Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) announced that nine of the best marketing students from colleges and universities in the Mena and the United Kingdom have been selected to this year’s edition of the award-winning apprenticeship programme.

The programme is DSS' highly successful internship for Business Administration & Marketing students. 

Students from participating universities have been busy for weeks going through the selection process, which included an essay writing component asking for bold and bright ideas as to how to make the summer event bigger and better for the 2009 edition, said a DSS official.

A special jury comprising key management from Dubai Shopping Festival Office - organizers of DSS in addition to marketing professionals evaluated the applications, selecting one winner from each country.

After a competitive qualifying process, organisers confirmed the third batch of DSS apprentices are: Rana Al Amoudi (Effat College, Saudi Arabia); Stuart Dalmedo, (Kingston University, United Kingdom); Hani Dalloul (Qatar University); Hasna Sultan, (Modern College for Business & Science) Oman; Violla Bader (American University in Kuwait); Mazen Salameh (Lebanese American University); Abed Al Nasser Dahbour (Petra University) Jordan; Hadia Saraya (American University in Cairo), Egypt and Sana Hmoud, (Ahlia University), Bahrain.

“Congratulations to the students on their achievement and hard work. Our deliberations were intensive and gruelling, owing to the excellent pool of candidates that were nominated this year," said Laila Suhail, CEO, Dubai Shopping Festival Office.

"Winners selected therefore must be the best and brightest among the rest, and we’re excited to show them the ropes in organizing a big event such as DSS," she observed.
 
This year’s edition has for the first time expanded its reach beyond the Mena region, to include the UK – a testament to how the programme has grown in the last two years; and how successful it has become as a platform for meaningful education and training young talent in the fields of marketing, business administration and events management, she added.

The rogramme was a key factor in jury’s decision at the 2008 IPRA Golden World Awards held recently in London to give the Travel & Tourism Excellence Award to the Dubai Shopping Festival Office. 

From just four universities in two countries in 2006, the pogramme now covers more than thirty educational institutions in nine markets.

Each of the nine interns were asked to write an essay on how they can make DSS better next year.

In her winning essay, Rana from KSA said: “I would use the Internet as a key vehicle to drive higher traffic to DSS and ensure that a wider audience base is reached through this growing and extremely powerful tool.”

Stuart from the United Kingdom said: “I would add a Music Surprises Week to ensure that global celebrities including Bon Jovi, Abba, and Phil Collins among others are present during the summer spectacle truly enforcing its position as a global event. I would also use the period from January to April to promote and market the extravaganza globally by having a dedicated team tour key European and Asian markets highlighting DSS further.”

Along the same lines, Violla from Kuwait suggested: “I would invite the best of international performers and celebrities to participate in the summer spectacle giving DSS an even wider global exposure and angle.”

She would also like to add another week, saying “I would further add Animal Week, as part of the surprises which would serve to educate the public on the various types of species available in our region proving to be educational, yet entertaining at the same time.”

Meanwhile, Hasna from Oman said, “I would ensure that more activities are created which revolve around the bonding of children and families in a