Choose me to go to London!!!

In DBIT, we don’t believe that education is all mugging and nothing else.  As such, as DBIT students, you will constantly be exposed to opportunities to participate in outside-curriculum activities such as going on overseas internships, taking part in competitions, organising events, joining workshops, start-up a business, play badminton, find love, and more!

In 2012, we have created another exciting event that DBIT students can look forward to – an Overseas Immersion Programme (OIP) to London, United Kingdom!!


This programme was opened to our current DBIT Year 2 students sometime in July, and we received an overwhelming response of almost 45 applications! 

Unfortunately, the programme can only accommodate 16 students, and so we had to turn down some of the applicants and shortlisted about 21 for further interview and selection.

But it was a headache even trying to decide which 16 students to pick among the 21 who were shortlisted.  What is so difficult about picking 16 students to go on a ‘holiday’ to UK, you might ask? 

Well, the problem is that, this OIP is definitely NOT a mere ‘holiday’.   In fact, this trip comes with pretty rigorous demands as the students would be attending university undergraduate Year 2 and Year 3 lessons at University College London (UCL) during the trip, and after they return from the trip, they are required to work on group projects that would be supervised and graded by the UK professors via Skype.  So, don’t ‘play play’ – the students who choose to go on this trip must be prepared to put in a lot of brainwork and effort!


Hence, the DBIT Course Management Team (CMT) decided that the best way to select the students who would thrive throughout the duration of the trip itself and the on-going projects that need to be implemented for the UK professors to grade would be to put them through some group activities besides considering their academic performance.

So we organised a 2 hours group activity for these 21 students on 16 Aug 2012 (Thu) so that we can observe the students in the way they lead, work with their team-members and think-on-the-spot and so on.

What did they have to do during these 2 hours activity?

Haha..  we tied them up and made them do three drawings (with hands tied-up!), walk around the room (with hands tied-up!) and do presentation (with hands tied-up!)

Here’s some pictures of them in action!

Lara, Khine, Daryl, Melvin and Zhong Meng

 

Kenneth, De Wei, Chester, Wan Ting and Liyana

 

Shazly, Lorena, Alivia, Devin, Richmond and Michelle

 

Vixson, Jeremy, Xinman, Elise and Zhaowei

 

After the group activity, we also made them do self-reflection to share some of their thoughts about what they went through.

 

“I think it was fun and I made new friends”.

 

“In this activity, we had our wrists tied together which limited our movement, but together, we managed to overcome the obstacles and completed the activity in the fastest time.   This reminds me that in life, we will face many obstacles but as long as we work towards them and not give up, we would be able to overcome any obstacle presented to us”

 

“My group was awesome”

 

“This is the first time I feel comfortable in a group with new friends I have just made.  There was a lot of laughter”

 

“The group activity was fun and I saw many creative drawings”

 

Indeed, we were astounded by the creative and artistic flair of the students.  With hands bound and given just 20 minutes, some of them came up with really awesome pictures and ideas with one group even coming up with an engaging storyline which tied in the theme of what we asked them to draw – three objects that represent Business, IT and London.

 

Here’s some samples of their creative drawings!