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Mellisa Lim Gyok Sien - Social Engagement Reflection

From the 1st of May 2020 till the 28th of May 2020, the UM TESL Undergraduates from the Department of Language & Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya had organized a project called ‘Once Upon a Quarantime’, to fulfill the requirement of a university core course – GIG1005 Social Engagement, coordinated by Dr. Fatiha Senom. The “Once Upon a Quarantime” project was a storytelling competition that was designed specifically for students to showcase their storytelling talents during the Movement Control Order (MCO). The competition was divided into three categories: pre-school, primary school and secondary school. Participants were required to record a video of their storytelling based on the topic assigned for each category within the given time limit, which was to be uploaded on either one of these social media platforms: Instagram tv or Facebook. ​For this project, I was assigned under the Media bureau, led by Ria. Being under this bureau, my duty was to liaise with newspaper companies in order to get a feature of our project published on the newspapers. Due to the current pandemic, reaching out to the companies was a huge challenge as I was not able to get a hold of them after emailing them a couple of times. For this alone, I did feel a little bad as the Head of my bureau had to take an extra mile to try to contact the higher ups of the companies and only after that we began receiving feedbacks. However, I am still very thankful to be assigned under a super responsible and accountable leader, Ria as she had constantly guided me on my duties. One of the positive outcomes from carrying out my assigned duties was that I learnt how to write up a press release which would pretty much come in handy to me in the near future! ​Lastly, despite all the challenges we had faced, we still managed to execute this project successfully and this would not have been possible if it was not for everyone’s hard work and cooperation. This project had truly impacted me in many ways and I will most definitely put all the lessons and values I’ve learnt throughout this project into practice as an aspiring ELT professional/ESL teacher. I am utterly grateful to have been given this opportunity and I would like to express my biggest gratitude to Dr. Fatiha, Ria (Head of the media bureau) and to everyone involved in making this project a success!

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Nur Syafiqah Binti Mohd Shahronizar - Social Engagement Reflection

As we all know, Social Engagement (GIG1005) is a compulsory subject for everyone to take since it is a university subject. For our group, the initial plan was to carry out a two-days-one-night English Camp for primary school students in Johor Bahru. To be honest, I was really excited but nervous at the same time knowing that we were going to carry out an English Camp since it was the first time Teslians Year 1 and Year 2 working together as a team.

  Unfortunately, we had to change our plan as the world is facing pandemic. We came up with “Once Upon A Quarantime” which is an online storytelling competition. This competition was divided into three levels, preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools. I was one of the member for Activity Department in this project. Basically, our department was the one in charged to design the theme, rules and regulations, and anything related to this competition. Having Jess as the responsible leader for our department was great. Everything was under control. The communication among the activity team members was smooth. Everyone in the activity team were always there to brainstorm, give ideas and express opinions during the online discussion through WhatsApp.

   The only problem I faced that time was the poor internet connection, so I was quite late catching up with them. The competition’s information was spread via social media like Facebook and Instagram. All the hard work and efforts paid off when we received a lot of submissions and supports. Throughout this subject, I’ve learned that we should always think outside of the box apart of being creative. It is better to come up with a back up plan in anything that we are planning to do in the future so that we will always be prepared. This pandemic also taught me to be more patience in handling all the challenges. Not to forget that I also learned a lot of new things throughout this subject.

   I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to Dr Fatiha for all the guidance and the high committee members for making this project a success. Thank you everyone for the cooperation and supports. It was a truly a wonderful experience for me.

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HE XIAOYU-Social Engagement Reflection

Social Engagement project is a compulsory project that every University of Malaya student takes. In this course, we integrate freshman and sophomore students. This course is to show us the importance of participating in social activities and let us give back to society. In the initial meeting, Dr. Fatiha introduced us to the projects completed by students in previous years and showed us the videos they completed. The task we were assigned was to go to an English training camp in Johor. This is a good opportunity to not only get in touch with the pupils to increase their knowledge for future teaching work but also exercise their eloquence and communication skills in this project. However, Covid-19 broke out in Malaysia and we unfortunately failed to hold this event offline. This is a bit disappointing, but soon a new method will come up: we will have Quarttime.

