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Proving that Communication is Power

Written by Christine Chan

Dalveen Isabel Kaur has done a lot. This Senior Consultant Public Relations Executive at Essence Communications has been the winner of the Miss Malaysia India Eco Beauty 2007 title and the runner up for Miss Malaysia India Global of the same year, and is well experienced in the field of public relations in the country. Christine Chan finds out more about what inspires this 25-year old alumna of Limkokwing University.

A quote from Oprah Winfrey – “I think that being able to communicate with people is power” – hangs on the wall of Dalveen Isabel Kaur’s office. It is a quote that well describes Dalveen just as much as it drives her.

Dalveen impressed audience and jury alike when she took the stage and declared that “Religion is the backbone of someone’s life while culture can be used to forge unity” at the Miss Malaysia India Global 2007 beauty pageant.

The question she was responding to, “Which has a greater influence in one’s life, culture or religion?” was the question that won her the place of second runner up in the competition.

Breaking the stereotype of beauty queens being vapid, Dalveen scored another title at the same pageant, Miss Malaysia India Eco Beauty. Dalveen outshone all her other contestants due to her outstanding knowledge of the ecology in Malaysia, when she was required to take an eco-knowledge test right in the middle of the forest, alone!

“The competition was a life-changing experience,” she confessed. Winning jewelry worth up to RM 2000 from Poh Kong Jewellers, a hand-woven Persian Carpet worth RM 2000 from Astana Persian Carpet and a scholarship for law studies at Advance Tertiary College (ATC), Dalveen contributed the law scholarship to under-privileged students who are in need of funding for their education.

She is very frank about the factor that differentiated her from all the other contestants. “I love talking and mingling, and I see myself as a communicator,” she explained, hinting that her winning card lay in her ability to communicate eloquently to the jury.

My time in Limkokwing University strengthened my confidence in myself and my capabilities; it was my pillar and my foundation

Dalveen, who is currently working as a Senior Consultant Public Relations Executive in Essence Communications, knows how important the ability to communicate is to life – in fact, it is her bread and butter. Her job, which includes client management, branding, consultation, and crisis management, requires her not only to communicate well with her clients, but to communicate to the public and the mass media on behalf of her client.

It is a challenging line of work that demands quick thinking and a gift of the gab. Dalveen, whose resume in the public relations industry includes the Hill and Knowlton Public Relations Agency and Avec Communications, began her journey in the industry as a placement executive in Limkokwing University of Creative Technology’s Next Generation department.

“The university is a place that made me discover creativity and self-expression, and the mix of cultures made me more independent and mature in my way of thinking. My time in Limkokwing University strengthened my confidence in myself and my capabilities; it was my pillar and my foundation,” Dalveen expressed.

“The lecturers are all experienced and set a benchmark for excellent teaching. I have to thank one of my many lecturers who inspired me, Mr. Bong, who taught me presentation skills and to stand tall on stage and speak up in confidence.”

Dalveen believes that more than just empowering individuals to think creatively and expose themselves to different peoples and cultures from around the world, the industrial training component that is present in almost all of Limkokwing University’s programmes is essential for the student who wishes to pursue a profession in public relations.

“Students have to take it seriously even though at first many may feel reluctant to go through it, because industrial training is indeed the eye-opener in your transformation from student to professional,” she said.

Students have to take it seriously even though at first many may feel reluctant to go through it, because industrial training is indeed the eye-opener in your transformation from student to professional

The public relations industry in Malaysia is, according to Dalveen, a good industry to bank one’s future on. “It is growing rapidly because everyone, from big corporations to even smaller businesses, is now realizing the value and necessity of public relations.”

“Public relations have been around in the United States and Australia for more than twenty years and is now blossoming in Malaysia as more and more companies today need public relations to manage the relationship with their clients and to assist in internal communication,” she explained, “But if you plan to enter the industry, do not join just because you think it’s going to be glamorous.”

You need to know your clients very well and if you have to provide solutions for them, say for a crisis, you need to keep thinking out of the box

“It is a very demanding job that requires you to always be on your feet while you get used to churning out press releases all the time. You need to know your clients very well and if you have to provide solutions for them, say for a crisis, you need to keep thinking out of the box.”

But does Dalveen have any advice for those who wish to follow her footsteps in another direction – that of winning beauty pageants? In fact she does, as she explains, that people entering beauty pageants should not have too high hopes on winning or becoming famous.

“Not everyone who is going to go on stage will end up being noticed while live on air, so don’t think of it as a competition that you have to win. Instead, take it as an experience of a lifetime meant to be enjoyed.”

Perhaps her personal regimen and hobbies might be worth adopting, too: Dalveen wakes up as early as 6 am to go to the gym and exercise four times a week, and spends whatever free time she can get reading. Although some of her top reading material are novels like Cecelia Ahern’s P.S. I Love You, Dalveen also highly recommends non-fiction books that promote self-empowerment such as those of Osho, a professor of philosophy in India, whose books include titles like Walk without Feet, Fly without Wings, Think without Mind and Osho on Zen, as well as Barbara Taylor Bradford’s The Power of a Woman.

Believing that ‘everyone is equally important’, that living for the present is a definition of success, and that one must learn to love oneself before one can love others; it is small surprise that she is labeled as a person who is simply bubbling with positive energy by her colleagues. Dalveen closes our interview with an anecdote that she has of her years prior to enrolling in Limkokwing University.

Born in the month of February under the star sign Aquarius, Dalveen fully believes that her star sign is one that is inspired with creativity.

“That’s what I told my dad to further persuade him to enroll me in Limkokwing University. I told him – that’s where I have to be, it’s written in the stars!”