The Sky is Everywhere
(Photo retrieved from Awareness
Campaign Facebook page)
2020 was
a year full of uncertainty and challenges. To witness 2021 filled with
optimism and hope, the Awareness Campaign (AC) staged another comeback this
year with the theme ‘The Sky is Everywhere’. It was organised by the
UTAR
Department of Student Affairs of Sungai Long Campus’ Counselling and
Guidance Unit (CGU). The campaign saw various workshops and games hosted for
its students and the public via Microsoft Teams.
The campaign aimed to provide a
platform for the participants to seek their support system, enhance their
knowledge, and improve their strength and self-skills throughout the
activities. On top of that, it also aimed to create awareness on the
importance of mental health while coping with the pandemic.
Eunice Tiu (first
and second photo: top row, far left) with participants in session one and
two
Exercise our creativity with “Scrapbook Making Workshop”
A “Scrapbook Making Workshop” was organised on 9 January 2021. It was facilitated by its committee member Lee Jie Anne. Invited to be the speaker was UTAR Department of Soft Skills Competency of Sungai Long Campus Assistant Lecturer Nur Farahin binti Bahari. Farahin has been teaching the subject MPU34072 Arts, Crafts and Design for four years in UTAR. She is experienced in conducting craft workshops and sharing sessions.
Farahin
Throughout the workshop, the
participants were taught to make two patterns of Scrapbook, namely Waterfall
Scrapbook and Diamond Scrapbook. To create the scrapbook, the participants
were required to prepare cardstocks, colour paper, glue, pencil and
scissors.
Waterfall Scrapbook
Diamond Scrapbook
“Scrapbook is an interesting way
for us to record things that we want to keep. Last time, the scrapbooks were
similar to the exercise books. However, as time passed, it has undergone a
lot of changes. Nowadays, we can find scrapbooks in different patterns and
shapes. We can also create our own scrapbooks. Usually, I choose colours
that are contrasting to create the scrapbook because the purpose of having a
scrapbook is to make it more vibrant; it helps our eyes to easily capture
the things that we wish to keep in it,” said Farahin.
Farahin (second
row, far right) with participants
Mental Awareness
Testing with “Lightning Round”
Another game session titled
“Lightning Round” was organised on 10 January 2021. It was facilitated by
committee member Anna Sharmini. To
conduct the game, a link to join the Kahoot! website was shared by the game
master. There was a total of 15 questions regarding the mental awareness
topic.
Kahoot! Website
awaiting participants to join in
Questions relating
to mental awareness
Anna Sharmini
(second photo: top row, far left) with participants
Helina
“Wearing make-up makes us look
confident. It has been an essential part of women’s lives from ancient
times. The trend has been changing and more trend and variant on make-up is
being added up almost every day,” said Helina.
Helina explaining
the steps for a beautiful make-up transformation
She then continued, “Before
wearing a proper make-up, we must know our skin condition and skin type to
look for the suitable products, so that we know which type of cleanser,
moisturiser and make-up products can fit us well. It is important to use the
right skincare for our skin. What works for our best friends, may not work
for us. We can always look for pharmacy and lookup for the expert and they
will do the recommendation. Avoid using cosmetics that may dry or irritate
our skin. Try to invest in quality make-up products for the desired outcome.
On top of that, it is also important to understand our skin index for the
right foundation.”
Basic make-up
essentials for a complete make-up
“I would suggest using dry compact
powder to make our make-up stay longer especially for the oily skin type,
instead of using sebum powder. Because sometimes sebum powder will rinse out
the oil in our skin and make our skin look oily,” said Helina. Meanwhile,
she also gave a piece of advice to the participants to use cleanser and
moisturiser right after using make-up remover to retain a healthy and
moisturised skin.