I chose the sponsoring team in this course. Because in the stage of obtaining sponsorship, you can exercise your ability to communicate with others. In the beginning, we discussed a lot, and we also took practical actions. For example, we sell homemade food. At the same time, when the online event was held, we collected information from all participants in order to provide them with prizes. We divided into several groups to communicate with different social software, but this is very difficult. There are many people who don’t use these social media very often, so it’s difficult for us to contact, but everyone in the team did their best to complete the project.

All in all, I learned a lot in the Social Engagement project, and we all overcome many obstacles during the outbreak. Teamwork is the biggest factor in the success of this project. Thanks to Dr. Fatiha for her strong support and everyone's assistance.

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Crystal Ivora anak Gon - Social Engagement Reflection

The ‘Once Upon a Quarantime’ project was organized by the TESL students of Education Faculty for the Social Engagement course. Basically, this project is a storytelling competition online and the participation is open to students all around Malaysia. For this project, I was assigned under the sponsorship bureau and our team was led by Hanees Nabilah, a Year 2 senior. 

As a member of the sponsorship bureau, there are a number of things that I need to do, together with the other members of the team. Firstly, we need to list out the participants according to their categories which are 1, 2a, 2b, 3a and 3b. After that, we need to personal message them on social media platform such as Instagram and Facebook. I am assigned to contact the participants for 3a (lower secondary) and 3b (upper secondary) category on Instagram. The things I did was asking for their personal email, contact number and addresses. For the winners, I asked for the details of their bank accounts. This is because the prizes, which are in cash need to be transferred to them personally via online banking by the main committee of this project. 

For the past 13 weeks of the project, there are various challenges faced by the team. As for me, getting the participants’ personal details as mentioned earlier is not an easy job. It is really challenging for me, especially when some of them took a very long time to reply my messages on Instagram. To be honest, I am quite worried that they would see me as a scammer or whatsoever as I need to ask for their bank accounts, specifically for the winners. I was really grateful that none of them misunderstood my purpose of asking the details of their bank accounts. They did reply me the details even though it took quite some time. 

Personally, I gained a lot of knowledge through my participation in this project. As a future educator, I believe I have developed a better understanding on the importance of the English language speaking as it improves one’s understanding in the language besides allowing them to practice correct pronunciations when speaking. Not just that, this project allows me to study how Malaysian students apply English language in life, especially through the ways they express their ideas and points of view.

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Mellissa anak Callistus Nilson - Social Engagement Reflection

The Once Upon a Quarantime Project is a very good activity and alternative to the English Camp which was our original project. In the next few paragraphs, I will talk about my roles and the challenges I faced. I will also talk about what could have been done better in this project.

Initially, I am in charge of the post-video. However, due to the change of project, I was assigned to newspaper publication. I emailed a few newspaper companies but did not get any reply from them. Then, I tried to look for other medium for publication such as blogs but none was suitable. The last resort was emailing a Residential College principal who publishes a Malay newspaper. This was a new experience for me and I get to do it the first time because of this project.

The biggest challenge is definitely getting a newspaper publication. Compared to last batch’s project, we are now in a different situation, a pandemic and there are so many more important things happening around the world. Therefore, I feel like newspaper publication for this project should be excused or changed. The second challenge I faced is communication. Tasks would’ve been done a lot faster and easier if group chat is used how it should be used.

There are some things that could have been done better for this project. First is fair discussion. Although the higher ups get to decide, everyone else should be a part of the planning of this project. This will create ownership of this project in every member. It is also best if the cost is minimal and the prizes are reduced.

Overall, the project went well despite the many weaknesses. I learn a lesson and had a new experience in dealing with newspaper companies.

