On 25 June 2021, Student Residential College Committee (JKM) from Kolej Tun Dr Ismail (KTDI), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), had successfully organized one of its annual programs known as Kolej Tun Dr Ismail’s Appreciation Night (MERAK’21).

The main objectives of this program were to give awards to the KTDI recipients for their accomplishments in the non-academic and academic fields and to others recognize the contributions of KTDI’s principal and staff. It was also hoped that a good rapport can be built among the residents of KTDI despite online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme of MERAK’21 was “Mengulit Kenangan di Kampung Resak”.

The program started officially at 8:30 p.m. with the play of our national anthem, “Negaraku”, UTM’s official song, “Keunggulan Terbilang”, and KTDI’s official song. After that, the program had proceeded with the opening speech delivered by the Program Director, Mr. Mohamad Muizzuddin bin Mohamad Marzuki and the Principal of KTDI, Lieutenant Colonel Prof. Madya Dr. Mohd Noor Azli bin Hj. Ali Khan. It was also an honour to have Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Affairs), Prof. Dr. Shamsul bin Sahibuddin as the officiator, to give his opening speech for MERAK’21.

There were overall six sessions of the awards announcement which include “Club & Association Best Program Award Session 2020/2021”, “JKM KTDI Best Program Awards Session 2019/2020 & 2020/2021”, “Chief PALAPES of Land and Sea Awards Session 2019/2020 & 2020/2021”, “JKM KTDI Excellence Awards Session 2019/2020”, “Assistant Fellow KTDI Excellence Awards Session 2019/2020”, “Fellow KTDI Excellence Awards Session 2019/2020”, “JKM KTDI Excellence Awards Session 2020/2021”, “Assistant Fellow KTDI Excellence Awards Session 2020/2021”, “Fellow KTDI Excellence Awards Session 2020/2021” and more other awards for the staff and principal of KTDI and former president of JKM KTDI.

The awards announcement sessions were alternated with the wonderful singing performances by Aksara Resak club, the champion of KTDI Got Talent from another program, Open Day Resak 2021 (OPERA’21) and the representative of JKM KTDI from MERAK’21. The KTDI fellows had also performed to spice up the program.

At the end of the program, there was a lucky draw session for the participants of MERAK’21. There were a total of 378 participants who joined the program that was streamed through Facebook and Youtube Live. All in all, thank you to all of the participants and congratulations to all the awards winners. We hope to see everyone again next year.