It will be nice to see all these foundations move beyond philanthropic gestures and help produce another set of millionaires. Don't just give them fish, teach them how to fish!!!

15 Year Old Olubunmi Agusto emerges the first Nigerian to win a medal at Microsoft Office World Championship

You might be familiar with Microsoft Office's suite of programs, but did you know there is a world championship for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

This championship organized by Certiport worldwide is designed to test the proficiency of students in the use of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel and is open to all students aged 13 to 22 years.
At the recently concluded Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship held in Anaheim, California, 15 year-old Olubunmi Agusto of Nigeria came second after the winner, Dominique Howard of United States of America followed by Hannah Wilson of the United Kingdom, in third place. Olubunmi took home a $2,500 scholarship as her winnings.

In the competition's 13-year history, Olubunmi is the first African to win a medal. In the past, there have been others who have participated from Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon, Uganda and Ghana on this world stage. This year, Olubunmi Agusto of Day Waterman College, Abeokuta, Ogun State and Adonijah Airede of Regent School, Abuja, FCT represented Nigeria. Olubunmi and Adonijah were sponsored by UBA Bank Plc.
The championship started with a pool of 400,000 participants around the world who took Microsoft Office Specialist certification. After competing in the national-level, 15 year-old Olubunmi made it to the global stage with 123 finalists in Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Anaheim, California.

Olubunmi and the other finalists in Microsoft Word took a timed exam in which they had to recreate a Word document by following instructions. They were scored on accuracy and speed. While anyone can claim they know Microsoft Word, not everyone can complete tasks under the pressure of a clock. In one timed challenge, contestants were presented with an image of a Word document with an image of Saturn and other elements such as text boxes and tables.

They were asked the recreate the document with the same specifications, such as the same margins and horizontal and vertical height of each object.
Contestants were tested in Microsoft Office Word 2007 and 2010. The competition presented challenges in six subjects:

1. Creating and Customizing Documents (including making documents and contents easier to find)
2. Formatting Content (such as controlling pagination)
3. Working with Visual Content (including formatting text graphically)
4. Organizing Content (like modifying tables)
5. Reviewing Documents (including comparing and merging document versions)
6. Sharing and Securing Content (such as preparing documents for sharing)

At the National Microsoft Office Specialist competition organized in Nigeria by ReadManna, Olubunmi Agusto came first with a score of 967/1000 (Word 2007, time taken 15min 53secs), Ntekim-Rex David of Thomas Adewumi International College, Oko, Kwara State came second with a score 936/1000 (PowerPoint 2010, time taken 25min 28 secs) and Adonijah Airede came third with a score of 931/1000 (Word 2010, time taken 13min 43secs).

ReadManna has declared the 2015 Microsoft Office Competition open (2 October 2014 to May 2015). The next year competition will test versions 2010 and 2013 of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Please visit www.readmanna.net for more information and regular updates about the competition.

Vacancy for an Executive Business Writer http://www.zenera.mx/?page_id=9