Sabahan Student Among Top 50 Finalists For The Global Student Prize

Yet another Malaysian who is making us proud on the international scene!

The Global Teacher Prize organised by the Varkey Foundation is a prestigious award for teachers and now, they have a counterpart, the Global Student Prize for students (in partnership with Chegg.org).

In the 2023 edition, one Malaysian was chosen to be in the Top 50 finalists of the Global Student Prize, meet Nurul Nazieha Jasnie.

According to BERNAMA, Nurul Nazieha, 19, from Kampung Taun Gusi in Kota Belud, is pursuing her Diploma in Bakery and Pastry at the Kolej Vokasional Keningau (KVK).

On the finalist page, Nurul Nazieha says that she is determined to fight the public misconception that vocational education is an inferior type of learning and that baking was a valuable education choice for herself, her peers and her community.

At the tender age of 19, Nurul Nazieha had already established a business by herself. With the help of her teachers and friends, they were able to train over 120 single and low-income mothers how to bake and run a business to be self-sustaining.

Winning this would mean that Nurul Nazieha will get 100,000 USD (RM455,000) and she plans to use it for a myriad of things such as:

• to expand her business and transform it into a social enterprise to train more women to kickstart their own businesses;
• produce more recipe books based on the diverse ethnic cultures of Sabah;
• getting new recipes tested in established labs to obtain the necessary certificates so that it is fit for a wider audience; &
• funding a bachelor’s degree in tourism.

Nurul Nazieha is certainly a very ambitious young woman and we hope that she will be able to proceed to the Top 10!

Further, besides Nurul Nazieha, another Malaysian who also made it to the top 50 finalists, is Kenneth Chong. Kenneth, a 22-year-old Chemical Engineering student at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Perak, developed a passion for innovation and making things in his secondary school days. His dedication to innovation earned him a National Oil and Gas Scholarship, which he confidently justified by saying “Because I’m a maker”.

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