StayAhead

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June 2011, issue 11

16Find out some young enterpreneurs making their way to the top via social media

24Learn to organise your expenses through uni-versity before you won-der about your empty wallet!

5Find out how a 12 year old kid influenced his parents to start ‘Sheds for Souls’

5COMMUNITYFind out how a 12 year old kid influ-enced his parents to start ‘Sheds for Souls’

8EDUCATIONWorried about what to do after year 12? Find out what Intel-ligent Partners have to say!

10WATCH OUT FORFollow the foot steps of the newest online video production house! Do we smell internships?

16STAY AHEADHana al Suwaidi propa-gates her own fashion line via twitter. And she’s still in college! Check out more youth like her and tips from our expert on how YOU could start up yours!

24FINANCEOrganise your ex-penses through university before you wonder about your empty wallet!

28GEEK TALKSo you have an iPad. What next? How can you use it for anything but games?

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WHAT’S INSIDE?

Letter from the Editor

Time and again, young students have proved themselves worthy leaders ca-pable of standing on their own feet. This month, we follow some of them who have embarked on their own exclusive paths and find out what it’s like to be a young enterpreneur. As every month, we’ve also provided another opportunity for intern-ships! What are you waiting for? Peak through ‘Stay Head’ and live ahead!

Sincerely,Ayesha A. Ali

4 5June 2011

Sheds for the soulBy Ayesha A. Ali

It happened over the summer of 2010, as Margarite recalls the season of natural disasters and a lot of countries helping out with blankets, food, clothes etc. “We were just watching TV and the tragic reports about floods and so many disasters and I said ‘I wish we could help!’ and my son came around saying ‘I’m tired of hear-ing I wish we could do something. Why don’t we!?” And me and my husband looked at each other

and thought ‘Yeah, why don’t we? For Margarite and her family, that was the birth of “Sheds for Soul”

“We thought we could develop a business, and a certain percent-age of the revenue would be used for the research and development of designing and building port-able sheds” Margarite and her hus-band devised a family business to build outdoor offices, “There’s a lack of outdoor temporary struc-tures in the market, actually,” she

comments on the business “In-stead of moving houses, because you need an extra room, or an extension, you can build a port-able office. And if you move again, which everybody does in Dubai a lot, you take it with you, that’s the wonderful thing” But right now, they’re focused on designing the portable sheds and getting the word out about their humanitar-ian project ‘Sheds for the Souls’

Community

4 5June 2011

Rouhani began to research about sheds being built for disas-ter areas already and noticed that many of the current structures be-ing sent to disaster areas were fab-rics and hence insufficient to pro-tect people from extreme weather conditions. Her family visited Eng-land in 2010 given its popularity for outdoor and garden sheds. “We thought what if these (sheds) were very basic, foldable, light-weight and could be easily stacked up in hundreds and easily transported” “But the ones we have in mind are made up of certain kind of wood and it depends upon which area its being transported. If there’s a lot of rain, then the wood might not be a good alternative, it would be fibre glass, something light-weight and endurable” But most importantly, she wants them to be foldable, portable and easy to be shipped to the disaster-struck areas.

Margarite is intent on ‘Sheds for Souls’ to be a locally-based pro-ject “We’re focusing on develop-ing something from our region, by our region and sending it to these areas. We’ve always heard that UAE is a leader in different fields. So why can’t we develop

Margarite Rouhani has been involved in education for the past 12 years. Currently, she’s engaged in corporate training regarding leadership, manage-ment, corporate responsibility etc. However, recently, Marga-rite and her husband are busy researching about designing and building portable sheds for disaster-struck regions.

something locally?” Her basic plan is to collect ideas and help from different people, gather research funded by an institution, design prototype sheds and test them and later modify according to the feed-back received from disaster areas.

When asked about funds and resources for their initiative, When asked why they called the busi-ness ‘Out Of The Box’, Margarite ex-plained that it requires some out-of-the-box thinking to be able to make the best use of your garden space. She mentioned her family’s involvement in making wooden furniture since 1954 “My father-in-law was one of the first carpenters in Dubai. Back then, there weren’t many carpenters. He also had a small factory that specialized in all kinds of wooden structures. He still has that factory! And my husband is an architect. So if we try to put two and two together then we could design something that can be a leader in helping disaster struck ar-eas” But she needs others to pitch in with the idea of sheds for disaster areas as well. They would like insti-tutions to finance the research, find out what already exists out there and gain external help for mak-

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Community

6 7June 2011

ing prototypes and testing them out “It’s really a community initia-tive; we can’t do this on our own”

For conducting their own research, Margarite and her fam-ily have planned a week’s trip to Uganda in April. They want a first-hand observation of the liv-ing conditions existing in Ugan-da and an insight on the sheds developed by their community.