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Nur'Ain Nadhira binti Mohammad Nazrul Koh - Social Engagement Reflection

During the start of this semester while looking through the courses I would have to partake, I cannot lie that I have been looking forward to this course Social Engagement (GIG1005). As an individual, I can see that I tend to put expectations for this kind of course especially regarding the deeds I can contribute and self-growth that I can attain. However, due to the pandemic that is pondering the county right now it is very unfortunate that our initial project had to be cancelled. It was an unavoidable circumstance and I fully understand it is also the best for everyone’s health safety as Covid-19 can be deadly. Worry not, the pandemic did not hold us down from successfully holding a project that has received warm welcome from the public.

The group that is responsible under the coaching of our lecturer, Dr Fatiha is TESL English Society (TENGS) which is under the Faculty of Education and organized by first and second year TESL students.  Primarily, for this assignment we had planned an English Camp project which would be held at SK Taman Tun Aminah in Skudai, Johor. I had a mixed feeling about this project at first because it would be my first time engaging with school kids and I was very nervous waiting for the day to come, yet I was also excited to gain new experience which I can use in the future. However, it was very unfortunate we could not forego with this place because I believe it ca benefit everyone in various way.

Without wasting much time, the society had managed to design a new brilliant project which we call “Once Upon A Quarantime”. It is a carefully planned project where students from pre-school level until secondary level to involve in a healthy competition of storytelling. The medium we used for this project was through social medias which are Instagram and Facebook. We have received a lot of interesting submissions from students of various backgrounds. As the member of Logistics Bureau, it was unfortunate I could not do much for this project yet being able to contribute in sharing the contest, analysing and voting for the winners were good for me. It was very hard to choose the best out of the best because I witnessed that every participant is talented and gave their best for the storytelling. I was overwhelmed with joy when I was watching the videos submitted by every student. All of them have bright future ahead of them and I believe in that.

Last but not least, despite the challenges we have face from the pandemic to needing a major change in our project, safe to say it was a very interesting experience I have collected through this course. If I am to be honest, who would have thought we could successfully craft a social engaging project through the internet and able to receive great response from the audience. I believe it when we are patient and do not give up easily, everything is achievable. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to experience and partake in a very meaningful project. If there is such project in the future, I wish to join and do even better with the knowledge I have gotten from this project and course.

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NUR FATIHAH BINTI MOHAMED FIRDAUS - SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT REFLECTION

           First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all of TESL English Society (TENGS) members and our Social Engagement's lecturer, Dr. Fatiha in making our Once Upon A Quarantine project ran successfully. Although everything was running smoothly at first, we got our accommodation, sponsorships, logistics, and activities planned systematically until this virus came and stopped all of the English Camp's plans as the project itself did not align with our SOP. However, our new project taught us several life experiences.

              In this project, I was assigned to be one of the high committee members as the assistant treasurer. I worked along with our main treasurer, Dinah and she is well-experienced in handling our finances. I have learned so much from her on how to conduct all of the money that we had received before the competition days as the preparation for all of the prizes and e-certificates. My first ever task as the assistant treasurer of this project was collecting an amount of RM60.00 from every TENGS member. Thankfully the process ran out smoothly as everyone paid their money on time and only two of them had difficulties in transferring the money as they are the international students that do not own our local bank accounts. However, we managed to collect all the money before the respective date.

               Besides, there are several challenges that we had faced throughout this journey which are communication and excessive other course tasks. However, we still can keep in touch and contact each other using various social media platforms such as Whatsapp, Telegram, and Facebook. This is because we need to jot down and list out every plan and progression so that it will be easy to identify things that we had done and need to be done before the competition days. We need to be alert with our preparations so that our project can be conducted systematically and professionally. Next, is the aspect of teamwork. All of our members did their roles amazingly and did not feel diffident to help each other. Even though we were kind of stressed out to submit our other assignments, but with the existence of teamwork, the workload could be reduced and we did not feel much burden in conducting this project. Hence, every member needs to be aware of their responsibilities.

               All in all, nothing is impossible if we put our efforts and sacrifices to make our plan comes true. I believe that these experiences are really helpful in my development as an aspiring ESL future educator as it taught me about the significance of participating in an event that engages with our society and how every problem could be solved with communication and teamwork. Moreover, I could see that this storytelling competition boosts up the confidence level of each participant and helps them to improve their English skills in speaking.

