a unique campus culture

8/7/2019 A Unique Campus Culture

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a-unique-campus-culture 1/6

A unique campus cultureBy NADIA [email protected]

A group of local undergraduates discover the benefits of volunteering during a two -week

programme at a British university.

IN A bright and cheerful classroom at a primary school in Lancaster, Britain, six Malaysian

tertiary students sat on little chairs hunched over multiplication and division questions.

Each of them grouped with seven and eight-year-olds, the students used plastic coins to help the

pupils understand the sums without giving away the answers.

³Compared to this, my primary school was like a dungeon!´ said Kishenjeet Nelson Dhillon.

Positive vibes: (from right) Kishenjeet,Sonia, Candy and Nicholas discussing the differences between student life in Malaysia and Britain withTomaszewics during their guest appearance on the university¶s radio station.

³The lesson was collaborative and inclusive ± such a different style of learning than what we¶re

used to,´ said fellow group member Candy Lee Ker Ching.

Sunway University students Candy and Kishenjeet ± together with Vanessa OngShu Yu, Sonia

Lim Suan Li, ArunaPuspalingam and Nicholas GohTeik Lee ± were volunteering at the school

during their two-week cultural exchange visit to Lancaster University recently.

The students also conducted a short ³lesson´ on Malaysia before heading out to the playground

where they shared the traditional game anakayam and conducted an amusing tai chi session,much to the delight of the pupils.



Vanessa seems amused by a chicken at the organic garden on campus.

The visit was part of Sunway University¶s 2006 partnership with Lancaster University. The

partnership includes joint research and academic collaboration ² students who complete a

Sunway University honours degree are awarded a joint Lancaster degree ² as well as a study

trip to Lancaster for Chancellors¶ scholars Candy and Vanessa.

According to Sunway student services director Lee Siok Ping, the rest of the group were chosen

for the trip based on their academic excellence, extra-curricular involvement and leadership

potential.

It may have sounded like a holiday, but the students certainly didn¶t have it easy. With a packed

schedule that included volunteering sessions, meetings with faculty staff members and students,

as well as presentations, the students were expected to not only bring lessons learnt back to

Sunway, they were also helping to develop the programme for future cultural exchange visits

between the two institutions.

Varied activities

The group was exposed to campus life at the university through activities conducted by the

Lancaster University Student Union (LUSU), the umbrella society that runs the volunteering unit

LUSU Involve, community outreachprogramme Voltage, and environmental project

GreenLancaster.

With LUSU Involve, the students helped to conduct a science event for primary schoolchildren,

who visited the university as part of a science and technology week at their school. Conducting

simple experiments, the students manned booths at the biology, physics and life science

sections, and helped facilitate a game where children pretended to be gas molecules that bump

and merge with each other.

³The point was to expose children to science at a young age so they see how fun it can be,´ said

Candy.

³It was amazing. I found that I l ike kids!´ said Nicholas.



The students were also exposed to different environmental projects on campus, such as a bio-

waste bin to convert leftover food into fertiliser, and the GreenLancaster activity, which saw the

group visiting an organic garden, where they helped to transfer seedlings from the greenhouse to

the ground.

Young scientists: Nicholasdemonstrating an experiment to introduce young children to Science.

Being city dwellers and coming from a university within a self-contained resort, it was little

surprise that some of the students found digging in the earth to be a memorable exprience.

³The GreenLancaster activity was a highlight for me,´ said Candy.

³We got to do gardening in front of a scenic view of the hills with wide open spaces, and we saw

sheep and wild peacocks too,´ she added.

³Although environmental awareness is a hot topic in Malaysia, I never found it that interesting.

We saw it in a different light in a way that was engaging. Right on campus, we played with

chickens and touched earth,´ said Sonia.

Besides interacting with different faculties, clubs and societies, the students also got the chance

to go on Bailrigg FM, the university¶s student-run radio station.

With host Greg Tomaszewics, it was a lively talk show where the group discussed differences in

food (fish and chips vsnasilemak ), student hang-out spots (pubs vsmamak stalls/restaurants), as

well as their experiences on campus so far.



The students holding up their certificates of recognition from Prof Bradley (centre) and Matthews (fourth left).

