By Engku Shariful Azni
Pix Raai Othman

BANGI, 10 March 2016 – Confidence is the key to being a good motivational speaker, says Afzanil Md. Anuar, President of the Graduate Ambassadors (GA) group  of The National Universiti of Malaysia (UKM).

Afzanil, who is doing his masters at the engineering faculty, said it’s important for presenters to be self-assured during presentations or pitching ideas.

He explained that one of the common issues faced by speakers is the difficulity to express the ideas.

“It’s a pity when an individual cannot voice out opinions or ideas that are different from their field of expertise just because they feel shy,” he said at the sidelines of a welcoming ceremony for some 1,100 new post graduate students at the Post Graduate Information Day (HIP) 2016, here recently.

For Hadi Akbar, a GA speaker who delivered his pitch at the ceremony, he stressed the importance of having a good structure of ideas and to discuss with friends on having a clear and suitable message for a given topic.

Hadi, who is doing his Masters in Food tecgnology, said a GA Ambassador is exposed to many kinds of programmes and seminars not only to develop their soft skills and to build up confidence, but also to network with others universities and agencies linked to UKM.

The Graduate Ambassadors of UKM was established in 2015 under the Graduate Centre to assist in event management and prove campus tours for visitors, aside from giving advice to new UKM students.