National English Competition 2024 – Intersections of Literature and Culture: Modern Perspective

National English Competition or could be referred to as NEC is a national-based English competition is one of the annual programs that is done by Himpunan Mahasiswa Sastra Inggris (HIMSI). This competition opens up opportunities for people who want to show their English skills through several competition categories that have been selected. In this competition the participants will be judged by the BINUS English Department lecturers and alumni. 

The competition categories for NEC this year are: 

• Essay Writing (University Students only): Write on in-depth literary analysis on contemporary art.
• Poetry Writing and Reading: From the theme given, write a poem with 30-200 words and record yourself reading the poem.
• Podcast: In a group of 2-4 people, participants will create a 7-10 minute podcast.
• Newscasting: Make a newscasting video based on their chosen theme.

This competition was started way back from the open registration on 14th October – 14th November 2024. After all participants had registered, we held a technical meeting via zoom on 15th November 2024 to welcome participants who had registered for this year’s NEC and explain how this competition works. We also explain how to submit and when is the due date for the submission. We ended the technical meeting with a Q&A session and a documentation session.

After we’re done with the technical meeting we go straight to the submission period which ends on the 28th of November, after the submission are closed we enter the judging period on 22nd november to 8th december 2024 where all the judges of each competitions will judge all the results that have been uploaded by the participants and decided on who are the winners for essay writing and podcast competition and who are the finalists for newscast and poetry writing and reading competition. 

On 14th December 2024 we finally are in the  final round, this final round also includes an awarding ceremony for  the participants who have won each competition category. In the final round we invited all the judges from each competition category to give out comments on the winners and finalists work. 

Opening on the final day, we got Jose Tandiono as the Head of National English Competition, Regina Ayu Pramesti as the President of HIMSI and Mrs. Criscentia Jessica Setiadi as the Deputy Head of the BINUS English Department  of  to bring opening speech to the finalist, we also got our MC (Master of Ceremony), Stephanie Aurelia Limjaya and Vickie Andrea Santoso together to brought this competition from beginning to the end. After the opening remarks the participants got separated into 2 rooms and we began to start with the finalists performance for newscast and poetry writing and reading. After all the finalists have done their performance we had a long break while the judges from the newscast and poetry writing and reading assess the finalist’s performance. After the break and judging we got straight to the awarding ceremony to give out a prize, certificate and trophy for the winner. We ended this year’s NEC with a closing remarks from Miss Criscentia Jessica Setiadi, a closing prayers and a documentation sessions.