Malaysian teen is world Powerpoint champ

Proud Malaysian: Admon holding the Jalur Gemilang and his trophy at the event in Dallas.

ADMON Lee Wen Xuan, a Form Four student at Wesley Methodist School Kuala Lumpur, did his school and the country proud when he emerged as one of the champions in the Microsoft Office Olympics held in Dallas in the United States (US) recently.

He was one of the 145 contestants from 47 countries across the world who had made it to the final stage. Some 60,000 candidates took part in the early stages of the competition held in their respective countries.

Technically called the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship – and the Adobe Certified Associate World Championship – the competition, held in Dallas from Aug 9 to 12, is the latest in a 14-year run of annual tests meant to identify the very best practitioners of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Admon came out first in the Powerpoint 2010 Challenge, one of the categories in the championship. He won a US$5,000 (RM20,650) scholarship, an X-box and a Surface 3 besides a trophy and a medal for his achievement.

Jubilant winners: (from left) Kong Divin of Cambodia and Nguyen Thi Hien Gia of Vietnam (who came in second and third respectively), with Admon (right). Looking on is a competition official.

“I was very excited to be in Dallas facing so many top-notch candidates from all over the world,” said Admon.

“The participants were between the ages of 13 and 22 and it was a privilege to be among so many talented young people. I was a bit nervous at first but realised that I have to face the challenge ahead of me,” he said.

Admon is saving his prize money for his college education which he hopes to pursue in the US.

Wesley Methodist KL principal Chia Loy Tian is proud of Admon’s achievements.

“Admon is certainly a student of Wesley with very good attributes. He is the monitor of his class in Form Four, works hard in everything he does and is well-liked by both his peers and his teachers,” she said.

“According to his mother, Admon was very keen to go for the competition, and despite the high costs involved, she and her husband gave their blessings for him to go. This kind of parental support obviously gave him the confidence to do well too,” said Chia.

Wesley Methodist is one of the schools certified with the Microsoft IT Academy since 2013, the first secondary school in Malaysia to adopt the programme.

The students are encouraged to sit for the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification Programme which is managed by Certiport Inc, which also organises the world championship.