Reflection By Big Boss

Name: BOON ZHEN HERN
Matrix Number: SIB150004

Finally it's my turn to write reflection about this Social Engagement course offered by University of Malaya (actually not, everyone is compulsory to take this course). I am Boon Zhen Hern, SIB150004, first year Materials Science student, known as  faci Boon or Big Boss in this course.

This is me, ugly me which is being squeezed, polished, crushed by the pressure and stress in order to shine brightly in this world. Stay tuned.

At first, I know this course since the second week of semester 1, middle of September 2015. I am a guy who like to plan everything beforehand (but carry out or not is another thing lah) so when I get the program handbook from Faculty of Science in , I actually look through all parts of it and at that time I finally have the time to sit down and do the things I want. The first time I look at this course, I was like "what's with this course, what am i going to do in this course?" I was full of question marks in my head, so in some coincident occasion I have the chance to know more about this course by PM (facilitator of MHS) in my KK. He told me that this course is about engaging the social like some volunteering works. My first impression was like "Ewww my god I hate volunteering work the most, why we need to take this course........" but then he told me that when he was doing this course he went back to his secondary school and held a 2-days camp there. I became so excited like "WOW, I can finally held camp by my own without the help of seniors or adults in the committee" because i enjoy being a facilitator but I just didn't have the chance to do that in previous time of my life. 

After the first meeting, I was told by the coordinator of this course from Physics department, Dr. Selvi that we were going to carry out this course in big group so the department is separated into two groups, which is one Physics group and one Materials Science group and I was in the Materials Science group with my coursemates and some of the Physics friends join us too to balance the number of members in the two groups. I feel that it is good compared to groups with 5 or 6 members each because we are all carry out the same project and work together and this will enhance our relationship and the bonding between us coursemates will be stronger and this will be useful in the future where all of us graduated and we will still be contacting each other even though the status of coursemate is gone but with that we become friends, good friends. If the grouping is as the latter case, only some of the coursemates will have greater bonding than others and there will be "gang" among the coursemates and the relationship between coursemates will not be so close and so good. 

After few meetings with our coordinator and meetings among our group members, we have a few plans in our mind. Firstly is the Malaysian Blind Association, second is another school in KL area and third is MRSM Pendang which is the plan that we carry out at last since the for the first two plan the authorities are still pending so we just carry on with the third plan. From that I was given the position of Head of Programme Bureau and some members in the bureau. And since then I start the planning of programme of the 2-days camp in MRSM Pendang. I have so many porblems during the preparations but luckily all the members are so helpful and my problems were solved easily. During the preparation of tentative for the camp, I was not on the track because at that time I have dance practice everyday after class and I was sick. And this had made the submission of proposal to MRSM late. I felt terribly sorry and I quickly completed it and sent to our secretary to compile the proposal. From this I found that I am not resourceful that I didn't request help from the member of program bureau. One of the workshop day I was overslept due to sickness and I am late. Other member actually waited me for the tentative and all the program things for almost 4 hours, but they also did helped me by arranging the faci for each group and the station game flow. Thank you for that.

Few days before the camp were workshops for us to get to know the flow of the camp, all the details of activities and the dances. The attendance were not so good but we carried on anyhow since all members have their own other activities to do. Luckily some of the members are so good and so supportive. On the day where we should depart to MRSM, we gather at the bus stop in UM and loaded our things onto the bus and depart. We reached there a lot earlier that what I expected. We reached the homestay and that night we gathered and have a last briefing for the members to refresh about the activities for the next day. Initially, what they say was some of us can go to MRSM on that night for the "surveying" of the place for activities, but due to some reason (I also don't know what is the reason) we didn't managed to go there.