Make-up tutorial with Helina
Having to choose a suitable
foundation is important during the make-up
Helina after a beauty make-up
Helina (top row,
second from right) with participants
Relax with Yoga
Workout
On 11 January 2021, a session
titled “Relax with Yoga Workout” was organised. It was facilitated by its
committee member Vaishnevi Nair Mohan. Invited to be the speaker was FAM
Department of Building & Property Management Dr Sheelah Sivanathan who
graduated from Shakthi School of Yoga (SSOY) in December 2019. For the past
two and a half years, she had managed to grasp every spiritual essence of
Yoga including Asanas, Pranayama, Meditation, Shatkarmas, Asthanga Vinyasa
flow and other theoretical as well as practical aspects of Yoga. Through her
passion for Yoga, she believes that she will be able to form a supportive
community reaching each other with a healthy and strong body, mind and soul.
Dr Sheelah
“Yoga aims to balance and
harmonise our body, mind and soul. Yoga is a mind and body practice, so that
we will always be aware of our breathing. When we control our breathing, we
can control our minds. It is done through the practice of Asana breathing,
Pranayama and also meditation. The practice of Asana is very important in
Yoga. We should always breathe through our nose and coordinate our breathing
with Asana practices. It will help us become physically, mentally and
emotionally steady, calm and strong,” said Dr Sheelah.
Some poses of
“Hatha Surya Namaskar” demonstrated by Dr Sheelah
“Dhanurasana (bow
pose)” effective for weight lose
“Shavasana” is a
must to do after Yoga for relaxing our mind and body
The session saw the participation
of more than 50 participants.
Dr Sheelah (top
row, far left) with participants
Knowledge testing
with “Understanding Surroundings”
With the aim to understand the
sensory information that appears in our environment, a virtual game session
titled “Understanding Surrounding” was organised on 12 January 2021.
It was facilitated by committee member Anna Sharmini. To carry out
the game session, the game master will name a broad category and the
participants would have to type out the answer as many as possible according
to the category given. They will be given one minute to think and answer in
the chatbox within five seconds. There was a total of ten categories to
complete; the participant with the highest mark was the winner of the game.
Group photo session
with Anna Sharmini (first and second photo: top row, far left) with session
one and two participants
Guess “Who or What
am I?”
An interesting game session titled
“Who or What am I?” was organised on 14 January 2021. It was facilitated by
its committee member Wong Zhi Qing. For this game session, the game master
showed a picture of a figure, cartoon character and iconic building, to name
a few, for the participants to guess the answer. The participants were given
five seconds to think and five seconds to type the answer in the chatbox.
The first participant for each round who answered the questions correctly
was rewarded one mark and the participant who accumulated the highest mark
was the winner.
Robin Seng
Robin Seng began his session with
a brief introduction about his background and achievement. He said, “The
ultimate objective for businesses to make a video or take a photo of a
product is because they need it to help them to generate sales. I make the
video for marketing purposes. So, my goal is not to help them just take
video or photo but to help them generate sales through my video and photos.
I make online videos; I need to take care from the pre-production stage to
the post-production stage,” said Robin Seng.
Robin Seng giving a
brief introduction on how a photo or video is captured
“Light is everything. It is the
key to shooting photography from the technical side. So, when we take a
picture or video, we must pay attention to the light,” emphasised Robin
Seng. He then continued, “The FPS in the video, we call it ‘Frame per
second’ and in a photo, we call it ‘Photo per second’. A photo captures just
a single picture, but a video is the combination of multiple photos within a
period of time.” He then played a video clip to show the differences between
30 fps and 120 fps of a video.
“As one said, ‘One picture tells a
thousand words’. It is important for us to understand the purpose of taking
a photo or video so that we can convey our message clearly. A photographer
is more important than the camera. We must grow our minds and feeling to
come up with a good photo. When we take a picture, we must see with our
eyes, think with our mind and feel with our heart,” said Robin Seng.
Robin Seng sharing
the three stages of production for producing a video
While sharing the three stages of
production, he said, “Pre-production is the key. If we plan wrongly, what we
shoot and edit for the video will also wrong. So we have to spend more time
on planning during the pre-production stage then only go to production and
editing.” Meanwhile, he also shared some tips and tricks of photography.
