In hindsight, it is beyond imagination how time flies and as it has been nearly a month and a half since the very first day of joining Community Leadership Academy (CLA). And, it is the time again to have the honour of sharing the gist of this programme which took us 3 days and 2 nights. It must be crossing your mind that what is this special programme that you are totally clueless about and have not even heard of. Say no more, let us jump right into it.
To put it in perspective, this programme was tailored for undergraduate students in order to hone our event organising skills during the Startup Weekend Programme. This event was held in Cyberjaya, dubbed the Silicon Valley of Malaysia with the intention to further cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship in the nation. It was a joint collaboration between Techstar, a multinational company , and our local government agency known as MaGIC, as part of the effort in providing guidance to existing and upcoming entrepreneurs.
Being a 3 days 2 nights programme, the event itself was held during the weekend. It was initially be from the Friday right until the end of Sunday, however, it was such a regret that we were not able to make it on Friday itself, due to an unprecedented incident within the university.
Through this opportunity , I got to know more about Kar Yen(Shum Kar Yen). The entire journey was nothing, but an opportunity to exchange and share our experiences as well as views in life. Of course, not forgetting my mentor, Ng Ping Jian. He was the one that offers me this opportunity and had guided me since the first day I joined the team. Two other mentors came in to join us upon reaching the lobby of the APEX tower. They were waiting for us and that was my very first time of having met Simon Yeoh Hong Boon, the founder of IEEE USM Student branch.
Having listened to what Kar Yen had told me all along, it made me ever more curious and wanting to know more about this individual. It so happened to be fortunate of meeting another awesome guy named Thien Ching Ling, Student representative of UNIMAP.
Curious with how the condominium would look like? So was I.
Thanks of our beloved student branch mentor, Simeon had continuously sent us the overwhelming photos of the view taken from the condominium throughout our entire journey and kept seducing us by detailing how superior were the facilities being provided at the accommodation.
To put it in perspective, this programme was tailored for undergraduate students in order to hone our event organising skills during the Startup Weekend Programme. This event was held in Cyberjaya, dubbed the Silicon Valley of Malaysia with the intention to further cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship in the nation. It was a joint collaboration between Techstar, a multinational company , and our local government agency known as MaGIC, as part of the effort in providing guidance to existing and upcoming entrepreneurs.
Being a 3 days 2 nights programme, the event itself was held during the weekend. It was initially be from the Friday right until the end of Sunday, however, it was such a regret that we were not able to make it on Friday itself, due to an unprecedented incident within the university.
Until this moment of writing, I could still vividly recall how impressed we were at the first sight of the elegant condominium arranged for us.
After getting some rest and placing our stuff, we proceeded to the nearby shopping centre for dinner. We had our Japanese cuisine there and there was where we started getting to know each other better.
After the dinner and the after-meal strolling the mall, we headed back to the condominium and decided that we would be having a swimming session.
But unfortunately , it was already 9.50pm and we were informed by the security guard that we would not no longer be allowed to swim, seeing that the operation would be ended at 10pm.
For as much as it was disappointing to see that we were all well prepared to have a blast in the pool, it was just as much fun for what had happened earlier when Kar Yen refused to join us for a swim.
Doing our very best to convince her but her stubbornness forced us to think of ways to change her mind. We even let her to come down with her laptop to finish up her WIE work. WIE stands for Women in Engineering which is another individual chapter under IEEE , and she was appointed as the director for this chapter and that’s why she was quite busy. Yet, she refused and eventually we had no option but resorted to attack her from weakness point by coming up with haunted ghost stories so as to scare her off and not stay in the room.
It worked flawlessly, just as what was intended! Well, since the swimming section was cancelled abruptly, Simeon suggested another very COOLL place to go. That is.. THAAA DAAAA
Stunning indeed, no? We got our time off from the hustle and bustle in the university, while chilling and admiring the marvelous view up from the above. Having a constructive discussion at 30 floors high and Shandy on the rocks, the ambient was nothing but that resembles of having a vacation, without the need to rush for assignments, of course! (haha) . That was the moment where Simon started sharing heaps of his fascinating experience with us.
Truth be told, I was impressed with how much he knows and had certainly gained a great deal of insights from him. Before ending the session, guidance was given to us on what we needed to be done on the subsequent days.
With that, we ended our Day 1.
On day 2, We woke up early in the morning to prepare for the long, busy, yet exciting day ahead.
Again, I was amazed with the environment MaGIC provided.
After the exhaustive day which was packed with training programmes. Yea , guess what ? It was the dinner time ! We were invited to have our dinner at the famous town area in KL of the name of The X located along Jalan Telawi in Bangsar.
We had people from all around the world and that was where we spent some quality time to network with them.
What I would say after hearing these mentors’ sharing is that ,they were really awesome and had broadened my horizon, expanding my perspective on life and the world beyond. They were friendly and selfless in the sense of willing of sharing their stories and values with us. It was a truly, well-spent day of being able to meet with like-minded individuals.
On day three,it was the closing day and to compensate for the incident earlier,we went for a swim early morning before heading back to MaGIC. They finished it up formally with a full test run to mark the end of the 3 days 2 nights programmes.
Time was set and the judges were there to evaluate the participants. The day went by exactly what was planned for the day. All of us would be the participants and given the chance to pitch to the crowd , explaining our ideas while working in a team!
With this , I would like to end my sharing experience from the 3 days 2 night program. Hope you all will like it!
As one of the founders of IEEE USM Student Branch, Simon Yeoh believes that university and college students are the best target audience for startup initiatives simply because they are the most energetic and creative at this stage of life. But perhaps the most crucial factor of all is that these students are less likely to be deterred by failure, thus making them the ideal candidates to embrace risks and opportunities.