On the first day of the camp, we reached MRSM early in the morning and I started to look for all the positions of the stations and games while the rest of the members were preparing for the registration of the students (campers). After the registration is the opening ceremony and Ice-Breaking session. During Ice-Breaking session, I was paired up with Sue (Faci Dinda) and we were in group 3. She did a great job handling the group and every camper in the group started to join in sportingly, except one who was more shy than others. His name is Boon, which is surprisingly same as mine, and that is the reason why I change my name to Big Boss for my group. I found that he was totally me when I was in Form 2, I can see that his personality is exactly same as mine. In Form 2, I was very shy and I didn't like these kinds of activity at all, that's why I didn't join any uniform bodies when I am in secondary school. He was shy, quiet and didn't give much respond to the question we asked to the group, but his voice is loud so we gave him the position as commander for the group cheers. After that was LDK(Activitiy in group) session 1, in which we do 2 questions of transferring water that relates to math ability and critical thinking. Surprisingly, all of the campers in my group are so active and they wanted to solve the questions, and then 2 of the campers were surprisingly clever and they even completed the questions in one shot which the questions had me 30 minutes to solve them and then we played some UM Traditional Games (logic game), the same guys which solved the questions got the logic after a short while, in which I only get to understand the logic after 2 hours of thinking the question repeatedly. From that i know that even a Form 2 student have clearer mind than me. It doesn't mean that you are a university student you will sure smarter or cleverer. The world is big and there are unlimited possibility out there, so I should never stop learning and gaining new knowledge to prevent get rid by the fast pace of the change of the society in this modernized era. After lunch was station game, there are 9 stations and the members in charge, I was the general manager of the station game. During the game, some of the station master release the students too early and the time of each station became not synchronized and the flow of the game became so blurred. There was one group that went to the wrong station but the station master still let them carry out the task, in which leaded to the last group on the same station with no chance to carry out the task. I feel that it's my fault since I planned the flow and I didn't made a backup plan for such case.

That night was talent night, each of the group are given a topic to perform and 40 minutes to prepare for the performance. At that time, I can see the teamwork showed in most of the groups in preparation. There are one group that make me notice them, they were playing around with the props they did for the performance and not preparing at all during that time, but when performing, they WOW-ed me, the performance was so flawless that didn't seemed like unprepared. I, again are so amazed that such potential in a group of Form 2 students. Wow, simply wow.

The second day of the camp started with senamrobik session in the morning, but I was not able to join them because I found that the props for The Grand Chase game is not enough so I prepared all of them. This made the program delayed a little but it was still on time to be finished and I forgot to have my breakfast that day! The Grand Chase game had 2 parts, one was real part, doing real job and get less money, and another one was fake part, doing fake job and get easy money but the money won't be calculated in the final result. From there I can see some of the students were doing fake jobs because they wanted the money but some of them are just curious about the job like robbery and smuggling. After some time, they know what it was and they stopped doing that. One of the groups actually reject my offer for them to scold one of the faci for RM100, because they said that it was not good to scold people. One time I throw a lot of money from the second floor for the students to pick up, they indeed picked them up, but they gave back to me and said "Faci you drop something," because of that i gave them real money while the money i throw is fake money. I found that Form 2 students are still quite "naive" and their mind are still not polluted by the reality of this world yet. The Grand Chase was meant to teach them about that but I don't think they get much message from the game, they just enjoyed the process of the game. At that age, I would also be like that, I just want to have fun and don't want to have any pressure in my life. But when I am more adult and adult, I found that there are many aspects that I can't overlook. I can't be just like a child and just want to have fun already. I have reached the age for me to actually grow up and have responsibility toward other peoples, family, friends and the society.