Recently, they’ve been busy de-veloping the website for ‘Out of the Box’ and trying to get the fac-tory to develop prototypes of the outdoor sheds. A lot of individu-als have realised the significance of humanitarian efforts and so has Margarite “We’re so busy with the economic recession and thinking about making more money. Num-bers have just become statistics to us..... ‘100 people died in flood’ it’s just become a number to us. We forget that these are souls, that’s why we call it ‘Sheds for the Souls’. If it were us, we would want some-one to reach out to us, so it’s just a reminder of the community work that we can do together. We are confident in the ability and desire of the collective consciousness of the members of our community

to help build lives for those who are faced with unfortunate disas-ters. UAE has been the leader in many things and we are certain in the can be the leader in develop-ing locally manufactured sheds suitable for most disaster areas.”

You can check out their project ‘sheds for the souls’ on their web-site www.outoftheboxuae.com. To get involved or find out more, just drop a message for Marga-rite in ‘contact us’ on the website.

Her twelve-year old son Salman simply suggested the idea of building a shed and sending it off to the disaster-struck areas. And her husband wondered about building proper sheds that could just be popped up.

Community

6 7June 2011

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 YEAR 4....................................... YEAR 10

A for Apple 1x2=2Nouns, adjectives

Gepgraphy, History,

Ohm’s lawOrganic chemistry,Lip gloss!

April can be easily de-clared the happiest time for senior high school students! The sweet smell of freedom and the ap-proaching months of guilt-free procrastination can turn anyone jump-ing on their couch. Face-book statuses of gradu-ated high school students would be screaming of joy in ‘CAPS lock’ but not for long. Soon enough, they must face the inevitable question: what next?

Selecting courses and universities is a whole new direction for high school students. Al-

though applications for foreign universities be-gin from November, local universities in UAE start from June. But how do you select a college? In-formation about foreign universities is abundant on Google and various online student forums, but it can create confu-sion. On the other hand, students interested in pursuing their higher ed-ucation in UAE have lim-ited resources and insight about the colleges before applying to them. On top of that, accreditation of universities and courses

by the MOHE (Ministry of Higher Education) is a major concern for parents and students who wish to pursue their Masters abroad. So what should you do? When hunting for universities on your own can become a nightmare, why not seek professional help?

Intelligent Partners is an education consulta-tion firm for students and teachers based in Dubai. They provide advice for students regarding selec-tion of universities, choos-ing courses, required tests etc. From assisting

students with their appli-cation and statement of purpose to accommoda-tion options and student visas, IP provides a variety of essential consultation services without charging students (No, really). They also assess individual stu-dents to help them select a course of interest and match them with suitable universities all over the world. Sanjeev Verma, Di-rector of Intelligent Part-ners answers some of the frequently asked ques-tions for students who wish to enrol in local and foreign universities.

1. Besides academics, what factors do students need to consider while selecting a university?

University selection should be looked at first from the course, finan-cials, size of college, num-ber of international stu-dents, faculty etc. Many such small and big factors are looked into when we help finalize university se-lection for students.

2. International universi-ties often ask for essays. Where can students seek credible assistance on drafting those essays?

Essays should be written by students themselves. Intelligent Partners would normally have a brain storming session on how to approach the topics and then help them with the editing. We do not write the essays for

So You’re In Year 12? What Next? By Ayesha A. Ali

Intelligent Partners answers some of the fre-quently asked questions by high schools students considering further stud-ies.

What Do The Experts Say?

Sanjeev Verma, Direc-tor of Intelligent Part-ners works towards providing condulting services for students and educatiors.

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8 9June 2011

YEAR 11 YEAR 12 ........... SATTOEFL

IELTS

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SCHOLARSHIP

IVY LEAGUE

POST GRAD

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Business, Humanities, Science,Parties!

Final ExamCRAM!

3. How can UAE students apply for international scholarships?

Intelligent Partners rep-resents 300 universities. As their official partners we have direct access to various scholarships giv-en to partners. Applying for scholarships needs quite some work, which is where we help our stu-dents. Currently we have an unprecedented num-ber of scholarships still available for all levels: UG, PG, Masters, and PhD. The amount can range from $ 5,000 to $ 17,000.

4. What can internation-al students expect from the campus life of foreign colleges?

Campus life at every college differs slightly and this answer would depend on which par-ticular college you are planning to go to. Any college would give an in-ternational student the great opportunity of liv-ing in a different culture. Most colleges expect the first year students to stay on campus and I think

this helps in bonding and making more friends. Academics would chal-lenge students to give their best. Doing your own laundry, paying bills, managing finances and travelling alone all add to life away from home and help to build your charac-ter.

6. Is work experience necessary or desired by good universities for Post Graduation courses?

That depends on the course you are planning to study. Intelligent Part-ners also helps to guide those students who do not have work experience or a high GPA towards well known colleges that do not require GMAT or work experience.

7. For students applying to online courses, how do you check the credibility of an e-course?

The college is very im-portant. There are some very well known estab-lished colleges who have

facilities to offer aca-demic support. A student should enrol with a rec-ognized college or uni-versity. Also check to see if the course you are plan-ning on studying is really good for your career.

