Projek Kalsom

Projek Kalsom is an initiative by UKEC to have a bunch of university students to go to help out high school students. For this year, the details are following.

The date and venue for Projek Kalsom 14 2008 will be as follows;

Date: 16 August 2008 to 20 August 2008
Venue: Sekolah Menengah Sains Sultan Mohamad Jiwa, Sungai Petani, Kedah

Quoting more info from the website above.

Do check it out
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Objectives for Projek Kalsom
1. To inspire and encourage students to want to achieve more in studies and life by:
a) Helping them develop a positive self-image and sense of confidence through the various activities.

b) Providing positive role models in the facilitators for the students to look up to and aspire to be like.

2. To equip the students with the means to achieve more by:
a) Helping them develop and use practical study skills.

b) Developing an interest in and debunking the fear of the English language.

c) Exposing them to the wealth of career and education opportunities available to them after secondary school, and

d) To provide information on higher education funding opportunities (scholarships and loans) available to students.

3. To help them develop good character and values, aside from producing good academic results, thus enabling them to be better citizens.
a) Instilling good leadership qualities and team-work via various inter-group and intra-group activities.

b) Developing highly competitive and self-disciplined personality in participants

4. To encourage interaction between university students abroad and local students from lesser privileged backgrounds in line with the ideals of national unity

What do we do in Kalsom?
Through out the 5 days, we will working about the 3 modules of the Projek Kalsom which are:

Effective Study Skills, English Made Easy and What’s Next After SPM?

We will carry out one module for each day. Each module will comprise of various lectures and presentations by selected speakers, group discussions led by well trained and informed facilitators as well as interactive stations and games.

The following would be an introduction to some of the things we would be carrying out during Kalsom 13.

1. Effective Study Skills
In this module, participants will be exposed to and guided through various study skills and time management methods. More importantly, the skills and tips to prepare for examinations will be highlighted. We are aware that teaching them how to study is not very helpful as different individuals has different study pattern and style. As such, we will try to expose to them most of the study skills known, so as for them to choose the one best suits their ability and style.

Also, participants will also be introduced to Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. With that, we not only hope to instill good attributes in our participants to help them excel in their studies, but to contribute immensely in their character building as well.

Although there will be a lecture in this module, we will approach the major part of the module via interactive station games to make it more interesting.

2. English Made Easy
In this module, participants will be encouraged to overcome their reservations about speaking in the English language through interactive group work and other activities.

During the English Day, participants and facilitators are only allowed to converse in English, and this is to create a subtle platform for them to start feeling comfortable to speak in English. We will also have role-play and sketch-making sessions for them to have some fun while using English. Overall, the module is to be run in a very informal way as Malaysians tend to speak less due to shyness and are afraid of making grammatical mistakes. By making it informal, it would be helpful to overcome this mental block, and let them express themselves in English.

3. What’s Next After SPM?
Post-SPM Career and Education

Participants will be exposed to further education opportunities and financial aid available for them after SPM.

We will do our very best to list out every single financial aid available in this country for them. This would serve not only as a guide for them in future, but also to help them realize that there are aids available for them to pursue a career of their choice. However, these aids are not given to all so therefore they would have to show some merit in order to obtain them. It is our hope that the participants will subtly learn that they need to put in a certain amount of effort before anyone else can help them.

A career fair will also be held to expose participants to a variety of different careers options. Every group would be given 20 minutes in each station which exposes them to various job opportunities, not only the professional jobs, but opportunities in art and music, public services such as fire-fighters and arm forces as well as teaching.

We hope to get some of the real-personnel from each field to be there to answer any of the queries, and at the same time, giving a more realistic picture of the career. By exposing them to all the different careers, we hope that the participants will realize which jobs suit their interest and abilities best thus helping them maximize their potential.

Conclusion
Helping them in the job selection process might be slightly early for the participants but at least it will give them a target or a goal to work towards to. This would definitely help when they are preparing for SPM as it keeps them in focus. Together with the study techniques, we hope that this would help them do their very best for the exams. As English now is a necessity rather than an advantageous skill to have, helping the participants to be comfortable with English will give them the confidence they need to carry themselves through out the rest of their studying and working career.


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2nd Malaysian Student Leaders Summit

I blogged about 2nd Malaysian Student Leaders Summit earlier.

Do go to here

Sessions & Itinerary (Further updates to check UKEC website here


1) Keynote Address: Governance
“Transparency and Accountability in Governance – Primary Concerns of Modern Malaysia?”

• YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia

2) Judiciary and Legal Forum:
“The Rule of Law: A Question of Restoring Faith in the System?”

• YB Senator Dato’ Zaid Ibrahim, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Judicial Reform)
• Professor Dr. Shad Saleem Faruqi, Professor of Law and Legal Advisor, Mara University of Technology (UiTM)
• Ms.Ambiga Sreenevasan, President of the Malaysian BAR Council

3) Race Relations Forum:
“2008 General Elections: Managing the Changing Dynamics of Race Relations in Malaysia”

• Karim Raslan, author, columnist, lawyer and founder of Karim Raslan Associates
• Khoo Kay Peng, journalist, political analyst, Executive Director of SEDAR Institute
• Dr. Denison Jayasooria, Executive Director of the Social Strategic Foundation

4) Ministerial Address: Education
“The National Education Blueprint: Addressing Racial Polarization and Sustainable Economic Development”

• YB Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, Minister of Education

5) Opening Address: Malaysian Economy
“State of the Economy in the wake of Global Uncertainties”

• Tan Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor, Central Bank of Malaysia

6) Industry and Economic Forum:
“Looking Out of the Window: The presence of Malaysian Corporate Giants on the global economic stage”

• Dato’ Azman Mokhtar, MD of Khazanah Nasional
• Dato’ Nazir Razak, CEO of CIMB Group
• Dato’ Johan Raslan, Executive Chairman of PWC


7) Religious Diversity Forum
“Coping with Religious Diversity: The Challenge of Being Just to All Within the Context of Islam as the Official Religion”

• Dr. Mohd Asri bin Zainul Abidin, Perlis Mufti
• Datuk A. Vaithilingam, President of Malaysia Hindu Sangam
• Dr. Farish Ahmad-Noor, former Senior Fellow at the Institute for Islamic Studies, Freie University of Berlin
• Zainah Anwar, Executive Director of Sisters in Islam (SIS)


8) Royal Address
“Evolution of Malaysian Minds: Issues and Challenges towards a First World Mentality”

• HRH Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah Ibni Sultan Azlan Muhibuddin Shah, The Regent of Perak


9) Student forum:
“Student Activism: The Way Forward”

• Khairizul Rizzuan, Chairman, UKEC
• Shahril Hamdan, Director, Second MSLS
• Nithiyananthan Muthusamy, Director, Northeast (USA) Malaysia Forum

The event will also incorporate group discussions amongst participants with a view of yielding a Conference Resolution on the various topics discussed. The organisers will then work towards publicising the Resolution in our efforts to ensure that student voices are heard.

Note:The completed itinerary will be released once all details are finalised



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Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!