Ok,done with the camp part, now it's real part. Actually, I am not the kind that like to do volunteer work like cleaning up orphanage, community service at old folks home, yes most of us teenagers do not like volunteering work, but what I like is this kind of social work in which I get to plan and carry out my plans in the form of education or motivation thingy. Before the camp I was not so close with all the coursemates and I don't know how to approach them to become closer, but after the social engagement project which have us travel 7 hours and spend 3 days together to give education, motivation or inspire the aspire as what our project theme is. The project is meant to inspire and educate the MRSM Form 2 student of what we could teach them. I know we are only just first year university student and we are only 20 or 21 years old, there are still a hell long route to go through and to experience, but we are doing this as what we have and what we could give to them, the society, which is the meaning of social engagement. We are not as rich as millionaire, but we are giving what we could give, even though it is not in terms of money, we are not as knowledgeable as PhD's and Masters, but we are telling them about what we know, even though that may not be so useful, we are not as experienced as the adult out there, but this is what we know and we went through and we are giving them guidance to it, even though that is not enough for them. For example, Physics. They actually learnt the main branch of science, which is Physics and Biology as chemistry is not emphasized in education until Form 4, but when we tell them about Physics, they look at us like "what are they talking about?" Maybe some of them know about physics, but most of the Form 2 students, including me when I was that age, wouldn't know about the difference between physics, chemistry and biology. What we do in this camp is that we actually exposed to them about the difference between branches of science and this will, maybe, have them to think of their future. Whether they choose Physics as their future subject to further study, that is not the thing that we can control since everyone have their own interests, or else the world will not be as diverse as now. I also feel that the objective of social engagement is not archieved by 100% but at least we do our part, that is educating those Form 2 students about higher educations in Malaysia. And this is what they need, and what they will need it in their future. I learnt many things in this social engagement, including first time being a facilitator and Head of program bureau and I realize that it is not easy to handle an event even though it is small event, as there will be external factor that will affect the smoothness of flow. 

The most important is that we survived and we will be surviving the rest of our live and shine bright like a diamond with all the pressure and stress in this hectic university life. Without those pressure and stress, we are just not more than a black, ugly carbon that this realistic world wouldn't appreciate.

“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day."
― Albert Einstein

REFLECTION

NURUL SYAHIRAH BINTI JAFFRIL
SIB150043

           My first volunteering that I had made was in UM where my college held a running marathon here around UM compound. I was one of the crews who in charge of the runners’ welfare which was a big deal to me because I never have the experienced of treating any injuries before. Next in my list was becoming a facilitator which was organized by my seniors in the physics department. Hence, when UM include a social engagement as one of our university courses, I become more interested to do more volunteering works which could of course engagement me with the society. 

           We choose to do this ‘Inspire The Aspire’ program at MRSM Pendang, Kedah and becoming facilitators to form 2 students. It was a wide open opportunity for us to handle and do the planning of the program. Although some of us were quite busy with other commitments, we were still managed to do the preparations through a lots of workshops.

            The day the program started I had already felt that we were lucky to be the first UM students to held a social engagement at  MRSM Pendang because from the form 2 students excitements and anticipations including the teachers and counselors. A major part of us had never experienced as facilitators and I was grateful that I can share my experience that I gained before with them. While I was being in charge of taking the pictures during the whole program, I was glad that I found out that my friends were also having as much fun as the students did.

             Throughout this program, I also gained a new experience which was taking the lead for the senamrobik sessions. I learnt to be more confidence when I was stepping out of everyone. I was not the type of person who was familiar holding the microphone. Lucky I was also given the opportunity to speak up in front of the students and managed to give them some clear explanations and briefings.

              Being the person who was in charge of taking the pictures was not a simple task. I had to carry the DSLR and also a phone as a backup to take as much pictures of them as possible because for me every moments were precious. Yet, I did have fun being the photographer too because I can see the excitement of the students and my friends were having the whole moments during the entire program.

             ‘Inspire The Aspire’ did end, but I believed my friends also agreed with me that besides improving in our soft skills, the most gainful thing from this program was our bonding. May our friendship last forever. #RoadToDegree 

REFLECTION

SAMIHAH SALWA BINTI MD NOR

SIB150047

Social Engagement is a compulsory course in semester two. I understand that the purpose of this course is to encourage university students to engage with the society. I still looking forward to this course as it was an opportunity for me to step out from my comfort zone and engage the society as I had been taught to do good, to be generous and willing to share.

