Young women show off their talents

159 college and university students gather to compete in talent contest.

KARACHI: Student Help Society and Student Aid Society of the  Islami Jamiat Talaba organised an all-girls talent contest, in which students of colleges and universities from all over the city participated, to promote extracurricular activities in the institutes.

Preparation for the contest started two months ago when the teams of societies started visiting the institutes to invite students for participation. Receiving 159 participant registrations from various universities and colleges, the contest consisted of seven different categories that included essay-writing, story-writing, poetry, speech, short film, art on the spot and flyer-making. The entries for documentary, essay-writing, poetry and story-writing were submitted online.

A ceremony was organised on Wednesday for the speech competition and art on the spot participants, while awards were also given to position holders in all the categories at the Bahria Auditorium.

One of the organisers, Huda Zaheer, told The Express Tribune that the registration for the participants started in October.

Each category was judged by two principals from the colleges that were participating, she said, adding that the talent contest is conducted on a large scale after every three years.

Speeches were delivered in both English and Urdu on various topics, including 'Your change can make change', 'If I were the minister of education' and 'Your actions determine your future' in English and 'Is daur ma taleem hai imraz-e-millat ki dawa [Education is the remedy for the ailments of the nation]' and 'Naya zamana naye subah-o-sham paida kar [Create new eras]' in Urdu.

At the end of the ceremony, a group of students from Usman Public School also performed a skit on the importance of teachers in a student's life, while a quiz competition was also conducted between the speeches that focused on science and poetry.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2016.