Glimmers of Hope

The event poster

The Counselling and Guidance Unit of UTAR Department of Student Affairs (DSA) once again organised its yearly Awareness Campaign this year, themed ‘Glimmers of Hope’, from 10 January 2022 till 16 January 2022 via Microsoft Teams and Zoom. It saw the participation of UTAR staff and students.

The goals of the campaign this year were to emphasise the significance of hope in pursuing a meaningful and happy living, give information on how to enhance personal strengths and self-coping abilities, introduce the rippling impact of hope on subjective well-being in daily life, and promote and expand counselling services provided by the UTAR Counselling and Guidance Unit.

One of the highlight activities was the Draw Your Day Challenge, in which the participants were required to snap a photo of the sky and use their imagination to sketch it creatively. In the five-day challenge, participants were also asked to publish the sky shot they drew at least once a day. The participants were given the option to post the photo through an Instagram story or post. Participants who completed this five-day challenge were eligible to participate in the fortunate draw event. As a results, UTAR students Siow Jia Ying, Seow Khai Shiuan Rajakumaran, Tan sin Ty, and Loh Tien Sin successfully completed the challenge and won the lucky draw.

Pictures of sky drawn by some participants

The Poster Design Competition was held subsequently. Participants in the competition were permitted to utilise Photoshop, Canva, or any other applicable software tools to create the e-posters. Moreover, participants were required to submit a brief write-up of about 50 words, detailing the poster design, along with their posters. The e-posters were evaluated based on creativity, thematic relevance, originality and artistic composition. As for the winner,UTAR students  Lau Soon Yih took the first place in the poster competition, followed by Bark Jia Hei and Gan Pei Yi in second and third places respectively.

Poster Design Competition winners

From right, most top: Chin during the five-day Exercise Challenge (Zumba)

From right, most top: Ciara Lai during the five-day Exercise Challenge (Zumba)

Following that, a five-day Exercise Challenge (Zumba) was conducted by Zumba trainers, Ciara Lai and Chin Arn Hung. Held from 10 January to 14 January 2022, the fitness challenge aimed to raise participants' knowledge of the need for daily exercise, reduce participants' stress through exercise and allow them to make more friends. During the challenge, the participants were required to have their cameras turned on at all times so that the coaches could advise them.

 Adding more fun and excitement to the campaign was the workshop titled Bag of Loves. The aim of the workshop was to develop and increase participants' attention and inventiveness, as well as inspire them to spread their love to individuals about whom they care. The Bag of Loves workshop ran from 12 January to 16 January 2022. The participant entered the bag of loves workshop by uploading a picture of their bag of loves on Instagram with unique remarks about who and what they cared about. The winners received a total of two grab vouchers worth RM10 each.

Winners of Bag of Loves workshop

Suriati hosting the Art Therapy-Painting workshop

The campaign also saw Centre for Foundation Studies of Sungai Long Campus lecturer Suriati binti Mohd Jaafar conducting an Art Therapy-Painting workshop.The goal of the talk was to boost participants' self-esteem and self-confidence as well as reduce their negative feelings.

E-Games such as Read My Lips, Gartic Io, Bingo Game-Expert of Mini Games, and Life in Statistics were also conducted throughout the campaign. The e-Games aimed to raise awareness about specific things we can do to encourage hope; relieve participants' boredom during the day; develop their minds to think differently and creatively and reduce their tension.

Lee's talk titled The Power of Hope across Darkness

Aside from that, a talk titled A Hopeful Message was conducted by DSA staff Tan Chin Yee. The goal of the talk was to promote mental health, teach students the implications of having a sick mind, and underline the significance of mental health to an individual.