8. Where can students register for international tests like TOEFL, IELTS and SAT?

For IELTS, registration is through the local ex-amination centre (British Council Dubai – www.britishcouncil.org/me-uae-ielts.htm). Details outlining the registration process and fee structure are available from their website. Students are ad-vised to register with the British Council as early as possible. You must reg-ister in person at least 5 weeks prior to the test

date.Students in Dubai opt-

ing for TOEFL, may elect to sit for the Internet-based test (IBT) which is offered at various branch-es. Further information is available from: www.toefl-registration.ets.org/TOEFLWebSAT

The College Board ad-ministers the SAT Reason-ing Test (Paper-Based) six times a year in Dubai. You can look for more details on the SAT Reasoning test and SAT Subject Tests from www.collegeboard.com.

With branches located in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, they can be easily contacted via their web-site http://www.intel-ligentgulf.com/ or their facebook page: www.fa-cebook.com/intelligent-partners

Illustr

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8 9June 2011

Watch Out For

10 11June 2011

Following foot steps ofTraveling Shoe Productionswith Ayesha A. Ali

10 11June 2011

Ivana glanced at the miniature Burj Al Arab and the surrounding sea before she leaped from the aircraft. “I’m crazy!” were her last words.

Leah Manasseh had been a pro-ducer at Al Jazeera for three years before founding Travelling Shoe Productions. The Lebanese born Canadian loves travelling to new places and capturing the surround-ing culture. She wanted to build a portal that would showcase a city’s food, events, places, restau-rants and enable residents to share their stories of the city. Travelling Shoe Productions was founded in late 2010 with their first project ‘My Dubai My City’. Leah hopes to expand the venture to other cities

once ‘My Dubai My City’ is up and running.

TSP recently held an informal party to celebrate the test-launch of their website and welcomed pre-senters and guests for a sneak peek at their hard work that had just gone online ‘www.mydubaimycity.com’ Videos shot were earlier avail-able only on facebook but are now available on their website. When asked why they chose the internet than cable, Leah made her point “Who watches TV anymore? Every-one uses the internet now”

TSP houses two crews which sep-arate from office towards their re-spective assignments. I went along with Sandra (producer), Ivana (pre-senter) and Sajith (cameraman) for

skydiving at Skydive Dubai. You would expect more enthusiasm from me while describing this trip, but honestly, the weather was con-spiring against us. We arrived at 11 am and Sajith set up his camera while Sandra attached the mic for Ivana and we were ready to go! But, the wind was against us.

Some Facts about Skydiving:Skydiving is dependent upon

the difference in wind pressure; when the difference in wind pres-sure is huge between the ground and more than 1000 ft above, sky-diving is not recommended since the landing won’t be safe. And did you know skydiving requires a li-cense? You need a certain number of jumps before you can achieve

Traveling Shoe Productions had to wait for three weeks before getting the right weather for a shoot at Skydive Dubai (photo by Ayesha A. Ali)

Watch Out For

12 13June 2011

license A, B and subsequently C. License C grants you the freedom for base jumping, which is the tech-nical terms for adrenalin junkies jumping off tower roofs (true Story) Any beginner would have to opt for tandem where an instructor is strapped to the skydiver.

Indoor shooting:So Sandra and Sajith decided to

shoot indoor scenes about Skydive Dubai and the registration proce-dure before the weather was pro-claimed safe. Ivana, a stewardess for Emirates Airlines had auditioned to become a freelance presenter for TSP. She had done skydiving before so she knew what to expect, how-ever, we didn’t. The indoor scenes were completed pretty quickly

which only made the wait appear longer. The crew waited until 1 pm, and instead rescheduled the trip to another Thursday. But how would we know the weather would defy us for another week.

Time had arrived for the third scheduled day and this had to be the one. We arrived early the third week and it so turned out, that third time was the charm! This time Leah was with the production crew and Sajith’s cousin Janath had joined the team as well. Ivana strapped her skydiving suit and paid attention to the instructions being delivered by the Skydive team. Meanwhile Sajith shot footage of Ivana on her way to the big yellow plane. No one was allowed inside the yellow plane

save for the skydiving team and the skydivers. For such situations, Sky-dive Dubai carried their own Canon cameras strapped around their hel-mets for recording the jump and everything the adventure that fol-lowed. Sandra and Leah took shel-ter under the wide umbrellas, while Sajith, Janath searched the sky for sign of any skydivers landing. Sky-dive Dubai cooperated with TSP by informing them when Ivana would be landing so they could shoot the end. Ivana was amazed by her sec-ond skydiving experience and only nervous right before making her jump.

And that was a wrap! The crew headed towards the studio for ed-iting the video. Sajith sat down for

Skydive Dubai team informed TSP of Ivana’s landing (photo by Ayesha A. Ali)

The cab to the yellow plane was the farthest TSP was allowed. (photo by Ayesha A. Ali)

12 13June 2011

post production which is the cru-cial part of the process. The long hours of footage are cut down to approximately five minutes. Al-though Sajith takes an hour to cut

down the video to approximately five minutes, Sandra steps in as Pro-ducer for granting the green signal. As soon as the video is ready, it’s uploaded and ready for viewing by

anyone! TSP are looking for editing and

post production interns Students interested can mail them at info@travellingshoeproduction.com

Leah ManessehFounder Loves traveling and meeting new people Sajith

Cameraman Energetic and optimistic

Sandra MergulhaoProducer,BB addict & social butterfly

MiloshPost production editorbelieves he’s superman :P

MEET THE CREW

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14 15June 2011

We’re work

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Psht! Why don’t you go and play some football kid?