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Nurdania binti Ismail - Social Engagement Reflection

Once Upon A Quarantime is an e-storytelling competition held by the Teslians Year 1 and 2. This competition is a platform for students in preschool, primary school, and secondary school to show their talents in storytelling. I was in charge as the Assistant Head of Activity Department. Our roles in the activity department are to design the rules and regulations, the theme of the competition, and the questions for the students. It was such a great experience working with the team even though due to this pandemic, we couldn’t hold our camp physically but this initiative has given us a whole new experience to explore. The activity team will always have an online discussion via WhatsApp to discuss every single idea that we have. Honestly, the success of our e-storytelling competition is the success of every one of us. With the never-ending effort, cooperation, and collaboration between everyone, we had successfully gained more than a hundred participants. The communication among our Activity Department’s members went smoothly since we give everyone the chance to deliver and exchange their idea then, at the end, we filter the idea and improvise it so that we will have the best result. I was grateful because everyone took the responsibility and do their work on time which make everything went easier and smoother. It is undeniably true that few challenges occurred throughout this process such as dealing with the parents, collecting the students' data for certificate purposes, and also to ensure that the participants received all of the pieces of information. However, all the challenges had been wonderfully overcome by us. Our Advisor, Dr. Fatiha as well as our Project Director has been really helpful since day 1. Dr. Fatiha always gives us better insight in dealing with all the challenges and to conduct the competition better. She shared her experiences and we learned a lot from her. All in all, I would look forward to more opportunities like this, and Once Upon A Quarantime has been a wonderful unforgettable experience for me. Kudos to us! May this pandemic will forever go soon!

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Zhong Yifan - Social Engagement Reflection

First of all, I am very honored to have this opportunity to complete this meaningful activity with all the students of TESL, and thank Dr. Fatiha for helping us to make our Once Upon A Quarantine project run successfully. This semester was full of challenges and challenges. The coming of covid-19 has disrupted our original learning arrangements, but we have to admit that we have gained more in it. Our original plan was to go camping in the mountains called English in camp, which made me very excited for the first time. But due to the special circumstances, we have to change to online activities. This project taught me how to be flexible and adapt to various obstacles. Thanks to the joint efforts of the students and the help of the doctor, we decided to change the activity to online storytelling.

  The temporary modification of the activity has brought us many challenges. No matter the activity planning or the progress of the activity, it requires the joint efforts of the members of all departments. But fortunately, each member has completed his own division of labor very well, which makes our activities go smoothly. Through this cooperation, I understand the importance of teamwork. In our lives, there are many things that can't be done by one person, and they need teamwork. Each of us should be clear about our work with the team, and do our best to complete it, so as to make a team work to achieve the best effect, which is also the significance of teamwork.

  I watched every video they submitted carefully, and I felt very moved and happy. Thank you very much to everyone who actively participated in this competition. It felt very warm to see them telling stories attentively. They taught me a lot about it. No matter whether students or Dr, everyone's efforts make me feel that in the face of difficulties, as long as we work hard, nothing is impossible. This will be a very unforgettable experience for me in Malaysia, and I will keep these feelings in mind.

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Shahrul Iskandar bin Mt Sha'ban - Social Engagement Reflection

First of all, I am very honoured to be part of this group for GIG1005 Social Engagement project. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone involved in this project to make it as successful as it is today. I’m thankful for the guidance of our supervisor, Dr Fatiha bin Senom. I’m thankful for the help and teamwork of my peers and seniors of TESL students. Everyone played an important role and has been doing a great job to make sure this Social Engagement project go smoothly and successfully. Although there were challenges that everyone had to face, all the hard works still paid off in the end.

                This year’s challenge sure is a tough one. The originally planned project of English Camp with collaboration of a school in Johor had to be cancelled due to the sudden global pandemic. The whole team faced the first challenge when everything had to be shutdown and went online. However, the project must still go on. The committee came up with a solution to change to original camp project to an online story-telling competition for students all around Malaysia. The competition was carried out with social medias like Instagram and Facebook as the main medium. Contestants can submit their story-telling video easily and efficiently. This competition is called Once Upon A Quarantine.

