The First-Ever Online Open Mic Competition Held by BruROSA

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LONDON, SATURDAY, 21/11/2020 - In light of the ongoing pandemic, the Brunei Religious Officers Student Association (BruROSA) has conducted for the very first time, an online Open Mic Competition. The competition was streamed live through the popular video-conferencing app, Zoom on the 21st of November 2020, commencing at 10.30am GMT.

The online Open Mic Competition is a platform where students compete against each other by sharing their thoughts, opinions or knowledge to an audience, showcasing their public-speaking skills. For this first online Open Mic Competition, the theme selected was “Convey from me, even if it is one verse”, and as such, speeches prepared by the participants will be related to Islam. The competition aims to encourage more students to appreciate the Islamic way of life, which can be applied into various situations, while at the same time help students to discover their potential and build up their confidence in public-speaking.

During the online competition, a total of 4 students joined as participants: Abdullah Umar from Newcastle University, Aqilah Mat Dani from University of Nottingham, Azizan Anas from Lancaster University and Aqilah Salleh from Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. In addition, the panel of judges for the competition was invited from the Brunei Students Unit (UPP): Cikgu Danny Aimi, the Director of Studies, Ustaz Fahmi Abas, the Religious Officer, and Ustazah Widad. Each judge was tasked with different criterias to judge on the speech of the participants, with Cikgu Danny being responsible for judging the delivery of speech, Ustaz Fahmi for the content and Ustazah Widad for the writing style. The final mark received by each participant will be the combination of marks from all 3 judges, with delivery of speech weighing 40%, while content and writing style of speech together weighing 60%. The online competition was also joined by 19 other students who came as spectators to watch and support the participants give their speech. All their speeches are available to be watch on IGTV through the account, brurosa.uk.

The results of the online Open Mic Competition were announced by Zakwan, the President of BruROSA, after all the participants have presented their speech. Aqilah Salleh emerged victorious at the 1st place with her winning speech titled ‘Faith & Self-love’, the 2nd place was won by Azizan Anas with his very poetic speech called ‘Sadness’, Abdullah Umar took the 3rd place with his ‘A Pending Thought’ speech, and the 4th place was given to Aqilah Mat Dani with her speech titled ‘Companion’. The cash prize given to each participant was £125, £100, £75, and £50 respectively. Every participant received merchandise from BruROSA as well.

The Brunei Religious Officer Students Association, or more distinctively, known as BruROSA is an association of religious officers from across the UK and EIRE that deals with the religious welfare of all Bruneian students studying in the UK and EIRE. Currently, the association has 16 Executive Committees and 32 Religious Officers from all Bruneian societies in the UK. and EIRE. Other than Unsung Heroes, BruROSA also organises various annual events such as Kem Ibadah, Khatam Al-Quran, Photography and Writing Competitions. The association hopes to keep organising more meaningful events available for all to join in the near future.