“Young lead where nobody’s listening”Ali Mostafa, Ritesh Jeswani,

Mohammaed Ali and Seaon Shin are four names to watch. No, they do not belong to the list of middle-aged businessmen who are waiting to strike gold in this country; they are young people trying to make a name for them-selves based on their own talents.

Ali Mostafa is the director of the locally acclaimed movie City of Life; Ritesh Jeswani and Moham-med “Mali” Ali are founders of the online Campus Radio “infotain-ment” station; and Seaon Shin is the founder of GYEM (the Global Youth Empowerment Movement). Each of them has a vision and the will to follow through, but they are often unable to get the attention of the media. Their names have ap-peared a few times in the newspa-pers, but get lost in the frenzy of Paris Hilton sightings at Jumeirah Beach or news of the plans to shoot Mission Impossible: 4 in Dubai.

This is part of a larger trend. There are presumptions about young people here that are no dif-ferent than anywhere else: young adults are careless, impulsive, ir-responsible or thoughtless. But there are plenty of young people here that do not fit the mould.

Seaon, a 19-year-old Korean American, is one example of the power of focused youthful energy. “Service is the answer,” says Ms Shin, whose organisation recruits 15 to 25-year-olds to participate in community projects and generate a greater awareness of global issues.

“I thought that clubbing and partying with my friends would be the best time of my life, but I was mistaken,” she says. “The happiest moments of my life were the six months I spent working on GYEM.”

As a result, Graffiti-A-Tunnel for Hope was organised in October at Festival City, in which people used the wall as a canvas for their expres-

sion of the word “hope”. These kinds of initiatives, established by young people, support the same goals as organisations such as Al Noor: Cen-tre for Children with Special Needs and the Make-A-Wish foundation.

I have seen this commitment on the part of young people time and again. Recently a friend of mine in his last year of university, Anil Nair jr, was thrilled at the chance of making a promotional video for a student event. He shared the concept with me and began to outline a script the same day. He spent the next three weeks shooting a two-minute video.

But instead of being congratu-lated for his efforts, there were the usual questions: “Are they paying you? Are you getting something out of it?” People didn’t seem to un-derstand what his motives could be.

Elsewhere in the world, role models like Richard Branson or Bill Gates set examples of peo-ple who followed their dreams to success. When a student in the UAE is considering their fu-

ture, who can they look to?Too many students at UAE uni-

versities are planning to pursue higher education or careers outside of the region. “It’s a slow place,” one media student told me. “I’d rather do my master’s in the UK and get some good exposure there. I mean, what can you do here?”

It’s only natural that students question what their future could be in the UAE. Why not, when the success stories in local newspapers always cover 50-year-old tycoons and almost never young people?

Then again, so what if a 19-year-old wants to build a global youth community? So what if one direc-tor portrays the multicultural so-ciety of Dubai from multiple per-spectives? Why should the media pay attention to these individuals?

The truth is that it’s safe to stick to the beaten path, even if you end up just going around in cir-cles. The challenge is to embrace the new course that the youth represent. Whether the change is positive or not depends on how they harness their energy.

There are positive role models out there. But until they are rec-ognised by the media and com-munity, most students will re-main blissfully unaware and stay plugged into Facebook and their mobile phones all day instead of making their own mark on society.

By Ayesha A. Ali

It’s only natural that stu-dents question what their fu-ture could be in the UAE. Why not, when the success stories in local newspapers always cover 50-year-old tycoons and almost never young people?

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Out of the box

14 15June 2011

Fashion via twitter

This month Ayesha Akbar Ali introduces you to a some of the most amazing entrepreneurial youth who have launched their own businesses via social media

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Stay Ahead!

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Hana Al Suwaidi was one of the participants at the Young entrepre-neurs contest 2011, an annual com-petition held for high school and university students to market their business skills to the real world. Many participants had created so-cial media buzz for their brands on twitter and facebook, but as soon as YEC had closed, their buzz shut down too. Except for one, a fash-ion brand aptly titled ‘Royal Court’. Royal Court’s social media market-ing involved a twitter and facebook page to update people of the col-lection and a tumblr page to pro-vide images of the fashion designs.

At the age of ten, Hana’s mother acknowledged her talent with stitching and enrolled her for work-shops and art classes. Years later, she would suggest clothes and ac-cessories for her cousins and cus-tomize her clothes for her family and herself. The instant feedback on her customized abayas and dresses got her started on creating her own line of clothes ‘Royal Court’ “Initially, when people began ask-ing ‘where did you get that from?’ I’d tell them ‘Royal Court’ you can contact them at this address. Now my friends know I design them” The brand ‘Royal Court’ stems from her wish for fashion to be accessible by both the rich and the middle class.

