Two alumni, namely Colene Faith and Rasyidah binti Abu Johan, became role models for building self-confidence through the sharing of their experiences at “The Power of Self-confidence” talk series, organised by the Department of Alumni Relations and Placement. Under the series, two separate virtual talks were conducted via Microsoft Teams, with Faith’s talk being the first to be conducted on 26 January 2021, and Rasyidah’s talk conducted on 29 June 2021.

Both virtual talks aimed to equip participants with the right mindset and tools to accelerate self-leadership and personal success. The talks also provided a platform for participants to learn ways on building confidence and resilience that will help them be courageous in facing current and upcoming challenges. Participants also benefitted from the talks for having provided them with a positive outlook towards their views of the world and their personal lives.

Colene spoke on “Self-Leadership Mastery”, whereby she shared her experience of overcoming her illness and bullying. “Mastering ourselves is true power. When we talk about change, and even before we can change others, we first must change ourselves. It is also good to build our leadership skills, as well as other soft skills. Our minds play a role in how we deal with our lives and challenges, so we must be ready to change our mindset,” advised Colene.

She also advised, “A growth mindset gives us freedom and it allows us to persevere through failures. This mindset also motivates us to build new skills and remain optimistic in difficult times. Live your truth and speak the truth; in other words, be yourself and have faith in yourself. Do not let others’ words affect you and learn to let go of others’ comments of you. You know your value so do not worry about what people think of you. Also, allow yourself to make mistakes because we learn from our mistakes, and these mistakes build our confidence. Remember, it is alright to make mistakes but remember to rise from it.”

Rasyidah, on the other hand, enlightened participants of her experience of being a Chinese-speaking reporter. “As a reporter, we learn new things daily because we are assigned with different tasks that require us to study about that field. The assignment topics can range from politics, to share and even business, and we are required to travel to different locations sometimes for those assignments. So at times, life as a reporter can be unpredictable, but yet it is interesting because it enables me to learn continuously,” she said. “Time management is important because we have tight deadlines and it is important that we complete our assignments before the deadline. So we must be able to manage our assignments and time effectively to meet the deadlines,” advised Rasyidah.

As a Malay who enrolled in a private Chinese school, and then having entered Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) for reporting news in Chinese, Rasyidah spoke about the lessons she learnt from the experiences. “It does not matter what language we speak because our ethnicity does not define our language abilities. Rather, we should overlook the differences and try to understand each other’s differences. We need to respect these differences as well and respect each other’s unique backgrounds. That way, we can build a more harmonious and united environment for everyone,” advised Rasyidah.

She also advised participants to take stress as a motivation to improve and strive further. “At times, our stress also reminds us of our responsibilities and that we should fulfil these responsibilities. Whether at work or home, we have our roles to play and responsibilities to carry out, so this stress should not prevent us from doing our part, rather, it should be an encouragement to do better,” said Rasyidah.

It was recorded that both talks received over 100 participation each, and it ended with interactive Q&A sessions.