Robin Seng
emphasising on the importance of paying attention to the light direction for
a good outcome
An example which
shows the importance of capturing a photo from the right angle
Focusing on the
subject is a must to avoid split scene shown on the left
A picture tells a
thousand words with three steps
Some “behind the
scenes” created with Adobe Premiere Pro
The sharing session then ended up
with an interactive Q&A session and a group photo session. It saw a
participation of more than 70 participants.
Robin Seng (top
row, far left) with participants
Lightning Scavenger
Hunts
The interactive virtual game
titled “Lightning Scavenger Hunts” was organised on 16 January 2021. It was
facilitated by its committee member Lim Fang Fang.
To execute the game, participants
were required to download the Microsoft Teams application on their phones.
The game master will then shows a picture for the participants to search and
take a photo of the item based on the picture shown in 40 seconds. They were
then required to post in the chatbox in the next five seconds. A total of
ten items was hunted during the game session.
The participants
posting the items found in the chatbox (circled in red) based on the picture
shown by the game master
Mastering the art
of interviewing with “Interview Skills Workshop”
With the aim to help the students
to master the art of interviewing and gain some essential tips for a
successful interview session, an “Interview Skills Workshop” was organised
on 16 January 2021. It was facilitated by committee member Choo Dijane.
Invited to be the speaker was Founder of Job Majestic Jess Low who has more
than eight years of experience in the recruitment industry. Throughout her
journey as a recruiter, she has successfully placed about 5,000 candidates
for the job placements.
Jess Low
“Our resume gets us in the door,
but our interview determines whether we are offered the position or not,”
said Jess Low. She then shared and explained four important things to bring
to an interview which were the resume, original and photocopy version of our
education certificates, personal work or portfolio and a photocopy of our
Identity Card (IC).
A video clip
demonstrating a good self-introduction
“It is important for us to do some
research on the company background, study the job scopes and get familiar
with our resume to relate our experience with the job scopes before the
interview session, ” said Jess Low.
Meanwhile, she also shared the
tips to stand out during the interview session and the common mistakes that
interviewees usually make during an interview, such as forgetfulness, overly
nervous or confident during an interview and wearing wrong attire, “Being
arrogant and confident are two different things. Always be aware of our tone
when we speak, try to be humble and show our sincerity while we are trying
to showcase our strength. That is the way to showcase our confidence. Always
greet the interviewer and do not forget to ask their names. Have a simple
and concise self-introduction; try to keep it within three minutes. Keep
smiling, be confident and be polite throughout the interview session.
Attitude is more important than skill-set.”
Some tips to tackle
tough questions from the interviewer
“Try to avoid answering interview
questions with ‘I could learn or I am willing to learn’. Also, do not give
negative opinions about our previous company or boss and do not talk about
the terms before the interview session starts. Once our interview session is
completed, always thank the interviewer; we can also write an appreciation
email after the interview. Do ‘Ask Question’, this is important to show our
interest to join the company,” explained Jess Low. She also shared some ways
to adapt to sudden situations that may occur during an interview.
The workshop was wrapped up with
an interactive Q&A session and a group photo session. It saw a participation
of more than 150 participants.
Jess Low (top row,
second from left) with participants
One of the participants, Nur
Shafain binti Omar said, “Throughout the interview skills workshop, I
learned to dress well and prepare for the tough questions which will be
asked by the interviewer. Always have confidence when answering the
questions because sometimes the questions asked is to test our strength and
capability. On top of that, being confident is important to carry out our
daily activities. With confidence, people can be persuaded by our
capabilities.”
Another participant, Priyadarshini
Visvalingam said, “The workshops organised were indeed beneficial. I am a
person who has no make-up experience. Throughout the make-up workshop, I
learnt about the products and the colours which are suitable for my skin.
Most importantly, I get to know the steps to apply the make-up from A to Z.
Besides that, the ‘Hatha Surya Namaskar’ and some breathing techniques which
were taught in the Yoga workshop was very useful. I have learned to calm
down and distress myself throughout the workshop. Last but not least, the
interview skills workshop was also a fruitful one because I learned the tips
to tackle the questions which will be asked by the interviewer and how I
should use my body language correctly. Most importantly, I learned to greet
the interviewer and be confident while answering the questions.”
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