Most of her clients included friends, family and relatives. But YEC exposed her to new people, some of whom have become her clients and continue to contact her even though the competition has ended. “YEC was a big help! It was the first real experience with cus-tomers and different from learning marketing in textbooks” Hana also learned how to handle custom-ers “Some were mean and had to be dealt with diplomatically, while others were very friendly”

Hana admits that interacting with people from different cultures has helped market her brand accord-ingly. Some of her clients are from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and even Hamburg. Most of them have been acquired by word-of-mouth recom-mendations by her friends. Client satisfaction grants her trust and a good reputation which grants her more customers (friends of clients) and consequently more orders. Cli-ents from the UAE contact Hana via email and mention their dimen-sions while Hana provides them with the available designs for selec-tion. The designs are ready within a week or at the most, three weeks and ready for delivery. Besides de-signing, she also provides personal advice to clients on their selections.

Hana is currently pursuing her

bachelor’s in finance at Dubai Wom-en’s College. She often receives the surprised look from her clients when they learn of her educational background “People consider fash-ion and finance a weird combina-tion, but it helped me balance my interest with a touch of business.” When asked about the role of so-cial media for her business, Hana replied “Social media is very impor-tant! It enabled casual interaction with my clients and also made me easily approachable”

Hana can be contacted ontwitter @RoyalCourtdxbwww.royal-court.tumblr.com/

16 17June 2011

made a new facebook page exclu-sively for her dreamcatchers and started advertising her business by uploading her collection, mention-ing the prices and available colors and sizes.

“There wasn’t much response the first two days, just likes on the pag-es. On the third day somehow I got about five orders through inbox messages and wall posts.” Eventu-ally, her marketing gained momen-tum. Meher recalls receiving more than 20 orders in just a month. “For

materials for contructing the dreamcatchers. “I still didn’t have enough resources and materials. Finally my parents were travel-ling to India and other places so by first week of October I had all my materials and then I began to make different designs and styles of dreamcatchers” She dis-cussed business schemes and other details with her family and close friends. On October 7th she

“I’ve always wanted a dream-catcher,” says Meher Goel nostal-gically. A student at Dubai Interna-tional Academy, she began making dreamcatchers during the summer of 2010. Yet who knew the tireless hobby would turn into an enter-prise? “I had read many books and sites about it and researched into the cultural, traditional aspects and how it started. I finally made one after 9 attempts! Even though it wasn’t perfect it was better than any of the other attempts.

So I made another one and then another. People who visited my house noticed them and within a week my family and friends were talking about how I could sell them,” but the whole conversa-tion was forgotten untill she post-ed pictures of it on her blog and there were many suggestions and compliments in only 10 minutes! That was when Meher decided to sell them. First, she required the

DREAMCATCHERS FOR GRABSBy Ayesha A. Ali

a lot of people, that might not be a big deal. But considering that I’m not the most knowledgeable per-son when it comes to business, I think it was a big step for me, also because I was trying something new for the first time and it worked out for me”

Meher currently appears busy juggling her IB school and enter-preneurial work. Catch some of her work at www.facebook.com/DreamcatchersbyMG

CStay Ahead!

All it took was a facebook fan page for Meher (supplied photos)

18 19June 2011

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The Birth of Campus RadioBy Ayesha Akbar Ali

Ritesh Jeswani and Muhammad ‘Mali’ Ali are two regular graduates working in the media and market-ing industry. Yet, they’re two names familiar with students around the U.A.E. Ritesh Jeswani and Mali are founders of Campus Radio, the on-line student radio that launched on April 9, 2009 during their final year at university and has gathered lis-teners from different parts of the world today.

Ritesh thought of the concept dur-ing his second year at university in 2009 but due to licensing expenses and restrictions, the idea was shot down many times. Opportunity struck in February 2010 when Mali got the green singal from Alexan-der McNabb to speak at Geek Talk at the Shelter in Al Quoz. Alexander McNabb organizes geek talks that grant anyone 30 min to talk about

innovative ideas. Ritesh said “The objective is to create thought lead-ership”

Ritesh and Mali decided on the name two hours before their geek talk session. It was on the stage that they announced April 1 as their launch date. “We had a month to launch! And they (the audience) were like ‘Oh! They’re launching on the first of April’ and that was it. We committed to launching on the first of April and it launched on the ninth of April. Since then Campus Radio ME hasn’t stopped”

Although the idea struck him in year 2 of university and material-ized in his final year, Ritesh had sufficient time to research on the concept, its potential and feasibil-ity. “Most online radios have a base-ment listenership of 8 listeners. So we never expected Campus Radio

to become this popular” CRME and its team enjoy enjoy an in-credible fan base owing to their social media presence.

What was a team of five students soon became twenty-three walk-ing in and out of his bedroom. Al-though it’s a complete voluntary position to work with them, the RJs enjoy the popularity and rec-ognition they receive from their peers and sometimes, strangers too.

