JEDDAH, 14 May 2007 — After 12 days of campaigning and voting, King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) crowned engineering student Muhammad Al-Yamani as the “KAU Superstar”.
Al-Yamani is the first-ever holder of the title, which is being run for the first time, and won a 2007 Citroen car offered by the Bakhashab Group, the Kingdom’s authorized Citroen dealers.
“The competition was so exciting and I can’t express how happy I am that I have won,” Al-Yamani said. “It created a thrilling atmosphere in the whole university, especially since this is the first time that such a system of voting has been implemented here,” he said.
Posters featuring Al-Yamani’s picture and requests for votes were posted across the college of engineering at KAU. Voting was open to students and non-students through the university website.
“The competition was vigorous but I succeeded to beat the other contestants with a big margin,” he said, adding that he will now be given an opportunity to participate in future student activities.
Al-Yamani, who is in his last semester, is majoring in Communication Engineering (a sub-specialty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department). He nominated himself to the Students’ Affairs Deanship after seeing flyers and banners advertising the competition.
Contestants for the competition were selected according to set criteria, which took into consideration a student’s GPA and co-curricular activities. Al-Yamani is a member of KAU’s Cultural Committee and came first in a poetry and Hadith contest. He has memorized the Holy Qur’an and attended a number of courses on time management and computer maintenance.
A representative from the Students Activities Department said that the competition would continue in coming years.
“I encourage students to stand for elections and compete for the KAU superstar status next year. My younger colleagues are already asking me for help in arranging their campaigns,” Al-Yamani said.
