2017 School Fest Inauguration

2017 School Fest Inauguration

The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) School of Computing, Information and Mathematical Sciences organised the 2017 School Fest on 9 September 2017.

The School Fest, which is a Microsoft Initiative at USP is an Information Technology (IT) festival where Secondary School students participate in competitions to test their IT knowledge and skills.

A total of 180 students from 21 Secondary Schools around the Central Division were part of the event.

Speaking at the Fest, Associate Professor Anjeela Jokhan, Dean of Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment (FSTE) welcomed the participants and said that they felt that there was a need to reach out to Secondary School students, get them involved and encourage them to take part in some initiatives.

Associate Professor Jokhan said that these initiatives are particularly those relating to programming, as she noted that it is one of the weaknesses that students have when coming to USP.

“Today is an exciting and challenging day for you all so take advantage of this opportunity, learn as much as you can, build friendships, talk to USP staff and students and find out more about programmes, should you choose to come to USP in future,” Associate Professor Jokhan told the students.

She said that the competition will also assist students in team-building skills, which she added is critical in any profession.

Mr Nouzab Fareed, Chief Executive Officer of Fijian Holdings Limited and guest speaker of the inauguration shared his experiences of stepping into his career through problem-solving.

Mr Fareed commended the University through FSTE for giving such an opportunity to secondary school students and added that he was grateful to USP and Microsoft for holding this forum.

He told the students to use the opportunity and learn about IT, programming and marketing and challenged the students that whoever came up with a great idea and does a business proposition, FHL will be willing to provide funding.

Mr Fareed encouraged a similar forum outside of IT where there are various other problems to find solutions to. From a business perspective, Mr Fareed highlighted that through such forums, they are giving back to the community.

He advised students to work hard, have passion and confidence, work towards their dream, get inspired and have a focus.

Preparations for the School Fest began a couple of months ago, when preparatory tests were sent to schools and students took the test.

From here, two top teams of 5 students from each school were selected who were invited for the day-long competition.

The students took part in five (5) events and in each event; there were preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals. These events included Post Master; Programmer; Marketing; Word Hunt; and Quiz.

Fiji LDS College was the overall champions of the School Fest, while Rishikul College Team B and Jai Narayan College Team A scooped the second and third prizes respectively.

ENDS

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