When asked about how he bal-anced studies with Campus Radio in his final year, Ritesh comment-ed “You have NO idea how bad it was! The only time we stopped doing shows was two days before our final exams. We pre-recorded our shows so everyone (the team) could take time off for their stud-ies. I told them, ‘big deal, we hard-ly have listeners, take the day off’ But many of them don’t comply to the fact that exams are impor-tant”

Campus Radio is the joint ef-fort of Muhammad Ali and Ritesh Jeswani. They are very grateful to their team and the media atten-tion they’ve received. They plan to keep the online radio station alive and going even if they’re out of town.

18 19June 2011

Passion:

Starting your own business is ex-tremely hard work. If you are go-ing to pour your time and other resources into a business, it should be related to something you are passionate about…something you wake up every day and cannot wait to get back to. This deep connec-tion and interest in your work will prove vital as you weather the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur, and will essentially help you stick out the hard times when the easi-est solution seems to be giving up. As the saying goes, ‘If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life’

Serve a Gap In Market:

Passion is necessary, but is not al-ways enough. You must serve the needs and wants of your custom-ers, or create an ‘undiscovered’ need amongst them. As long as someone desires your product or service, you will always have a busi-ness. And do not be afraid of com-petition. Even if your business is not the only game in town, as long as you have a unique selling point, you will always be different from the rest.

TAKE.5 Business advice for start-ups by Nao Valentino

1 Know Your Audience: It is always helpful to know a lit-

tle bit about who will be listening to your presentation. This includes audience size, background, motiva-tion for attending your presenta-tion, etc. This information will not only help you prepare your materi-als, but will help you mentally pre-pare for the event and customize your presentation content to meet their informational needs or learn-ing preferences.

2Tell Them: After telling the audience what

you plan to present, make you point early and clearly. You may also want to reiterate the point an-other time as you summarize the presentation, to ensure that the message was clear. As the saying goes, ‘Tell them what you are going to tell them, TELL THEM, and then tell them what you told them’.

So the textbook says you need a business degree and the ortho-dox say you should be over 40 to start your own business. But we say It’s never too late to start early! When stu-dents like Hana, and Meher can, why can’t you? Afraid you don’t know where to start? Take our start-up ex-pert Nao Valentino’s advice and start draft-ing your ideas already!

HOW TO PRESENT YOUR IDEA.....................................................................It isn’t enough that you believe in them

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Do Your Research:

Make sure you research the com-petition, the industry, your target customers, etc.. Starting a busi-ness successfully requires a good understanding of everything from regulations, prices, consumer pref-erences, operations, etc. When conducting your research, seek out experts who can help you avoid common pitfalls and mistakes, and potential customers. You may be tempted to talk only to your friends and family…but do not limit your-self to these people! They love you and may not want to tell you what they really think about your prod-ucts or services! Seek out honest opinions from complete strangers!

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Mentors & Network:

Seek advice from experienced people who have travelled the same entrepreneurial journey. They can be industry experts, or simply people who can offer good sound advice. And do not forget to network! Business growth, stra-tegic partnerships, etc. are often the result of chance meetings and good networking skills.

You Don’t Always Need a fancy Shop at Dubai Mall:

Not every business requires a large retail location or fancy office space with video conference rooms and assistants. If you are retailing products, you can start with mobile booths at expos or consignment contracts with established shops. If you are a service firm, you can

often rent office space from busi-ness centers who will provide you with the shared services necessary to get started. There are several op

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Nao Valentino manages the Entrepreneurship Center at Dubai Women’s College. She works to promote entrepreneurship and create an optimal environment in which entrepreneurs can succeed in their commercial ventures.

3Know Your Material: Looking polished and prepared

for any presentation is a natural function of simply knowing your material inside and out. If you know what you are talking about, you will easily be able to address questions, recover from any slide malfunctions, or jump around in the presentation if time becomes an issue.

4Do Your Research: Statistics, anecdotes, and other

colorful evidence adds robustness, interest, and credibility to any pres-entation. Be sure to include rel-evant facts and figures that will aid in persuading your audience.

5Be Interactive: Employing interactive exercises

will aid in keeping your audience’s attention and will help them con-nect with the presentation. Posing questions, allowing questions, and taking short polls, etc. are all ways of getting your audience involved with your presentation and ensur-ing that your message is being re-ceived.

HOW TO PRESENT YOUR IDEA.....................................................................It isn’t enough that you believe in them

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Inside Arin J Das’ mind

Art Attack!

Artwork by Arin J. Das

22 23June 2011

Denim jackets:The immortal blue

denim jacket suits al-most everything you wear

White dress:Fashion outlets are stock-

ing on this pretty summer look! Catch this trend be-fore it’s old!

Gladiators:We love these brown pair of

suede gladiators since they aren’t only comfortable but are perfect for almost every occasion.

Wooden accessory:You’ll be seeing lots of big

chunky beaded accessories this summer!

Shalaka Walambe, fashion stylist at Forever 21 shares her predictions for what’s hot this summer.(Photo by Ayesha A. Ali)

Trend Watch

22 23June 2011

Organize your budget!By Ayesha A. Ali

How important is it to control those impulses to buy the latest Jane Norman dress or the long-awaited pair of original Ray Ban aviators? V.E.R.Y.

