The iCare Network Camp was held at Aloha Changi Resorts on 12 and 13 August 2011. It was a camp organized by Office of Student Affairs (OSA) to bond members of the newly formed iCare committee together through the 2D1N retreat, and our student facilitators (SFs) are invited to join them for the camp! “iCare” stands for “International Connect And Relations Enthusiasts!”, and their passion is to help international friends from all over the world to settle down and have a great experience in NUS and in Singapore. Besides, the committee is formed by students who come from various parts of the world, so they will be helping their fellow international students too!

We met the members at the OSA conference room at 10am. We started off the camp by playing an energizer and icebreaker with the iCare members. We also played a game ‘trapped!” with them. After that, our “Mama OSA” Miss Lim and “Papa SF” Terence gave an opening address to the members. The members discussed with the 2 OSA staff on their personal expectations for the camp as well as that of the committee for the rest of the semester.

We travelled to Aloha Changi Resorts at around 1.30pm. After we had done the check-in, we organized a teambuilding challenge for the iCare members, whereby they had to step on rubber mats in sequence, and ensure that at least one person is stepping on it until the whole committee has passed through it. This was to help them improve on their teamwork spirit.

Next, we conducted an experiential challenge for them, whereby they were split into three groups and played a game “mass jigsaw”. Each group had their own puzzles and other groups’ puzzles mixed up in their bag, but had to try to finish the puzzle in the shortest time possible. The message to be brought home was to “think win-win”, to co-operate with one another and complete the task together.

After the games, we did a short debrief for the members and then guided the team to set their first ever ground rules. The iCare members then did a SWOT analysis at individual level, followed by discussing together as a group and consolidating their ideas together.

Our SFs helped to purchase dinner from Changi Village Food Centre. When we brought the food back to the chalet and lay out on the dining table, it looked sumptuous! There was all the local food that many of the international students have not tried before. It includes goreng pisang, barbecued stingray, Malay fried rice, Chinese stir fried beef noodles, mee goreng, otak, rojak, century egg with pickled ginger etc.

Dinner was not complete without the members trying out durian. Miss Lim kindly bought it for all of us, and she bought rambutan and pulasan too. Those who have not tried durian before felt somewhat reluctant initially due to the pungent smell, but after trying one, they said that it tasted good! After that, the members went back to the hostel to continue brainstorming for potential iCare projects in NUS.

On day 2, we started off with a teambuilding challenge for the iCare members- cooking breakfast. All of them have improved on their team bonding since yesterday as each member knew what roles to take and everything went smoothly. We had sausages with egg toasts, tomato beans and mustard rice, thanks to the great members!

We did a warm with the members by conducting 2 energizers for them. After the games, we reviewed the ground rules that they had previously set and helped them to further refine it.

Our finale challenge for the iCare members was to split them into 2 teams, and each team was to build the higher tower with items like marshmallows and spaghetti in less than ten minutes. One team’s tower looked good for the foundation, but as they tried to add on more items, it could not support the weight well. Time started to run out for them, and it seemed a bit too late to rectify their design by then. When the time was up, the winning team was announced, and we gathered the members back for Terence’s debrief. The main aim of the activity was not to see who has won, but more importantly, to constantly have in mind what a task would look like after it has been completed. It was inspiring and indeed true that “if we fail to plan, we plan to fail”.

We checked out of the chalet and returned back to NUS in the afternoon. Through this retreat, our SFs had made new friends, and further improved on their facilitation skills in the process!

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The generation 4 SFs went through the 2D1N retreat at Aloha Changi Resorts from 6 to 7 August 2011, where every member had to go through the second part of the Basic Student Facilitators Training (BSFT II).

We gathered at Tampines Interchange at 9am in the morning, took bus 19 to Changi Beach Park, and took a short walk to the resort. We checked in at Netheravon Terrace Chalets B and C with Jaslin and Terrence when we met them at the reception area.

We first had an energizer to warm ourselves up, led by our president Jaslin, and we played “Kung-fu Master” together. Then it was all the members’ show now, each of the 10 of them have to conduct an activity each, and then conduct a debrief after his or her activity. The order for the 2D1N games was as follows: Waqas (Tank Commander), Thanh (Dogs and Bone), Kam Wai (Contact), Ken Juin (Clapper Trust), Zihui (Broken Squares), Shu Hui (Origami), Pradeep (Tag the Tail), Mohana (Balloon Chain), Ngan (All Abroad), Yuan Ting (Find the Ball).

