Transformative Journal by PHUAH JING YI_U2003265 (Team C)

 

Pre-Event

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Zalfa, our Program Supervisor of Social Engagement, for guiding us throughout our project “2 Days Free Online Seminar”. In the beginning, I was pretty clueless as to what Social Engagement would be all about. After the first Social Engagement Briefing meeting held on 19 March 2021, I realized that I was assigned to Group 6, which will be supervised by Dr. Zalfa.

After the first meeting with Dr. Zalfa, I only got a better understanding of this course. We were then divided into four small groups. I had formed a group of 5 with my friends - Racheal, Shafirah, Pei Fen, and Rachel.

After that, we had a short discussion about the event we planned to organize related to our course of study. We also appointed Rachel as our team’s leader to guide us throughout this event. After a short discussion, we decided to organize a seminar related to Accounting and Economics, which is open to all SPM students. During the first meeting with my groupmates, I remembered I was very quiet and did not talk much with them as I am an introverted person. Fortunately, my groupmates are so kind and considerate. They are very helpful and always encouraged me to express any ideas or thoughts.

As we need to submit our proposal to Dr. Zalfa in a very short time, we brainstormed ideas about what are the events can be organized. We finally decided to organize a seminar titled “2 Days Free Online Seminar”, which focuses on Form 4 and Form 5 students to boost their knowledge on both Accounting and Economics subjects. I want to thank my groupmates for participating actively during the discussion and contributing many ideas to make the event more fun and interesting. We then distributed our parts equally to ensure the proposal can be done more effectively. Before we submit our proposal, we had a short meeting with Dr. Zalfa to present our ideas about our project in detail. We really appreciate Dr. Zalfa for giving us advice in improving the proposal and provided some beneficial suggestions.

           Our group has done lots of preparation before the seminar and every member has their respective task to be completed. Although we were busy with our studies, we still managed to attend every meeting to discuss the progress. Despite the fact that we faced many challenges during the preparations of the event, such as lack of participants, platform problems, we still try our best to find solutions to solve the problem. I would say that I learn to stay positive and be optimistic when facing challenging situations.

We promoted our event using the poster that we previously designed to attract students’ interest in joining us. We also approached our previous secondary teacher to promote our event to the students. We finally decided to use Skype and Google Meet as the platforms after the discussion. Each of us helps to prepare questions and solutions for both Accounting and Economics subjects. We had also prepared some short games through the Quizizz platform.

Before the real event begins, we had done a few rehearsals to familiarize ourselves with the event's flow. We also invited Dr. Zalfa to join our rehearsal to give us some advice on the improvements that can be made to ensure our event runs smoothly. Each of us was so excited and felt nervous about the coming event. We really hope what we delivered to the students can be beneficial for them in the future.

 

During Event:

We were grateful that the event went along smoothly during the two-day event. Although the participants were shy to switch on their cameras on the first day, they actively participate in the session using the chatbox. At first, I was worried that the students could not understand or catch up with what we had taught. Fortunately, we got to see some responses from the students through the chatbox. However, some participants managed to switch on their cameras on the second day and even unmute their mic to interact with us. At that moment, we felt so excited and happy.

 

 

I remembered I was so nervous during the Quizizz session. I was so afraid that there would be no responses from the participants and the session would be boring. As the session progressed, I felt relieved to see the participants’ eagerness to answer those questions and saw some interesting responses. It was a great first-time experience to conduct an activity with so many participants though this was the first time I had organized an event.

Though we encountered some unexpected problems during the event, we managed to overcome them. I truly appreciate my group members for helping me out as my laptop was blackout suddenly during the event. I was thankful for having such great teammates for guiding me throughout this event.

 

Post-Event:

We had received many positive feedbacks from the students at the end of the seminar. I remembered a student mentioned that he would like to join us again if any similar event is held in the future. It was truly heartwarming to receive feedback from them, expressing their happiness throughout this two-day event.

I felt that our hard work pays off after looking through the feedbacks and messages from our participants. It makes me feel that it is worthwhile to spend time organizing this seminar though it was tiring to prepare all the materials needed. Nevertheless, we will continue to work hard as there is still room for improvement. This was indeed an amazing journey as we got to accomplish this impossible task in just a short time.

In summary, I have gained lots of benefits throughout this journey as I get to make up with so many new friends and boost my skills. Social Engagement course is not only a compulsory course that students are required to take up, but it has benefited society and even ourselves in many aspects. It made me realize that we can contribute to the community by participating in social-related activities even though we are only students.

I will always cherish all the knowledge and experiences I gained through this course. I want to thank my teammates for working together in making this event a success. Last but not least, I am grateful to our program supervisor, Dr. Zalfa, for the advice and motivation given to each and every of us.

Thank you Dr. Zalfa and all Group 6 members! Wish you all the best in everything!