume that I try to work as a freelancer. But frankly I am not good enough. And when I actually do have a client, I will have a hard time trying to manage my time. As an addition, because The Star Education Fund is actually funded by many corporate sector, a link for a starting career is really appreciated.