Regardless of your monthly budg-et, it’s a shock to see students strug-gling to manage their expenses. Most aren’t even aware of how to. regulate their expenditure.

As a student you’ll have various items to spend on (aka random stuff ) like music, movies, food, clothes, accessories, sports, gym, books (who can forget books?) Due to this very reason, it’s highly nec-essary to keep a track of your ex-penses before you notice your bal-ance running down to single digits.

You can follow some of the tips listed below:

1. Do NOT throw away bills before they’re a week old. You may discov-er damages on the item and before you can redeem the money, it’s too late!

2. Trust me, you DON’T need an-other pair of shoes (yes, this one’s for you girls) And if you’re iggling there boys, we suggest you stay away from the latest PS3 game. No, don’t even enter that section!

3. When shopping with friends, it can become embarassing when you’re short on cash. Instead pre-tend the stuff on sale doesn’t re-ally appeal to you “Nah! I’ve seen better!” or “This is SO last season!” Nothing dissolves monetary bank-ruptness better than a dash of pride.

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Finance

Illustration by Ayesha A. Ali

24 25June 2011

The moleskine way:

The tried, tested and reli-able way to manage your expenses: keep a record. Parents often keep a written journal of their weekly and monthly expenses, often called household budget. And there are some of those who struggle with this prac-tice owing to our rather in-dulgent ancestors. Never the less, writing your expenses and maintaining a definite amount for grocery, beauty, clothes, gadgets etc ALWAYS helps!

Organizer

You must have seen a couple of these whenever your dad arrived home with his company merchandise. We don’t really need to tell you what you should do with the organizer, but you might want to keep one of those color coded section for your expenses. Needless to say if you abide by this little book, recoding your expenses won’t be that hard.

The iWay:

Among the many cool stuff you can do with your Apple products, the App store also provides budgeting apps. We recommend the ‘My Student Budget Planner’ for starters and those addicted to gadgets. The app allows you to do evrerythng a moleskin would, but in digital style! You can fix your wages, allowances, your different ex-penses and the amount of mon-ey you’re willing to spend for different things. You can even set your budget as weekly or monthly. Seriously, how much easier can this get?

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Take a look at some of our suggestions to manage your expenses.They might just be the answer you’ve been searching for.

Finance

Photos by Ayesha A. Ali

24 25June 2011

The Wha?*Drumroll*

The RAKBANK Prepaid Master cards work like a credit card ex-cept, they aren’t tied to any bank account and are pre-loaded.

There’s gotta be a catch!

Well............there is a 10% deduction in the balance for every cash with-drawal.

Also, international purchases will re-sult in 2.5% deduction.

So it’s best to use the Prepaid card for purchasing products at a store or online.

How much does it cost?The card costs AED 25 which can be

picked up from the RAKBANK branch or you can request the card to be delivered via courier (but that’ll cost you an extra AED 15) So why not save that lunch money and get it from a RAKBANK branch?

Psht! Why should I get one?

Er.........because credit cards are a pain (Don’t get me started on the tonnes of articles pointing to credit card debt and secret charges)

So the Prepaid card is a hassle-free and straightforward version of the Credit card. Besides, why wouldn’t you want a card that resembles a starry night sky and the other, an abstract painting of the Amazon Jungle?

Bling Your Cash.....................Prepaid Style!Finance

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Bling Your Cash.....................Prepaid Style!

How Do i get one?Visit the nearest RAK-BANK branch to sign up the form.Remember to bring along your passport copy as they will need it

what’s so cool about it?The Prepaid card can be used for on-line transactions. So all you iPad fans out there, grab the latest Apple prod-uct for half the price directly from their online store.

How does it work?

Once you purchase the card from a RAKBANK branch, you can easily load cash. Later on, you can deposit money at any RAKBANK Electronic Deposit Machine or at select-ed money exchange centres (UAE Exchange, Al Fardan Exchange, Redha Al-Ansari Exchange, Wall Street Ex-change, Al Ansari Exchange, Sharaf Exchange and Al Ra-zouki Exchange.)

What if I’m below 18?Your parent or friend (who is above 18) can

purchase the card on your behalf. The same procedure applies. Let’s put on a convincing puppy dog face for that request shall we?

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26 27June 2011

THE MOST COVETED GADGET OF 2011

Bought an iPad? what next? Read Ayesha A. Ali’s review of the gadget and the wonderful apps in store for your interests!

28 29June 2011

What can we say about the iPad that hasn’t been said before? It’s portable, lighter than the laptop, includes the option of wifi and 3G, can be your portable portfolio where ever you go; it can be much more than that! Apple has always been successful in generating hype for their products. The iPod is technically just another mp3, yet it has become a genre of product on its own. The same goes for the iPad, which is quite like any other tablet, maybe even more limited (consid-ering the disabled flash player). Yet people queue for hours just to get their hands on the latest Apple ‘iProduct’. We were scouting for the latest iPad 2 as well, and it wasn’t until we got the frequent “Sold Out” reply that we realized the popularity of Apple products within Dubai.

