GIG1005 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
REFLECTIVE WRITING
BOO SHIN RU (MIC170008) DATE: 3/5/2018
During the first semester, we had been informed that we are going to take the course ‘social engagement’ at the second semester. I was curious about that but at the same time I have no idea at all about what we going to do in this course. Luckily, the instructor of this course, Dr. Puah had met us during the first semester for the briefing purpose. At the first meeting, we had been briefed that we are going to do five different activities, thus we required to be divide into five different groups. Our first task was each of the group had to generate at least two ideas for the activity. As I recall, all of us were not respond well at that instant and I think it may due to the lack of cognition to this course yet.
Then, we finally have a formal and official class when the semester two. However, we be notified that the way to conduct this course has changed. We will be the first batch doing a continuous programme and our juniors will going to follow our pathway. To be honest, I think this way is much better compared to the way conducted by previous batches too as this can show the obvious effects on the population by our continuous efforts just like what Dr. Puah mentioned. At the same time, we all are getting frighten since we are the first batch doing so and no one has experience about it.
Then again, we had to be divided into bureau sponsorship, bureau publicity, bureau activity, bureau external relations and bureau special tasks. While I became one of the members of bureau publicity and multech. In fact, I do not have confidence to handle this because I have zero experience on this aspect. I started to worry that what if I drag the whole team down or failed to contribute to the team. Fortunately, my team leader Yen Yee is a very nice person. She teaches me a lots and also believes in my photography skills, thus she assigned me to be the photographer. Besides, I am also playing role in update our photos on Instagram. What I learnt through this is the difference between updating the photos to your private account and to an official account. I need to edit the photos in the aspect of colour, contrast, saturation, levels, retouching blemishes and so on to turn the decent photo into a great one as well as construct the caption of the photo to be more attractive and professional. All of these works are aiming to increase the attraction of public to our project.
Furthermore, the preparation period was really an emotional roller coaster for us. The confirmation of our target destination makes us happy but we also get a bit nervous when our schedule was being slowed down by some reasons. Still, what makes me feel blessed is the cooperation within the bureau and also between the bureaus. I can really note the differences of our efforts before and after. We changed from the passive state to the active one. All of us are getting more serious and concern about this project. We make every effort as possible to carry out the project so that the project could run well as expected. This is because we know that we need to be responsible to the roles of ourselves so that it would not disappoint Dr. Puah and also the villagers of Kampong Desa Temuan.
After the preparation for about 3 months, our event day was finally around the corner. I am excited yet anxious about that especially when I am uploading the event countdown images on Instagram. The night before D-day, we were carrying out the test run. This aims to make sure all the activities are safe to be played by the kids besides to let all of us clear about the schedule of the event. Most of us acted as the kids and involved in playing the games. Some of them also acted like kids’ behaviour to train the facilitators how to handle those kind of situations. Everyone was so excited and enjoyed the activities since I had captured the smiles and laughs on their faces. I think the test run had boost up everyone’s excitement for the event on the next day.
Eventually, our event day which is on 29th of April has arrived. We had to wake up early in the morning but this did not block our excitements toward the project soon. When I arrive the destination, I was a little shocked since it was my first time went to there. I feel bad for unable to join the preview on 25th of March because I was went back to hometown. The village actually look cleaner and tidier than what I expected. It was also my first time to meet those kids, some of them are very active and sociable while some of them are very shy and taciturn. On that time, I was assigned to take photos of ‘explore race’ and ‘gotong-royong’. It was so interesting to observe the interaction between our members and those kids. Those kids are so adorable and lovely. From my point of view, those kids actually has taught us the different way they live, interact and survival in the positive vibes instead of the fact that we are the one should help and taught them.
Social engagement is a pretty good course to be taken and I think that is why it is a compulsory course for students. It gave me an opportunity to involve myself in such a meaningful volunteering project from the preparation to the practice. The most important value I learnt throughout this whole project is the teamwork. I am blessed I have such excellent teammates who can cooperate well among each other as well as our instructor Dr.Puah who is very responsible in leading us. Alone we can do little, together we can do so much.
(999 words)
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