Transformative Journal (Nurul Amirah Binti Rahman Ali, U2003202 - Team A)

 

        My expectation before I take the Social Engagement course was, it is going to be an easy course as we do not have to attend lectures and tutorials every week. The first thing that comes to my mind about Social Engagement is doing social works such as volunteering for non-profit or local organizations, etc. However, I had the curiosity about how these social activities going to be conducted since we are in an online learning mode.

        Whereas my feeling before I join the event is I was clueless about how this event going to be. I felt excited and nervous at the same time because I have never conducted a virtual or a physical event before. Since I am an introverted person, I find it hard to search for group members that could work well with me. Also, I had the mindset that there would be a communication barrier between me and my group members due to my personality. My engagement skills are not that good as well, so thinking of engaging with the students during the event made me more concerned.  However, as it is group work, teamwork plays a vital part in carrying out this program/event, therefore I wanted to give my best for the event to run successfully.

        How I feel about the Social Engagement course now is, it is a beneficial and useful course for the students. This course does not end here because we will be continuing to apply what we learn from this course in the future, such as leadership skills, communication skills, the importance of teamwork, etc. I have become a new person from being shy to engage with my group members to being comfortable and sharing my point of view with them without any barriers. However, it is disappointing that the Social Engagement course will no longer be offered starting from next semester because it would be a great opportunity for the new students to develop their skills and learn new things especially for students like me if this course is conducted.

        My reflection or feeling after the event was carried out is, I was entirely satisfied and happy because the event becomes a huge success. During the implementation process, I experienced some difficulty where I was not feeling well and unable to voice out my opinion much for certain group discussions, however, my group members were really understanding and caring. They helped me out throughout the process of conducting the event and keep checking up on me if I am doing fine. We had a great teamwork from the start of this course till the end. Everyone did a great job on their respective parts even though we had to do make amendments several times until it is approved by our supervisor, Dr. Zalfa Laili. We experienced some issues/challenges while preparing for the event such as an internet connection problem, unable to record our meeting due to technical issues and some participants backed off two days before the event took place. Nevertheless, we made it through our event ‘Road to Accounting’, successfully without any problem from our side and as well as from the participants. The participants acknowledged and appreciated every single thing we delivered to them through the feedback form we have provided. At that moment, we felt that our effort and hard work did not go to waste.

            

·        What have I learnt from the activities performed:

-       I have realized that teamwork is indeed the key to success. Every person have their own specialty and talent in our group and we assigned them based on that, so because of the trust and respect we put on each other in carrying out their task, it had created an effective teamwork.

-       Since I have no experience conducting any events before, I have no clue on how to engage with people. Whenever we had the trial run before the event I used to just read the points from slides rather than tried to engage with the audience or participants. However, my supervisor Dr. Zalfa correct me on this and she advised me to be more energetic and engaging during the presentation because we need to make a positive impact within the students who is our participants and make them feel that our event is fun to join. So, during the event, I tried to be engaging as much as possible and I eventually get comfortable with it and I felt that I was enjoying myself giving the talk without any fears and worries and all that credits goes to my supervisor, Dr. Zalfa who made it possible for me to run this event smoothly.

-       Besides, I have also learnt that this type of social engagement event benefits both parties, the presenter, and as well as the listener/audience. In our case, we had the opportunity to develop and improve our soft skills as a presenter such as how to engage with people, how to adjust ourself working in a group project, how to be punctual for every discussion, etc and it can be applied later in our workplace and also for our future university projects, whereas for the listener, they able to learn new things and gain new knowledge from the experienced people which could be a helping hand for them later when they enter university.

              

·         How do the activities performed impacted my life:

-       This event made me think that I am capable of giving a talk in front of people without fear. It has taught me that nothing is impossible if we strive hard for it. Conducting an event is a big deal for me because I am an introverted person and I do not like to engage with people much as I am shy to approach them. Nevertheless, I found that it is just my negative mindset that made me think that I cannot do it. So, I tried to think positively of myself that I can conduct this event without any shyness or fright and that is how I did it and I feel proud of myself for giving me a chance to make it happen.

-       The feedback I get from the students after the event boost my eagerness to conduct this type of event more for the society in the future. I want the society to gain benefits from the social event such as obtain new knowledge and experience from the experts and educated person. I felt responsible to contribute my part to the society as a student. The event we conducted before just consisted of a small number of participants and with this smaller scope of participants we had created a positive assumption of our event ‘Road to Accounting’, therefore I strongly believe that this kind of event would make a big difference among students in a positive way if we go for a bigger scope as well, such as conducting an event for all the students in Malaysia about the education pathway and more to say.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Zalfa Laili from the bottom of my heart for the guidance and support throughout the Social Engagement course. Without your help, we barely can make it. Thank you also for giving us unconditional advice and tips for our future self.