                I was in the media team for this new project. This team generally involves managing social medias and designing content. I have learned a lot from being on this team. My job is generally to design posters, which I’ve done a few times before but designing posters fitting to the theme of school students, it was a bit of a challenge for me. However, with the help and guide from seniors and peers, everything went well. To conclude, I am very proud of my media team and the whole group for making this project a success.

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NUR SHAHIRAH BINTI NORDIN- SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT REFLECTION

Social Engagement is one of the subjects that I’m looking forward too as it required us to engage with the society. When the first time Dr Fatiha show us the projects that the third years students had conducted last year, I can feel the excitement in myself and eager to start this project. Also, it is the first time when Dr Fatiha briefed us about our future project which is the English Camps for primary school students in Johor. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic we cannot conduct the project as we plan and we had to come out with a plan B which is an online storytelling competition called ‘Once Upon a Quarantine’. The storytelling competition involves pre-school, primary and secondary students. For pre-school category, the topic is up to participants’ creativity while for the primary school categories, the topic is telling a story about superpower and for the secondary school categories, the topic is local or global current issues. The competition was held from 1 May 2020 until 28 May 2020 and the submission after 28 May 2020 will not be accepted. Basically, the participants need to take a one-take video regarding the topics given and post it to their social media with the correct hashtags based on their category. Using the correct hashtags can help us to identify the participants more easily and for a smooth selections process. Since I was a committee member registered under the bureau of logistic, I have to admit that there is not really a thing for me to do. As we know, the bureau of logistic need to take care of the inventory but there is no inventory needed for this competition. Hence, I contributed financially for this project as I need to pay RM60 to provide the prizes for the winner. I also contributed in determining the winners of ‘Once Upon a Quarantine’ storytelling competition. I gave my best to carefully evaluate the videos of the participants to ensure myself choosing the most potential winners. I made my judgements accordingly and I am sure that I made a right choice. There is a problem during the selection as one of the videos cannot be accessed because the participant put his social media in private mode. Fortunately, the problem solved when one of the committees contact the participant and we can access the video eventually. Last but not least, I am very thankful as I learned a lot from this project as we need to always be prepared to face any kind of situations in order to conduct a perfect project. It is such a pity that we cannot engage with society physically but still we can engage with them virtually. Thank you.

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Nursabirah binti Mohd Sobri - Social Engagement Reflection

“Once Upon A Quarantime” is a project conducted by the first and second year TESL students as an effort to fulfil the requirement for GIG1005 Social Engagement course. I was a member of the Activity Committee, led by the hardworking second year senior Jessica and assisted by the friendly first year Dania. First and foremost, I would like to address my gratitude for being able to work under them and alongside other supportive members of the Activity Committee.

At the beginning of the semester, the Activity Committee would hold a discussion once every Monday afternoon. Considering that the final decision of the activities for the project is determined by the higher committee members, what we did during meeting session was suggest possible activities and itinerary for the project. On weeks when we could not meet up, we would set a time and hold a meeting via WhatsApp. I participated in the meeting and shared my opinions regarding the organization of the itinerary. Since there was a plan for an explorace, I suggested a Spelling Game as one of the explorace stations. Ever since the start of MCO, I tried my best to be active in responding to the texts Activity Committee’s WhatsApp group.

There were several challenges faced by the Activity Committee. Before the MCO, we had troubles in designing suitable activities that would adhere to the 3 days duration. Not only do we need to mind the time, we also have to make sure the activities are interesting for the students. Once the MCO begins, we had to scrap the idea and change it to an online one. With suggestions from our supervising lecturer and the higher committee, the project has been changed to an online story-telling competition.

I may only have played a small role in this project, but I have learned a lot. As the future functioning-member of the society, I learned about the importance of teamwork, commitment and organizing activities. As future ESL teacher, this project has taught me on how to design suitable English-language activities, which could be applied for my lesson plan in the future or when I am being in charge of any English-language programs. At the end of the day, despite things not going according to our initial plans, we managed to adapt to changes and come up with appropriate solutions. I am very proud and once again, very grateful to everyone who made this project possible.

