Reflection writing 1
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On 28th September 2019, Mid-Autumn Festival Night is held at Tasek Ilmu UTMJB. The purpose of having this event is to promote Chinese traditional culture with UTM students. I, as a member of UTM Flying Dance Studio was invited to be one of the performers. Under UTM Flying Dance Studio, a lot of members joined and started their practices on schedule. My team and I set our free time as practice sessions, usually it will be after class to ensure that both academic and society were carried out equally. Everyone in my team gave their cooperation to join the training. Basically, this kind of event usually needed to do a lot of preparations before the D-day.
Before 2 weeks from the event, my team and I decided to learn the choreography after our class every day so that we could make the performance perfect for our audiences. Besides teaching them dance, I also joined other choreography as a dancer. Since Mid-Autumn Festival Night is organized to promote Chinese traditional culture, Chinese traditional dance is one of the highlights. We spent day and day, hour and hour to learn every single step of moves in order to match the tempo accurately. I taught them how to dance then sometimes they corrected my moves if I made mistakes. During training, all steps were taught and all the positions of dancers were well adjusted. Throughout the process, each of us learnt and gained from others to achieve our goals together.
As a person in-charge of one of the performance slots, I always make sure that my team could follow up what I taught and their steps were correct. Sometimes, I had to coordinate problems that were created, for example some dancers were hard to memorize the steps, then I had to change the steps into more easier or simpler ways. Other than that, clothing of performers and also transportation of performers were hot issues for the dancers because we were just students and most of us can’t afford to buy new clothes or have any vehicles in the campus. Therefore, I had to deal with all of these kinds of problems and provided my team members a good solution that would not burden them at the same time.
In order to make everything perfect, my team and I had recorded every practice that we had made. So that we can replay the video to see what is the problem with the performance and make a correction before getting the real performance. A rehearsal was carried out after two weeks of training. We went to the event venue and got ourselves to adapt with the stage. At the same time, we also needed to do facial expressions and also had to deal with nervousness while we were on the stage so that the performance would look more professional.
During the event, we performed the dance flawlessly and earned audiences’ cheers. After the slot, I also enjoyed some stations that were set which let participants enjoy and learn Chinese traditional culture, for example calligraphy, story-telling and also some mini-games. Besides that, a lot of food trucks sold food and drink on that festival night. Overall, this festival night should be held with other races together to give a chance to other races or foreigners to learn more about multiculturalism of Malaysia.
It was really my pleasure to be invited and had been selected as one of the persons in-charge to teach members who interested to perform on the Mid-Autumn Festival Night. I noticed that my team and I practised, sweated and also had our dinner together and at that moment this made me reminded of the phrase, “The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle ”. Of course, we did a good performance on that day after all these practices. I think this is a special experience for me because I involved myself in that situation as a teacher and also a student at the same time. This made me realize that cooperation between each other is always better than you did the thing individually. Since I had both side experience as a leader and also a member of a team, this kind of experience makes me feel connected to other people. In the same way, I also learnt the way to get along with people.
Actually, it was a very interesting experience to be one of the persons in-charge of the performance slot. Before that, I used to be a person who didn’t want to plan anything before doing something. After I was assigned as one of the people in-charge, I had to force myself to learn the whole choreography of the dance and familiarize myself with the music and tempo within 3 days, so that I can make sure everything was on schedule.
This action really develops myself into a more self-disciplined person. Throughout the preparation, I felt that I grew up with my teammates together and learned to share my happiness or positive thoughts with others instead of sharing their negatives during those two weeks. This is vital because a leader is the one who influences the team members, so the leader needs to be a good model for the team members. From this event, I did learn a lot when dealing with problems which happened in the team and made me grow then I realize that it is not that easy to lead a team. This makes me feel more appreciated with those leaders who had led me in any group works like assignments or projects.
I understand that nobody is perfect and I am glad that I have the opportunity to be the one who leads the team and at the same time, I feel grateful that I have met my team members who always give me support and cooperate with my instructions during the preparation. The most important thing is that they were giving me some advice when I met my bottleneck in teaching them and they also led me to find the way to solve my problems, this is because I had to memorize many choreography at that moment and I got confused or mixed them together. My teammates are considerate and thoughtful members. They knew I was under pressure at that time, so they did well at every practice in order to reduce the burden on my shoulder. Sometimes, they also point out some of my mistakes, so that I can correct them directly on the spot. I was quite satisfied with my team’s performance and I feel glad to be a team with my dancers. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach and also learn from them.