“Tank Commander”.

“Contact”.

“Clapper Trust”.

“Tag the tail”.

“Balloon Chain”.

The gen 4 SFs were able to brush up their skills and learn from one another. The “participants” reviewed the conducting SF’s performance, gave feedback and discussed on areas to be improved on. During the camp, Terence gave them a recap on facilitation and debriefing techniques, program design and risk assessment (RAMS) during the training. The gen 4 SFs also brainstormed among themselves the upcoming activities to organize in the future.

The gen 4 SF had their own bonding activities throughout their camp. These include playing ball games during their free time, waking up to cook breakfast together at 7.00am in the morning, play monopoly deal before sleep etc.

After the retreat, the gen 4 SFs have finally passed the BSFT II training. The 2D1N camp was so enjoyable with all the fun games, and the gen 4 SFs got to know one another much better and formed a greater bond together. Hooray!

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NUS Scholar Development Camp 2011 was an initiative by the Office of Admission to provide NUS scholars with a holistic experience. It was a 3D2N camp held at Kota Rainforest Resort from 12 July to 14 July 2011.Three of our student facilitators, namely Jaslin, Quynh and Zihui, have volunteered to help out in this camp, along with some staffs of OSA.

Kota Rainforest Resort

On 12 July morning, 40 NUS scholars, the 3 student facilitators and some NUS staffs gathered at the sport complex and set off for Kota Rainforest Resort in chartered buses. When they finally arrived at Kota Rainforest Resort, the NUS scholars attended an interesting and engaging presentation on the seven habits of highly effective people conducted by our Terence. Games were played during the presentation to illustrate the seven habits and the student facilitators helped to facilitate them. For examples, “Trapped” was played to illustrate the point of being proactive, where the scholars had to struggle to get untangled from their partner, and, “Draw” was played to illustrate the point of understanding and getting understood, where one scholar had to describe an object to another scholar for it to be drawn out.

Thinking of how to get untangled...

The guy trying to draw the picture on the paper based on the girl's description

Besides the presentation, the scholars also played some wet games and an amazing race. In the midst of the fun and excitement, the scholars did not forget to apply the seven habits presented earlier on to accomplish their objectives, making the experience even more rewarding. The finale for the amazing race, which was the raft building, actually required the three different teams to pool together their resources. The scholars practiced thinking win-win and resolved the predicament in no time.

Blindman Aqua Challenge

Row Row Pond Challenge

Indiana Jones

Whale Watch

Combining resources to build the raft

Testing the raft

During the activities, the student facilitators played an important role in helping the scholars identify areas for improvement in their team dynamic and guided each team towards setting up ground rules.

Jaslin giving a debrief

The camp finally ended after three days and two nights, the scholars sat down for a short final debrief and a slideshow of photos taken during the camp was played. After which, the group headed to Tebrau city for a short R & R before returning to Singapore. During the camp, the scholars learned about the seven habits of highly effective people, had  lots of fun and made many new friends. The student facilitators also managed to earn facilitation experiences and gain new insights from their interactions with the scholars.

Group Photo

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The first project conducted by the Generation (Gen 3) of Facilitators@NUS in AY1011, the NUS Choir Executive Committee Teambuilding workshop was held on 14 August 2010 at CFA. With the help of the seniors, Ariff (OIC) and Hanyang, the Gen 3 student facilitators, namely Jaslin, Jeslin and Vance were off to a good start. Specially designed to suit the needs of NUS Choir EXCO, the programme saw good reviews, especially in helping the team understand the importance of team dynamics and improved communications.

With the notion of teambuilding in mind, the first activity undertaken was the “Sherpa Walk”, in which the participants were standing in a line, with their blindfolds on and guided to walk though a “unfamiliar” terrain. With hands on each other’s shoulders, they had to depend on one another to navigate the terrain. Other activities like “Key Punch” and “Zoom”, the participants had the opportunity to work together as a team to solve problems.

Through activities geared towards improving team dynamics, the facilitators engaged the participants in active discussion throughout the entire programme. As the level of difficulty increased, the participants bravely stepped up to the challenges they were given. Lo and behold! Victory was theirs!