KUALA LUMPUR: FIVE students from SMK Siburan, Sarawak, won full scholarships to study in Sunway Pre-University programme and Sunway University’s American Degree Transfer Programme before even stepping into Form Five.

They also received prizes after emerging as champions of the Click! Camp 4.0 recently.

Click! Camp 4.0 is a nationwide social entrepreneurship camp for 14 to 16-year-olds.

Students from suburban and rural communities in seven states — Perak, Penang, Kedah, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu and Sarawak — took part in the camp.

It was organised by the US Embassy Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian-American Alumni Partnership (MAAP) and LifeChamp Sdn Bhd, and supported by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Yayasan Khazanah and Sunway Education Group.

Over 200 students from 40 schools participated in the camps which started in May.

They learned the basics of social entrepreneurship while improving their leadership and English skills.

Under the guidance of mentors who included Fulbright English teaching assistants (ETA), Teach for Malaysia fellows and Department of State exchange programme alumni, the students worked on their social projects to solve critical social issues in their communities.

The winners chose to address the issue of drag racing which has injured and killed many youths.

To keep youngsters off the streets and spend their time productively with their parents and the community, the SMK Siburan team organised a series of concerts where the members of the community sang, danced and got involved in the performing arts.

Team member Angelina Jefary, 15, was excited to be chosen from among 3,000 students in the school.

She found it hard to believe that her dream of going to the United States was coming true.

“I have been wanting to be in a student exchange programme since Form One and now I’m finally on the right track,” she said.

Another team member, Muhd Fahman Fitri Mohd Mohtar, 16, said: “We don’t learn about advertising and marketing in school but they came naturally when we worked as a team.”

Fahman said he hoped to be a dermatologist. “When you love and enjoy what you are doing, success is a sure thing.”

Five other teams pitched their projects at the grand finale at Sunway University before a panel of judges consisting of BCG managing director MyHarapan chief executive officer and the Sunway Education Group marketing director.

Click! Camp 4.0 project director Cayenne Lai, who was with the participants from the first day, saw tremendous changes in their self-confidence and speaking skills.

“They were so shy at first but now they can sing and act in front of distinguished people,” she said.

The US Embassy’s cultural affairs officer Arend C. Zwartjes was impressed with the students’ achievements.

“The finalists’ presentations today were fantastic,” he said.

SM Islam Al-Almin Kemaman and SMK Maran, which won the second and third place, respectively, received partial scholarships and prizes from Sunway University.

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