I have learnt that becoming a team leader is not that simple. As a leader, I need to be able to communicate with my team members in the effective way. For example, giving them clear instructions during the tutorial part. At the same time, this will build trust and relationships within my team. From this event, I realize that the responsibility of a leader is the main part for making sure my team is able to achieve the goal - PERFORM AN AWESOME PERFORMANCE. I arranged the time table of the practice time so that the progress was always on schedule. In order to let all of my team members get ready to perform in front of audiences, I also put a lot of effort to ensure my team members can have their best condition to perform at that event including helping them to borrow clothes for performance, arranged transportation and also helped them to make up.
No doubt that the cooperation of teammates is also as important as leadership. Team members always show me their support and learn the choreography properly. Even after the event has passed, they are still active in the chat room and wait for the next chance to dance together again. This makes me feel that bonding within the team is important and valuable as it can be exchanged into another form which is friendship. We become supporters and friends for each other after the event although we all are from different kinds of backgrounds.
In conclusion, I really did learn a lot throughout the whole process of preparation for this event. In addition, I think this memorable experience encouraged me to join more activities in my university life, make friends with others and have the courage to take the responsibility as a team leader. In the future, I think I will get myself involved and play different roles on committees, so that I will gain more experience on different positions and their responsibility respectively. Besides, I have also learnt the importance of self-discipline and I wish that I will improve or enhance my discipline by planning my time wisely and remove temptations, so that I can focus on the task that I have set and stop wasting time to wait for it to “feel right”.
Photo session:
The Chinese Traditional Dance on the stage Mid-Autumn Festival Night
(Me using the green mask)
Photo session with another performance team
(Me at the center of the picture)
Reflection writing 2
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On 15th November 2019, some of my course mates and I had joined Start-up Weekend JB (SWJB) at S01, Kolej Tuanku Canselor (KTC), UTM which is organized by UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) in collaboration with Techstars, Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), and Start Malaysia (formerly StartupJohor). It is a 54-hours event that brings together designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and experts from all expect to do amazing things and anyone is welcome to pitch their start-up idea and receive feedback from their peers. This event also acts as a platform for those who join this event to brainstorm ideas which could be the next trending in entrepreneurship.
This program offers introduction to members on different business venture ideas and innovative thought in taking care of issues just as developing participation among the members through a few exercises. Alongside that, members would likewise learn numerous business-related ideas and terms, for example, 'Plan of action Canvas’ or also called as ‘Business Model Canvas', 'Validation Board', 'Business Pitching' and significantly more. The reasons I joined this event were because of the invitation from my course-mate and also the attractive awards would be given if we won in this event.
On the very first day, we were welcomed by the organizer team with lunch and having our first activity - Ice Breaking! From this activity, I had known other undergraduates UTMJB from other faculties especially those who are international students. At first, all of the participants were separated then collaborated in a team of 9 and tried to promote a new product on the spot as an warm-up for this event. For my team, we got the key words like ‘Pumpkin’ and also ‘Oil’. Therefore, my team had a plan with introducing a cosmetic product, ‘Pumpkin Oil Lipstick’ which was lipstick without petroleum and it would be a more friendly product to users. This is very interesting and challenging at the same time because we had to discuss and conclude the idea in a limited time period. Then, all of the team took turns to present their ideas on the stage. All teams had pitched their fascinating thoughts.
After that, the event was continued with asking participants who had an idea to pitch related to the theme were invited to pitch on the stage. A voting session was begun right after they pitched. Those ideas or plans had higher votes and continued to proceed and form a team of 5 to start their brainstorming on that idea. My team planned to have a system related to collecting materials that can be recycled. Originally, the system was called “Grabbish” but then there was some similarity with the “Grab” application. In order to avoid confusion of consumers, we changed the system name as “TRASHGOLD” which means we made trash into gold.