Before the program

 After several meeting and discussion among us, we had decided to choose MRSM Pendang, Kedah as our destination for this project. We also had divide into two groups which is unit program and unit technical and logistic. I am in unit technical and logistic. A week before the event, we had workshop during weekend and weekday at night. We need to learn all the cheer and steps for aerobics. We also had being briefing about the flow of the program. During the workshop, I realize that cooperation among the member is important to do the task.

First day

I need to prepared the public address system (PA system) at the hall of the MRSM. I have problem during the setup of PA system because of the projector and the microphone did not work. Fortunately, there are senior student from the MRSM Pendang help me setup the projector and microphone. The open ceremony of the Inspire The Aspire program had been smoothly. I have been paired with Tang Chang Hwa. Our group name is Mighty Teens. I have learns a lot of things during the LDK1 such as I have gain my leadership in assisting with them. Student in MRSM Pendang is very intelligent and creative.

Mighty Teens

The last day

 In the morning , we have aerobics for the students but I cannot join the aerobics because I need to control the volume of the songs . Unfortunately, during the LDK2 I also cannot join my group because I have to make video for closing ceremony.

I have learn a lot of things during this program such as each person need to cooperate with each other and give commitment to make this project success. Besides, I have gain my leadership skills and confident. I have a lot of fun during the program and I enjoy it. I think the social engagement course is important to university student because it teach us a lot of things such as cooperation, discipline and hard work. I hope in the future I will get more opportunity to join more projects like this.

Last but not least, I would like to say thank you to MRSM Pendang because provide us food and place to stay. Thank you also to our instructor for this social engagement course, DR. Selvi for helping and give advice to us.

 Thank you everyone that involved in this project. Without you this project will never happen.

Refleksi

Pertama sekali, saya ingin berterima kasih kepada pihak universiti untuk menawarkan kursus Jalinan Masyarakat (Sosial Engagement) kepada semua mahasiswa di Universiti Malaya. Pada permulaannya, walaupun jam kredit kursus saya sudah penuh tetapi untuk mengambil kursus ini saya sanggup meminta lebihan jam kredit untuk mendapatkan kursus ini.

Setelah beberapa perjumpaan dan perbincangan, saya dan rakan-rakan saya mengambil keputusan untuk mengadakan Kem "Inspire The Aspire" di MRSM Pendang, Kedah. Kami perlu menghadiri banyak bengkel untuk berlatih tarian dan sorak semangak serta berbincang tentang aktiviti yang akan dijalankan di sana.

Semasa berada di kem tersebut, kami ditugaskan sebagai fasilitator kem. Kami menjalankan banyak aktiviti seperti yang dirancangkan sebelum ini seperti latihan dalam kumpulan (LDK), senamrobik, station games, grand chase, talent night, menari dan pertandingan sorak semangat. Semua aktiviti dijalankan dengan lancar. Semua pelajar berasa sangat gembira untuk menyertai kem tersebut kerana mereka mengatakan aktiviti-aktiviti yang dijalankan itu seronok dan memberi pengajaran kepada mereka. Saya sangat menikmati kem ini kerana inilah pertama kali saya menjadi fasilitator kem. Saya dan rakan-rakan saya berasa seronok menjadi fasilitator kem walaupun jadi seorang fasilitator bukan kerja yang senang.

Setelah menjayakan kem ini, saya didapati bahawa kursus Jalinan Masyarakat ini amat penting kepada kita kerana kursus ini memberi banyak pengajaran kepada kita seperti kerjasama antara satu sama lain, mempunyai keberanian, mempunyai keyakinan diri, serta sikap bertanggungjawab sebagai ketua atau fasilitator.  Bukan kami sahaja yang mempelajari pengajaran ini malah peserta kem juga. Tambahan pula, kursus ini juga mengajar kita tidak boleh cuma belajar sahaja dari pagi sampai malam malah kita juga harus menyumbang kepada masyarakat apa yang kita pelajari.