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'Izzah binti Zamri - Social Engagement Reflection

Earlier this year, we were supposed to go to Johor for our Social Engagement project. Originally, we planned to make an English Camp for primary school students from SK Tun Aminah. We already made an agreement with the school and divided ourselves into our preferred bureaus. However, due to the rising cases of Covid-19, all programs conducted under the University of Malaya’s name were canceled. It is to ensure everyone’s safety and to avoid any unwanted things to happen on the students. The pandemic leaves us no choice but to find an alternative way to complete our Social Engagement assignment. Few weeks after that, we decided to held a story-telling competition and called it “Once Upon a Quanrantime”. Students from pre-school to high schools would compete with each other according to their level. Each level got different topics that matched with their current grade. For example, primary school students had to start their story with the sentence, “If I have a superpower…”. For this competition, each bureau had its task. Since I am under Multimedia Bureau, I was given a task to design the dateline poster for the admin to post on our Facebook and Instagram page. One of the challenges for my bureau is the dateline of poster submission. Since we were packed with assignments, online classes, and tests, we had to find a way to make sure that we could finish our poster before the dateline. Besides that, another bureau also faced problems especially in contacting the parents of contestants. Several parents did not reply to their messages through Facebook. It was most probably because they did not check their Facebook frequently as youngsters did. However, we were glad that we received a lot of feedback and submissions from contestants. Although this competition was a last-minute program, all of us still managed to do our task properly.

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Monica Anne A/P Savari Nathan - Social Engagement Reflection

‘Once Upon a Quarantime’ is a social engagement project conducted by the TESL English Society (TENGS). It is a storytelling competition designed for preschool, primary school and secondary school students. This project has been a great success even though it was carried out in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. I was placed under the Logistics Bureau led by Yusuf in this project. We were told to share the posters of the project on our social media to get more people to join the storytelling competition. I shared the posters of this competition on my social media daily to get people to join the competition. We received quite a number of participations from students of all categories. The best 5 participants for each category were chosen and we were asked to vote for the best 3 among the 5 participants after watching the videos. Three finalists for each category were shortlisted to be forwarded to our lecturers to decide on the final prizewinners for each category.

One challenge we faced when carrying out this project is difficulty to get the prizewinners’ details. The prizewinners’ parents were hesitant to give their bank account number for us to bank in the cash prize. Our messages were either ignored after read or not read at all. This made it difficult for us to bank in the cash prize as soon as possible.

I am grateful that we have successfully conducted this project despite having to face the challenges thrown in our way. I have learnt a lot through this project and I believe I have grown personally. Apart from that, I have definitely improved myself in terms of soft skills. My communication skills have improved and I am now confident in voicing out my opinions or suggestions. Next, I understand how important teamwork is to make a project successful and I am blessed to have such amazing teammates. I believe everything I have gained through this project would be of great use for me as an aspiring ESL teacher. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Fatiha for her great guidance and everyone who has given in their all to make this project a great success. It has been a wonderful experience for me and I would not trade it for anything else.

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Iman Natasha binti Mazlan - Social Engagement Reflection

In the social engagement project called ‘Once Upon A Quarantime’ executed by Tesl department’s first and second year students, I was appointed as the assistant leader for the media team. At first when the project was starting out after we went into lockdown due to the pandemic, I, alongside the rest of the media team starting working on our plans for the abundance of posters and logo designs for the competition. Because it is an online competition, our team is definitely one of, if not the team that has the largest amount of work. Every announcement made to social media had to be accompanied with some sort of graphic design, video or photo taken by our team.

At the start, before any work began, I suggested that our designs have a specific colour scheme so that they will look more cohesive. Due to everyone’s agreement, I suggested a few colour combos and a combination of yellow, green and blue was chosen. Indeed, the designs produced afterwards were cohesive with one another, but I admit that the limited palette did become something that is not easy to work with. We had to be creative with the colour placements in order to produce things that looked good.

