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Communication student won ‘People's Choice’ at the Young Art Journalism Awards (YAJA)

UON Singapore is proud to have Abhinay Lakhshman, a current Year 2 student from the Bachelor of Communication programme winning in the very first Young Art Journalism Awards (YAJA) in the category of ‘People’s Choice’.

YAJA is a new innovative awards concept giving journalism, media and art students the opportunity to showcase their talent in capturing art and culture in a creative way.  It is designed to offer students and fresh graduates media opportunities, industry mentoring, networking opportunities and a large audience reach as well as awards recognition.

Abhinay was a contender among 36 other submissions from around the world including students from New York University and Stanford University, just to name a few.

Abhinay’s article went through a careful thought process. His ideas were developed more than six months before he actually penned it down. Abhinay was interested in the political happenings of Malaysia in 2015 especially on the 1MDB corruption scandal, and he decided to do some research on his own. Eventually, he stumbled upon an Activist/Graphic Designer Fahmi Reza whom he spoke and connected with, and got his story materialised.

“I was extremely driven by the somewhat revolution and decided to pursue it despite whatever I might have to sacrifice”, says Abhinay.

On winning the award, he added that he had to put in three months of intense research and travel for interviews in the middle of one of his most hectic trimesters.

When asked about how he felt on the win, he said,

“…and ultimately, winning this award makes me feel like this effort has been recognised. Moreover, winning the People’s Choice Award for Journalism is even more special to me. Because being recognised by your audience is a great feeling. “

Congratulations, Abhinay!

Click here to read his feature story.

Learn more about YAJA Journalism Awards here.

Abhinay Lakshman is currently the Executive Editor of MyEdit e-magazine created and managed by Bachelor of Communication students at UON Singapore.