Off-campus, the group had the opportunity to visit nearby sights such as the city¶s historic

Lancaster Castle, holiday spot Blackpool, the city of Manchester, and the scenic Lake District.

Working closely with the student union, the group acted as their university¶s ambassadors to

strengthen the partnership and further develop the cultural exchange programme.

³This trip was about inviting the students here to experience the different activities and to give

feedback. They are the pathfinders to looking ahead before we scale the programme to affect

more students,´ said LUSU director of opportunities Ben Matthews.

³The feedback we¶ve gotten from participants is that they want students themselves to be at the

forefront of the programme, and we¶re here to facilitate that. That gives us the best chance of

creating the best programme that¶s most relevant to the students,´ he added.

Learning to give

The students said the main lesson they would take away from the trip was the culture of

volunteering, which seemed to thrive among students at Lancaster University.

Besides a bustling volunteering unit in the form of LUSU Involve, some programmes even grant

credit hours for volunteering in schools, giving students the option of completing part of their

degree by helping to teach or implement community projects.

Matthews said volunteering was part and parcel of students¶ experience at the university, adding

that the culture was something that developed over time.

He also said the ³type´ of volunteering promoted at the university was not just for the betterment

of the community, it was also meant to improve students¶ soft skills, leadership, teamwork and

social consciousness.

³There¶s a stereotype that volunteering means helping someone across the road or picking up

some litter, but we believe in looking beyond the issue and finding the cause of littering, for

example,´ said Matthews.

³If people aren¶t taking care of their communities, how do you engage that community to take

responsibility and care about the environment?



³That¶s the level our students should be entering at,´ he explained.

Having participated in different volunteering activities, Sonia said it made her see community

work in a new light.

³We¶ve done µvolunteering¶ before but on a smaller small scale such as charity and donation

drives.

³If we could put it into practice, we want students to be aware and to be motivated to take up the

challenge ± to do something for someone that has a positive impact on their lives,´ said Sonia.

While Vanessa agreed that volunteering seemed to come naturally to the students themselves,

the university management and organisers such as LUSU Involve played a crucial part in

³selling´ the idea.

³Back home, whenever there¶s a call to volunteer, usually no rationale is given, no bigger picture.

³At Lancaster you¶re given a whole bunch of benefits ± tangible benefits to the community andalso to yourself ± which motivates you to get involved,´ said Vanessa.

Aside from LUSU Involve, the university also features a club that promotes volunteering with a

business twist called Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE).

Founded in 2005 at Lancaster, it is part of a worldwide network of SIFE clubs where activities

revolve around improving communities through business.

³SIFE is about improving people¶s lives through social enterprise, empowering people through

the projects that we do, and transferring knowledge so that they can build economic opportunity

for themselves,´ said the society¶s outoing president Matt Jones.

The club has almost 300 members who run 28 different projects, which range from providing

local farmers with an avenue to sell their produce on campus, to teaching a community in Kenya

on how to maintain a library.

³We encourage a sense of corporate social responsibility ² as future managers, our students

are encouraged to help and support communities,´ said the varsity¶s Management School dean

Prof Sue Cox OBE.

³It¶s management in action.

³We can¶t think in the light that education is just about listening to lectures,´ she added.

A SIFE club was established last year at Sunway University, and Candy said she was inspired by

the success of SIFE Lancaster, and was looking forward to adapting and implementing

sustainable projects in Malaysia, using tips and advice from Jones.

Glad to be home



At the end of trip, the group returned to Malaysia, arguably exhausted but enriched by the

experience.

´The trip was busy and tiring but it was def initely an eye-opening and enjoyable experience,´ said

Sonia.

³There was a good balance between learning activities and social interaction with not only our

peers but also people in the higher levels of Lancaster University,´ she added.

No doubt they looked forward to sharing pictures, souvenirs and chocolate treats they brought

home, but they were also eager to share their experiences and lessons learnt with their peers.

³On the flight going there, we were talking about experiencing British µculture¶ that we knew, such

as fish and chips and watching football in a pub,´ said Kishenjeet.

³We ended up learning things that we didn¶t really think were important and didn¶t pay much

attention to, such as community work and environmental projects, which are very important

aspects of university life at Lancaster,´ he added.

a unique campus culture

Documents