There were some mentor sessions for all the teams to discuss their idea with mentors and improve their idea after guiding on the second day. A team of mentors from different foundations will manage the members in arranging and executing their marketable strategies and thoughts. Typically those guides are UTM alumni and lecturers who have tremendous information and encounters in business, just as business visionaries, who have effectively set up their own family new companies adventures. Final pitching session was on the last day and the representative of the teams would have to pitch the idea in front of three panels in order to win a development grant. Despite the fact that my group didn't win, we still took in a ton from this program.
During the warm-up session, I was nervous at first because I was not a native speaker of English but I needed to speak in order to communicate with the foreigner students in my team. Ideas are meaningless without proper execution. I had to force myself to speak up my idea no matter what they thought about my speaking skills. However, I found that my team could understand me completely on what I was trying to say and really supported my idea to promote “Pumpkin Oil Lipstick”. One of the members helped me during the pitching session. So I felt more confidence when my team was going to pitch. From this warm-up session, I gained knowledge of planning a business idea, pitching and also making friends with other participants to form the team working.
After that, I joined a team which planned to do a system of collecting recycled materials from the community in order to increase the percentage of involving the community to do recycle activity. We tried a lot of ideas and plans to make our plan more complete. We also consulted some mentors who were on the spot so that they could point out the weaknesses or the things that my team should take note of. The whole process was repeated with thinking, planning and consulting till everything was completed. All of my team members also spent the whole night doing the presentation slide, confirming the flow of the system and getting prepared with a pitching session tomorrow. This process was exhausting and tiring at the same time because my team burnt midnight oil and sacrificed our sleeping time in order to make the ideas perfectly.
From this event, I learnt that starting a business is challenging, not to mention keeping the business longer and making it profitable. This is my first time to take part in this kind of competition. Previously, I thought that starting a business was very easy as long as you got the idea to start your business but the reality is not like that. Throughout the event, I gained a lot of knowledge about how to start-up a business and the way to analyse the business plan. The theme of this start-up programme is Eco-Innovation which your idea should be related with the environment and eco-friendly. This theme makes me think more about development is not only making humans develop, but also taking care of our environment as well. During the process of development, we also need to ensure that the process of the development is sustainable and eco-friendly. 17 Sustainable Development Goals were introduced to all participants and the idea we proposed needed to fit in at least one of those goals.
Throughout the whole programme, I also learned that communication skill is very important in order to speak out an idea and negotiate with mentors when discussing the idea we proposed. In business, negotiation skills are significant in both casual everyday interaction and formal business transactions, for example, negotiating of offers, rent, administration conveyance, and other lawful agreements. Great negotiation skills will contribute fundamentally to business achievement, as these skills will assist you with building better connections with the customers or business partners. Moreover, this programme makes me know more about entrepreneurship and business management after listening to the mentors’ guide and talks. We created the presentation slides, strategies of business and also planned the way our business works through a series of group discussions together. The most unfortunate point is we did not win the competition although my team did perform well with our team-working but it was a memorable experience that showed me the hustle it can be to start a new business.
For me the most significant aspect is learning the way to make a start-up. This is challenging and hard to manage when there is my first time in contact with entrepreneurship. After the committees and mentors of the program had guided my team, I realised that actually the most important thing of starting a business is to analyse the problem faced and give a solution that can solve the problem accurately. In this process, a lot of research and also a business mentor are needed in order to understand the market and also your potential opponent. The last point to make a successful start-up is not to skip any opportunities that help you get more understanding on your business, like being a volunteer to help organizations which are related to your idea or planning.
I am happy with what I have experienced and would like to say congrats to those winner teams and hope that their ideas will turn into successful ventures in the future and develop the community with their fresh ideas. I also wish my team will join this event for the next time since this program brings benefit to us and together we will make our planning happen. As you can see, the event did bring me a lot of knowledge and benefits, it makes me feel like one more achievement is unlocked in my university life so be confident and feel free to step out of your comfort zone and seek your chance to contribute to the society and community by sharing and generating the spark of your ideas then make it come true. You may find that the world is getting better because of your innovation idea.
Photo session:
Ice breaking - Pitching the idea with my teammate
Consult session - Mentor is giving her views to my team
Closing ceremony - Taking group photo with my course mates