1.      Introduction

Last year when I was in semester 3 of my degree, I manage to participate in a program called CGMA Interactive Day 2019 (CID’19). This program was held on 12 October 2019 at Dewan Sri Merbau, KTHO, and also Tasik Kesihatan PKU, University Technology Malaysia. This program was organized by Computer Graphic and Multimedia Association (CGMA). I was one of the committee members for this program and the role that I held was as Food and Beverages Unit. This program is basically a program for welcoming the first year students of Computer Graphic and Multimedia Software. In this program we do a lots of interesting activities together because we want to strengthen the relationship between each other. Furthermore, this program also require us to think outside of the box as the participants need to always come up with a new ideas for their group activities session.

Figure 1: Some of the committee members of CID'19

2.      Reporting

In this program, there were many interesting activities that we held such as an icebreaking session between the facilitator and the participants, a little energizer in the morning which is zumba session, kayaking session in the afternoon till evening and some group activities in the night session. This program was held for one day straight. It was from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m. It may be tiring but overall it was an interesting and beneficial program to be joined.

The program started at 8 a.m. with the registration of all the participants and also the facilitators which were also the committee members of this program. I was holding a role as the food and beverages unit, so during the morning session I need to make sure that everyone especially the participants had took their breakfast because this program was going to involve in a lot of physical activities so it is not good if they were any participants that skip their breakfast. After that, we started the morning session with a little bit energizer where we made a zumba session. It was just a simple zumba as the one that instruct it was just the committee members and I was one of them. Even though it was not a perfect choreography but we still manage to make the participants face looks happy at early in the morning.

Then, the participants need to sit in their group and introduce themselves with each other including the facilitators. Then, we started the group activities with “Floor is larva” activity where the participants need to pass something from front to the back by using straw only and they can’t step on the floor but just two cardboard that we provide them. The purpose of this activity was to make them comfortable to work with their team members and to build their cooperation with each other in order to make their team the winner of the day. After that we proceed with team building activity until afternoon.

Figure 2: The floor is larva activity

We took a break in the afternoon and have a lunch before we were preparing for the evening session activities. Then, we proceed with the evening session, where we made a checkpoint activities. The participants need to play games with their group members at every checkpoint that was provided to add points for their team.

Figure 3: Checkpoint activity

And then we had a kayaking session. Playing kayak is like a tradition for us. Every first year students need to have this experience playing kayak with their fellow friends so that they can become closer with each other and be prepared to overcome any obstacles coming to them. As a facilitator, I need to help them going into their kayak especially the girl participants. The kayak sessions ended at 5 p.m. and the participants were provided with their evening food to give back their energy.

Figure 4: Briefing session for kayaking

Last but not least, the night session was the last session for this program. It was still a group activities where they need to create images, music and memes by using the theme that were provided and most importantly using their own creativity. The night session was visited by our VIP guests. My task that was serving the foods for the VIP. The program ended with the gift ceremony to the winners.

3.      Responding

Throughout this one whole day program, I had such a valuable time that I could not get elsewhere. I got involved in every progress of the program. From before the program, while the program is running and after the program had finished, I got to witness how the program is going on throughout the process. This was the first program that my batch manage and it was one of the unforgettable moments for me. It was quite easy to communicate with each other as we are very close with each other. However, when it comes to works, we will be very serious and will make sure that everything will running smoothly. But sometimes when we feel tired, we will make some jokes to release our stress together. There were many challenges that we need to face in order to make the program running smoothly. One of the challenges was when our source of income was suddenly not enough for our expenses. Because of that, me as part of food and beverages unit need to come up with some solutions to make sure that we didn’t overuse the money that we got. And we had decided to not buying the beverage for the lunch instead we make it ourselves. With that, we manage to overcome a little of the problems. Not just us that come up with another initiative, other units also try to think of other solutions. The problem was finally resolved because of the cooperation from the committee members.

Overall, by being one of the committee members for this program, I learnt many new things such as how to make a good negotiation and how to thinking critically in order to resolve any problems that occur. It was beneficial for my present and future as in our journey of life, we will be facing with many problems and they will not be resolve if we didn’t try to find the best solution for it.

4.      Relating

Personally, from this program I had improve my soft skills especially for my critical thinking and communication skills. Before joining this program, I am an introvert person and I find that it’s quite hard to talk to strangers because of my lacking in communication skills. By being a committee members for this program especially for food and beverages unit, I had polish my communication skills by making a negotiation with the sellers that I met to ask for the most affordable price from them. Other than that, during the program, I need to talk a lot with my group mates and I overcome my fear to talk with strangers. They seem likes they are comfortable with me and I was happy that I could spread a positive vibes to them. Furthermore, I was one of instructor for the zumba session that we made in the morning. I actually had a stage fright and I am very shy to talk or even make performances in front of many people. But, by joining this program, I got to overcome that fear and successfully be the instructor for all the audiences that morning. I felt quite nervous if I didn’t do my best at that time but it turned out that I do it perfectly. This skills that I got will be beneficial for me in the future. In any professional works that we will works in, those communication skills and talking in front of many people will become part of us and I guess this was a good started for me to practice more on overcoming my fear.

5.      Reasoning

Nothing is perfect in this world as well as there is no program without a problem and challenges. One of the challenges that I need to face during the program was running was when the seller of the food suddenly not yet do our order but our lunch time was just around the corner. I was very worried and quite mad at that time but my partner try to calm me down and asked me find the solution rather than use our emotion to get through this problem. We try to ask the protocol unit if we can postpone the lunch time for like half an hour just to make sure that the participants’ lunch kit will be ready and they agree with us. On top of that, one of our team from food and beverages unit try to help the sellers to pack the lunch kit while I and my other team member prepare for the beverages. Fortunately, the lunch kit for the participants was done prepared before the postponed time finished. We apologize to all the participants and also the crew members for the mistake that we had made. We admit that it may be some miscommunications between us and the sellers and we feel relieved that everything still went well and running as what we planned in the end. This helps me to think more rationally whenever any problems occur in my life. There is no need to blame others instead try to find the best solution for it. Keep blaming each other will not make the problems solved itself and I guess this kind of situations will keep happening when I walk in the work life in the future. At least, with this experiences I can use it in the future so that I will not become too nervous or panic whenever there is any obstacles come towards me.

6.      Reconstructing

At the end of this program, I am very sure that I made a great decision by joining this program. It is because from this program, I had improved a lot on my communication skills especially with the strangers. It may be helpful for my present and future as communication skills as the most important skills that you need to have in order to secure your position in any job scope. I do a lots of activities that made me thinking outside of the box and I finally do something that outside from my comfort zone. This kind of program is very helpful for me because for an introvert person like me, this was the best opportunity to overcome any fear that I have and try to do something new in this life. Last but not least, I never regret each and every decision that I made to join this program as it gives a lot of benefits and positive outcome to myself.

7.      Summary

In this self-reflection report, I had shown you that I decided to join this program was because I want to polish my soft skills and I guess my personal objective was achieved. Personally I think that the main objective of this program has been achieve and successfully delivered as I become closer with the first year students and also my fellow friends that were part of committee members and we had made an amazing journey throughout this program.