Akhir sekali saya ingin mengucapkan ribuan terima kasih kepada rakan-rakan saya, pensyarah kami iaitu Dr Selvi, dan pelajar-pelajar MRSM sebab kem ini tidak dapat dijalankan tanpa mereka. :-)

Ong Gerard ( Fasi Gerard )

SIB150044

Mohd Zainol Ariffin Bin Khairuddin

SIB 150024

When I first realized that this social engagement program is only offered in the second semester of every year, it was a no brainer for me to register for this course, as I was able to do it with my material science course mates instead of my juniors in the second year. However, things were still ambiguous for me during the early stage of the semester about this course until the first meeting with Dr Selvi. After the briefing session, my sense of anxiety developed looking at the general structure of this course which required us almost 40-hour-work of social engagement. I knew that this was not going to be an easy job to be done.

This was later proved by multiple obstacles that we faced, before this program came into reality. One of the biggest challenges was to find and confirm the location of where this program was going to be held. We had a few suggestions and finally we all agreed to run the program in MRSM Pendang, Kedah thanks especially to our leader, Izzati and her team, who worked tirelessly trying to convince the MRSM side to allow this to happen. In fact, the approval by the Principal of the school was only obtained at the last minute of time. We also faced limitation of time to prepare for the programs as we only had one week to practice. We only managed to have a few workshop sessions together to learn about the programs’ tentative. Other than that, we also had problems in term of financial as we had to figure out the cheapest price for other bus transportation as UM buses fare was way too expensive. We also needed to take into account the cost of all the things that were going to be used throughout the program. Luckily, the MRSM side was generous enough to sponsor us with accommodation and food which greatly eased off our financial burden.

I learnt a lot of things during this program. First, I learnt how to cooperate with my other course mates. Even though we come from different races, religion, and backgrounds, we were able to find common interest among ourselves in order to make this program successful. Second, as a facilitator, I was able to train myself how to conduct a group of students who had different kinds of personalities, something of which I had never experienced before. Through this program, it also taught me to overcome my shyness feeling through the activities that we did such as dancing, singing, exercising etc. Last but not least, during the program, as a person who is older than the students, I got to exchange advice and tips for them how to deal with their problems based on my experience. This sharing session really brought me and the students closer. Even the shy students started to engage more when I approached them in the right manner.

Every meeting has an end.  For me, at the end of the day, this course is about the society and has made me ponder about my role as a university student. Before this, I was not really care about social engagement program, but after doing it, it quickly strikes my mind that I have my own responsibility towards the society out there. Not all individuals are as lucky as me to enter university. There might be a lot out there who have superior intellectual than I am. So, right now, I think as a university student, try to learn as much as valuable skills as we can and teach the unfortunate ones out there so that they would be able to make their own living and hopefully able to send their sons or daughters in the university one day.” If we feed a man with a fish, we make him full for that day, but if we teach him how to fish, he will never be in hunger again.” Thank you.

Reflection Poy Sze Yun SIB150046

First of all I'm very happy to attend this course in university Malaya..if we didn't have social engagement I couldn't have a chance to go so far with all of my course mate. So I really appreciate it !! Thanks to all of us. Our hard work paid. We had done a successful program. Especially thanks to Dr Selvi and Dr Goh for coming to give a talk to MRSM students. They benefit a lots.

