Thammasat Student won the first prize in the Digital Television News Anchor Competition.

Mr. Pitchayakorn Nilphimai, a 3rd year student in Philosophy, Politics and Economics program, College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University, Lampang Campus won the National Award for the Digital Television News Anchor Contest, Higher Education Level in the ‘Path to the Star Project: the 19th Digital Television News Anchor Competition’, “The Hybrid”, organized by the School of Digital Arts and Sciences, Suranaree University of Technology.

Mr. Pitchayakon Nilphimai revealed that the ‘Path to the Star Project: The Digital Television News Anchor Competition’ is considered to be one of the largest television news anchor contests. I knew this competition because when I was in high school, a teacher invited me to attend the competition. At that time, I hadn’t receive any awards so I continued to fight until I reached the Higher EducationTertiary Level. I have applied knowledge from different courses in the university. On the part of the contestants, in the first round, there was 200 participants who are fellow students from various higher education institutions all over Thailand which would be selected to compete in the final round or a total of 25 finalists.

For the preparation of this competition, let me start from when I was studying in the second year. I received the kindness from Asst. Prof. Olan Rattanabhakdi, Director of the Bachelor of Arts Program, Interdisciplinary Studies of Social Science, College of Interdisciplinary Studies to be my advisor for the training in which I have accumulated all the basic knowledge. Until I was in my third year of study, Prof. Chaiyut Thawaranurak, Associate Dean for Academic Services and Corporate Communications, College of Interdisciplinary Studies together with Professor Wanwanat Aroonreuk, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs (Lampang Campus), College of Interdisciplinary Studies assisted in the training. After receiving advices, I then worked on my own preparation. I mean, I read the news a lot and always follow the news. So that we know in advance the context of reading each news. Where should the sound concentration be? Search any unsure words, then practice speaking and reading often.

Mr. Pitchayakon added that I received the economic and international news contents for the competition. The project committee would prepare the news contents used in the competition. Once the contestants or I received the news, we would have limited time to read through the news and get ourselves ready prior to each round of competition, which is very similar to the actual journalist training. For this competition, personally, I think that the news content that I received is the news that I am good at and corresponds to the topics of courses that I have been studying. It is an interdisciplinary college in philosophy, politics and economics. Another thing is that I have been trained by good teachers with useful knowledge that I have gained and used in real competitions whether this year or last year. I was able to manage my emotions at that time well, no excitement and can fluently read the news, so I think that’s the reason why I could win the award.

“I’m truly grateful to receive this award as I’ve been fighting for many years to follow this dream, and this success can also build a reputation to both the College of Interdisciplinary and Thammasat University, Lampang Campus, which I am very happy that a small student like me was able to build a reputation for my own organizations,” Mr. Pitchayakorn concluded.