Other than that, I made a total of seven posters that ended up being posted to our social media accounts. One of the good things about our team is that the total number of members are quite big, so no one person had to do too many work by themselves. I do admit that maybe one or two of my designs are done in a rush because they had to be posted when I had other assignments due, so they were not given as much attention as they could have been.

Lastly, the impact this competition had on me is that it opened my eyes on the talent Malaysian students have. I was awed by the submissions to the competition because even with the restrictions, they managed to produced something that is worthy of admiration. It gives me hope as a future ESL teacher that by pushing students in the right direction, I can encourage them to produce wonderful things. I also learned that some parents are very passionate about the competitions their kids enter and there are certain ways to handle the situation properly in case of an outburst.

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Muhamad Akmal bin Ibrahim - Social Engagement Reflection

  For the course Social Engagement (GIG1005), our group originally planned to conduct an English camp at schools, however due to the recent pandemic the initial plan was replaced with an online storytelling competition called Once Upon a Quarantime. I assumed the duty as an assistant head of the Logistic Bureau and in the initial run, we had to contact numbers of bus companies to find the affordable travel expenses that our budget allows us. However, with the change of plan, we took the duty of creating a simple rubric for the competition and also check listing all the participants and their contact details. As a duty for all the members, I have spread out the news about the competition which takes submission from Instagram and Facebook and our effort paid off as the competition received a lot of submission and supports.

We have also faced a couple of challenges such as receiving submissions that offered little details which forced us to dig deeper to find the information needed such as the names and categories they belonged in. Not to mention that we had to struggle in contacting the participants for more details such as bank account information for the competition rewards. Since it is a competition, some participants did not quite accept the final result made based on the prepared rubric. With help from the more experienced seniors and from peers, we have managed to solve the problems to make sure the competition is able to proceed smoothly.

I have also learnt multiple lessons and values that altered my view for the better as an aspiring ESL teacher. Since the categories in the competition cater to various level of education, I saw the potential the participants have from the early to teenage years. This made me realized that even with acquiring English as a second language; these people have shown adequate proficiency with the potential to advance further, which fortify my belief that teaching English as second language will produce satisfactory result, especially in early years.

To conclude, social engagement has given me the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone to widen my view as a human being and as an aspiring ESL teacher. Seeing the performance and the potential of Malaysian in English as a second language, my enthusiasm in teaching English increases and I hope to contribute towards the development of English as a second language.

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Nur Izzati Ashyiqin binti Noorazman - Social Engagement Reflection.

                In my opinion, Social Engagement (GIG1005) is an interesting subject to take. It doesn’t require studying and cramming knowledge in your head until you explode at the end of the semester. Instead, it encourages you to give back to your society. What can you do to help the people around you with the knowledge you gained while studying your degree? It made me realize that degree is not solely centered around strictly classroom sessions and exam periods, you need to also help those around you. At least, that was the plan in the beginning. We were supposed to have an English Camp for a school in Johor and I was looking forward to helping and encouraging primary students to speak English in a fun way. Alas, 2020 was nobody’s year and we were hit with the global pandemic, which shuts down schools and forces education to go online. Even thinking about it now made me feel quite sad but every cloud has a silver lining.

            I had joined the Activity Bureau with Jessica as our leader. Before the quarantine, we had discussed the activity during the camp but we had to scratch that and come up with something to do online. With the guidance of our advisor, Dr. Fatiha binti Senom, we had decided to come up with a story-telling competition where contestants can display their story telling skills by uploading their submissions to either Facebook or Instagram. Our bureau had discussed about the theme, categories, requirements and also the rules and regulations over our WhatsApp group. It was surprisingly a fruitful discussion despite us being miles apart of each other. Most of us had participated by giving ideas and suggestions which is probably why the discussion went well. In the end, the event, “Once Upon a Quarantine” was created. Fortunately, the event went well and a lot of people from different age groups participated from all over the country.

            What I’ve learned from this experience is that you have to make best of what you have. In the beginning, it sucks to have the camp cancelled, it felt like there is nothing that could be done to continue this course this semester. However, we still managed to conduct a successful competition over the Internet and that alone is an accomplishment. In the end, it was a great learning experience for me and I enjoyed it very much.