Before that, I realize that kedah is a great place. I have around 8 friends from Kedah and all of them are very nice. Undeniable those people from kedah are really good and friendly. When we do not have place to stay, MRSM rent three home stay for us!! And they even provide us free food. Those food are sumptuous. We depart from um around 3pm. We take around 7 hours to reach there. We are tired but excited when we reach the home stay ! They give us a warm welcome~ really feel that kind of warmness. During the programme, I was paired up with Suh Shyan to become the facilitator for group 12 (team black ace). Sound of laughter and joy is always there in our group as I always tried my best to maintain the atmosphere at its peak condition. During the group task, I found out that the students are actually very independent. They don't really rely on us or hoping for any hint from us for the group mission despite the difficulties that they met. They always tried to face the problems and challenges as a team, opinions are always been shared and voiced out in the group before they actually came up with a decision. The teamwork spirit shown in the students is something I'm really amazed and admired. Another touching moment during the programme is that the students actually voiced out actively about what have they learnt when the question is being asked by our course advisor, Dr.Selvi. From the moment, I can felt that the students are actually enjoying every precious moment/seconds during the programme, they really tried to immersed themselves into the environment/programme and tried their best to learn from every aspect possible, they don't just join the programme because their teacher told them to. The most precious moment for me during the whole programme was when the students actually find me for photographing and also to leave a signature in their “friendship booklet”. despite from all the tiredness and exhaustion I experience, the passion and enthusiasm in the students’ self actually motivated me mentally, as it lets me realized that my hard work is not wasted off. I'm also glad that they do not see me as just their facilitator/person-in-charge, instead, they look me more as to their friend. The surprising thing is that they actually asked for my social media contact and hope to continue the friendship with me, I felt so glad at the moment and of course, I shared my contact willingly. What had I learn from the programme??? Leadership skills , this is the first time I become facilitator in such this event. Although they are form 2, is easier to lead rather than those same age students.
Communication skills, it is critical for a facilitator. Since we are in different races and different age,we might have the gap. But in the programme I feel that we do not have much miscommunication then we chat happily. They respect us and obey our rules and even listen to our instruction! Their attitude are good, they behave themselves.
Own self development, I jump out from my comfort zone and experience somethings different. I am able to adapt the environment, the weather and the food!!

REFLECTION ( SURENDER GUNALAN SEM 150065 )

Salam Sejahtera dan Salam 1Malaysia. Saya Surender Gunalan SEM150065 pelajar kursus Physics. Saya ingin membuat refleksi berkenaan subjek Jalinan Masyarakat yang dijalankan di Universiti Malaya sebagai subjek wajib diambil oleh pelajar. Kami telah menjalankan kerja lapangan di MRSM Pendang,Kedah selama 2 hari bersama pelajar tingkatan 2.

Sebelum kami memulakan kerja lapangan di MRSM Pendang, kami telah membuat persediaan untuk melaksanakan beberapa aktiviti yang berkaitan dengan konsep Fizik. Antaranya ialah kami telah membuat latihan untuk membuat tarian, cheers dan flashmop. Pada awalnya saya tidak dapat menyertai mereka kerana saya telah berkabung dengan pelajar sains bahan untuk subjek ini. Saya berasa amat bangga dan berterima kasih kerana mereka dapat menerima saya dalam kumpulan mereka. Saya juga perlu berterima kasih kepada Dr Selvi kerana bersetuju untuk menyertai kumpulan mereka. Kami bertolak pada pukul lebih kurang 3 petang dari UM. Setelah 6 jam kami pun sampai di Homestay kami. Selepas selesai menyimpan barang-barang kami mengadakan diskusi untuk keesokkan hari. Kami membuat persiapan untuk aktiviti yang akan dilaksanakan.

Di MRSM kami menjalankan banyak aktiviti untuk pelajar tingkatan 2. Kami saling berkenalan antara satu sama lain. Makanan yang disediakan untuk kami memang enak sekali. Cikgu cikgu disana sangat sporting dan boleh bergaul dengan saya seperti biasa walaupun saya pelajar berlainan agama dan bangsa. Pelajar di sana juga amat berbudi bahasa dan menunjukkan kehormatan kepada saya. Kawan kawan saya yang datang untuk kerja lapangan juga amat bertanggungjawab terhadap saya. Pada hari terakhir di sana pelajar disana memang sudahpun menyukai kami. Mereka meminta number dan facebook id daripada kami. Mereka berjanji akan sentiasa keep in touch bersama saya.

Setelah selesai kerja lapangan Jalinan Masyarakat saya berasa sangat berpuas hati dengan diri saya. Saya dapat membina jati diri dan dapat mengetahui sesuatu yang penting untuk hidup. Saya juga dapat mengetahui siapa kawan sebenar dan apa yang perlu lakukan semasa ada dalam masalah.

Sekian terima kasih