Mohd Zainol Ariffin Bin Khairuddin

SIB 150024

When I first realized that this social engagement program is only offered in the second semester of every year, it was a no brainer for me to register for this course, as I was able to do it with my material science course mates instead of my juniors in the second year. However, things were still ambiguous for me during the early stage of the semester about this course until the first meeting with Dr Selvi. After the briefing session, my sense of anxiety developed looking at the general structure of this course which required us almost 40-hour-work of social engagement. I knew that this was not going to be an easy job to be done.

This was later proved by multiple obstacles that we faced, before this program came into reality. One of the biggest challenges was to find and confirm the location of where this program was going to be held. We had a few suggestions and finally we all agreed to run the program in MRSM Pendang, Kedah thanks especially to our leader, Izzati and her team, who worked tirelessly trying to convince the MRSM side to allow this to happen. In fact, the approval by the Principal of the school was only obtained at the last minute of time. We also faced limitation of time to prepare for the programs as we only had one week to practice. We only managed to have a few workshop sessions together to learn about the programs’ tentative. Other than that, we also had problems in term of financial as we had to figure out the cheapest price for other bus transportation as UM buses fare was way too expensive. We also needed to take into account the cost of all the things that were going to be used throughout the program. Luckily, the MRSM side was generous enough to sponsor us with accommodation and food which greatly eased off our financial burden.

I learnt a lot of things during this program. First, I learnt how to cooperate with my other course mates. Even though we come from different races, religion, and backgrounds, we were able to find common interest among ourselves in order to make this program successful. Second, as a facilitator, I was able to train myself how to conduct a group of students who had different kinds of personalities, something of which I had never experienced before. Through this program, it also taught me to overcome my shyness feeling through the activities that we did such as dancing, singing, exercising etc. Last but not least, during the program, as a person who is older than the students, I got to exchange advice and tips for them how to deal with their problems based on my experience. This sharing session really brought me and the students closer. Even the shy students started to engage more when I approached them in the right manner.

Every meeting has an end.  For me, at the end of the day, this course is about the society and has made me ponder about my role as a university student. Before this, I was not really care about social engagement program, but after doing it, it quickly strikes my mind that I have my own responsibility towards the society out there. Not all individuals are as lucky as me to enter university. There might be a lot out there who have superior intellectual than I am. So, right now, I think as a university student, try to learn as much as valuable skills as we can and teach the unfortunate ones out there so that they would be able to make their own living and hopefully able to send their sons or daughters in the university one day.” If we feed a man with a fish, we make him full for that day, but if we teach him how to fish, he will never be in hunger again.” Thank you.