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Tun Mahathir also said that he found the interviews and editorials during the past year to have been outstanding, and that he was particularly impressed by its vitality. During the launch, a special award was given to the sponsors of EDUsmith, namely TMI-Nusantara Consultants, Bank Bumiputera Commerce Bhd, Eversendai Engineering Corporation, Tamil Nesan, Nova Blooms Sdn Bhd, Sri Communication Sdn Bhd, Data Bridge Communications (M) Sdn Bhd, KPK Quantity Surveyors Sdn Bhd, Seng Hup, Hijjas Kasturi Associates, and S.P.Muthu Veloo & Co. EDUsmith is the first magazine which has been specifically produced to enhance and complement Malaysia's Higher Education system, with the primary objective of catering to the educational needs of school leavers.

It is designed to meet the needs of academically inclined young people between the ages of 16 and 22. As they make crucial decisions on higher education and careers, they now have an informative, attractive and responsible magazine they can turn to - a media that will help shape them into dynamic and well equipped citizens and leaders of the future. EDUsmith has been selected and endorsed by the Ministry of Higher Education as a platform to reach out to students intending to pursue tertiary education.

Articles in this bi-monthly magazine have been about career choices, guidance on the selection of courses in both private and public universities, as well as fi nancial avenues. There are also articles on interesting personalities, both young and old, who are thought to be positive role models who can inspire today's youth to greater achievements. Among them have been Malaysia's

Fourth Prime Minister and the Honorary Advisor to the Perdana Leadership Foundation, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad; president of the Malaysian Indian Congress, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu; the CEO of Air Asia, Datuk Tony Fernandes; the first Malaysian to reach Antartica Datin Paduka Sharifah Mazlina Syed Abdul Kadir; Malaysia's best CEO of 2004, Dato' Nazir Razak; the vice-chancellor of International University-College of Technology Twintech, Prof Datuk Dr Ismail Salleh; and the head of the Public Services and Compliants Department of the Malaysian Chinese Association, Datuk Michael Chong. In the younger category, personalities who have been featured in EDUsmith and who are seen as inspirations to the young are artistes Reshmonu and Afdlin Shauki, academic high achiever Nur Amalina, as well as actress-singer-performer Sarimah Ibrahim.

The magazine also carries informative and youth-related issues including personal health, tourism, entertainment and sports. The magazine is bi-lingual and was fi rst published in January last year. It was started by Datuk Ahmad Rejal Arbee, a journalist with 40 years of experience in various news organizations including Bernama, the New Straits Times, Business Times, Berita Harian, and Mrs Chitra Vasu, the CEO of Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED), the education arm of the MIC. In the past year, the magazine, through various sponsorship programmes has been distributed to schools in the Federal Territory, Selangor and several other states, private universities, and public libraries. The first three issues of the magazine were distributed to trainees undergoing the National Service programme as it was felt that they, especially the school leavers who are about to go for further education, do not have enough reading materials to occupy them during their free time.

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