Triumphing over 14,800 nominees and 140 other countries, Malaysia born, Sydney Engelbert from Sabah has just been named the World's Best Educator by Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards!

  
Sydney, a teacher from Keningau Vocational College began teaching in 2019, where she discovered how to use a variety of language arts exercises to handle her students' limited proficiency. 

"I am grateful and speechless. For starters, I never would have thought to be selected as the regional winner as other nominees were all amazing and I am truly honoured to be nominated amongst them. Yet, the overwhelming support that I have from my family, friends, colleagues and my students made me realise that I am not alone in this often challenging journey," said Sydney, quoted through the Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards website.

Sydney's passion in teaching stemmed from her parents as they both were teachers themselves and she grew up witnessing how many lives they touched and inspired throughout their careers. 

  
Following her parents footsteps, in 2022, Sydney co-founded a three-month-long online exchange class programme with a number of vocational schools in Southeast Asia.

The programme has directly benefited 50 educators and close to 400 students from the participating schools in just two years.

Sydney Engelbert follows Khalifa Affnan, who took home the coveted prize in 2022, becoming the second Malaysian to be granted this award.