When we were finally able to grab hold of one, it was sweet ol’ vic-tory in white reflecting our faces!

However, the next question was: what do we use it for? We pur-chased the iPad 2 model with 64GB storage capacity and wifi ena-bled, but what could it possibly do? What awesome features did it behold that would make us want to ditch our laptops? So we tried asking other students what they used it for. Much to our surprise they had the same initial reaction too. One of them had purchased the first iPad and found it useless (lack of Microsoft Office programs) and a nuisance to carry around along with her laptop. We should add that the Apple Apps store does have their own version of word, Power-Point, excel etc, but at a cost.

So instead of fooling around with the iPad, we did our own research and found some really cool apps for you guys! (These apps are also available for the iPod Touch and the iPhone)

We’ve also classified some Apps based on your interests. A word of advice, some of them are paid so you might want to consider getting the RAKBANK prepaid card for online payments (turn to page for details)

Geek Talk

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Idea Sketch:Ever had too many ideas for a

project but had a tough time or-ganising them? Try ‘Idea Sketch’! This app allows you to create ti-tles in the form of boxes and lat-er link them however you want. You don’t have to fill pages after pages with the structure, func-tions, team structure etc All you need to do, is create as many ti-tles as you want, and later link them to their parent titles. The screen can be zoomed out as much as you want, so your entire project’s structure is available on one platform. You can even in-clude notes in separate boxes.

InClass:Not only does this app keep track

of your subjects, but also gives space for your projects, assign-ments, your professors contact de-tails. Your subjects can be arranged per semester, as you can create multiple semester entries and han-dle your subjects accordingly. But these features are already available in other apps, and probably with more colours. Yet, the best part of this app is that you can also note down your lectures, and record them. Yes, we’re not bluffing, it’s been tried and tested. Think you’re too tired to pay attention in class? Just hit the record button and this little app will do the trick! You can later tag the recorded session and typed notes to a subject and it gets stored according to the date and time. And it’s free! So like it, love it and live by it!

OUR WINNER! Top 5 iPad Apps

Geek Talk

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Zite:University students: this one is

‘purrfect’ for you! Want to stay up-dated on the latest trends in your course of study? This is like your own customized magazine where you get to decide what you want to read. Forget front page articles where you skim through the head-lines and the regional news where you hardly read three paragraphs (if it’s not a scandal). This app com-bines your interests into sections and gathers the top news of those articles in a front page format. You can select topics of interest and it will automatically build the maga-zine for you. As you read, you can choose to see more stories of a similar interest, or a news source, and share those stories on your various social media profiles. Now how cool is that!

Sketchbook is one of the graphic designing apps avail-able, but we would suggest you to buy a suitable stylus for drawing before using the iPad as a graphic tablet. Adobe has also designed photoshop and illustrator for the iPad (paid apps) so you might want to try them too, but they’re nowhere near as perfect as the PC/Mac based Photoshop and Illustra-tor programs.

Flex TeamRunning around in suits

for meetings and interviews can get exhausting and even messy if you don’t organize your time well. Check out flex team, a 9-to-5 scheduler built for the business mind in you. The full version is paid so you might have to sacrifice some of your pocket money. But come on! Time is money re-member? And if nothing else, Apple’s iCal is pretty good enough to handle all your tasks and set your weekly classes or meetings in motion. (but it ain’t as colorful as Flex-Team!)

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32 33June 2011

Tired of the same ol’ same ol’?Try something more adventurous this summer!Dubai Autodrome doesn’t just give you space for go karting, you can test drive the new Audi R8 and the Porsche for an incredible price! Log onto www.dubaiautodrome.com for more information and register your friends for an adrenalin pumping ad-venture this summer!

F1 racing at Dubai Autodrome is truly a dare (Photo by Ayesha A. Ali)

32 33June 2011

GYEM Night for Japan....

Youth got together at the GYEM center for a night dedicated to the disaster in Japan. Some came forward to share personal experi-ences of diasters while Hamza Arif, Arin Das, Mukesh Chand-wani, Moustafa Gabriel, Moham-mad Hamdan, Nehad Khan, Mehrnoosh Jafarzadeh and Islam Darwish, Maryam Raakhani or-ganised a play and recited origi-nal poetry.

Recipedxb dropped a surprise appearance for the last act of the evening. The Dubai-based band known for their local content were one of the opening perfor-mances for Snoop Dogg’s concert at Yas Island. Unlike charity drives and donation funds, GYEM night for Japan resulted in many en-couraging notes for the Japanese disaster.

-Ayesha Akbar Ali

Gallery

34 35June 2011

The wall of encouraging notes written by youth (photo by Ayesha A. Ali)

34 35June 2011

Superheroes by Hayon Shin (Photo by Ayesha A. Ali)

Ayesha Akbar AliTel: 97150 181 3848Email: finalpatrol@gmail.comExam Roll No.: 0802005B.A. Media and Communication