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Sunday, January 31, 2010 | 11:03 PM
Passed the NYC interview (actually, everyone did) last weekend. This weekend's the recruitment camp, whereby the actual selection is to be carried out. Waited for Ashsiqqin at Kallang MRT station. She arrived in a cab so I hopped on. Short distance to The Absorbent Mind Pte Ltd, 1208 Upper Boon Keng Road.
When we reached there, everyone was separated into groups. (She was in Group 6, I was in 3.)
My group members are all nice and friendly. Played some games, had some briefings on the various NYC events (SHINE, Young Changemakers, and Singapore-Malaysia Youth Camp!) and some lessons on leadership.
This was one of the leadership games played. Everyone was given a card with a value (can be 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, $1, etc). The facilitator would announce an amount (e.g. $1.35) and everyone has to gather people to form a group worth that amount. This game is more complex than just screaming 'come join my group!' or '1 more 10¢!' A short and simple game, but it was sufficient to bring out the different kinds of leaders in our midst.
We had to come up with group rules and values. Brainstorming in progress.
Every group had to paste their group stuff on the walls of the hall.
Next up: Tug-of-war! All the groups had to challenge each other. 4 groups (4 representatives each) will challenge each other per round.
While it is a fact that guys have more strength, a team comprising entirely of girls are equally capable of beating them. Group 3 had lesser guys so the guys had to go up pretty often and tug-of-war's no walk in the park. This game really tired everyone out. But I remembered we were one of the winning teams. Yay! (:
I see Ashsiqqin and Group 6 fighting it out. Her teammates are really aggressive and passionate about this. Could have compared their cheering to that of a lion's intimidating roar.
Group 3 is also known as Zzz... Monsters. Someone suggested it and the name stuck from there on. Afterall, who doesn't like sleeping? Check out the cute monsters we drew along the border of the poster!
The Survival Game. Also known as the Stay/Trek. It was also the part of the camp where I learnt my biggest lesson.
Will you stay or trek? Make your decision in 30 seconds.
Did you pick trek? Too bad. You lose. If this was a real-life situation, you would have died.
I'd selected 'stay'. While the facilitator revealed 'stay' to be the correct answer, the reasoning was not revealed. But the rationale is pretty simple. You have nothing on hand whatsoever. How are you going to find your way to the nearest town? If you end up in the middle of nowhere when night falls, you're going to freeze to death. It would have been wiser to stay where you are, scavenge for resources and build a temporary hiding area to get through the night. You can use the rest of the time to plan your next move and move out the next day.
Logical but not every one thinks the same way. The only other person on my team to think the same way is Alex. Everyone else chose to trek, and I don't blame them. Humans are pretty much 'fight or flight' creatures. When a crisis comes up, they're too busy panicking to think rationally.
But when the group had to decide as one, the final answer was 'trek'. Here's my big blunder. I DID NOT SPEAK UP. I simply went along with the majority despite knowing we're heading for doomsday. I can't blame Alex for being disappointed in me for not speaking up. I was super disappointed in myself too. What if I'd spoken up? It could have been possible to convince the group that 'stay' was the wiser decision.
There was another segment whereby we had to rank 12 items in order of their usefulness in helping us to survive. I admit this one requires general survival knowledge. Imagine a compass being ranked dead useless! All because it could be suspected to be inaccurate. Almost everyone prioritised compass as number 1!
The number of people who made the 'stay' decision and those who managed to rank the items properly amount to 1 or 2 person per team, which isn't a lot in total. The facilitator described these people to be great decision makers and leaders on their own, but of no use in a group.
I've known all my strengths and weaknesses since eons ago. But I just can't work with people, not even in pairs. Brain power goes down. What's the point of being able to think rationally if one can't share it with others? I hate myself...
Group reflection session.
Individual reflection session.
The girls and guys have two classrooms (fully-airconditioned too!) each to use as the dormitories. The camp's pretty relaxed. We could do anything we want. You can stay up all night or roam around and no one cares. Jasmine and I spent a couple of hours at the garden swing on the ground level, talking to each other. I think we surprised ourselves at how we can confide in each other so easily, despite just getting to know each other that day. (:
Finally went to sleep at around 12 or 1. Linda slept on my left while Ashsiqqin was on my right. Lol. I didn't bring a jacket so I woke up shivering so badly.
The next morning we did obstacle courses and high elements. Mm, I quite enjoyed it. And I got to do the high elements. Had to walk across a log without support with Shaniszah at least 3 storeys above ground. I'm fine as long as it doesn't require arm strength. :D
SOCIAL LUNCH! Every group is given $40 and we have to settle our lunch ourself. We're not allowed to leave the grounds so we had to order. Group 3 had planned in advance and we'd already called up Canadian Pizza together with another group an hour or two prior to lunch hour. (: The only down-side was that they mixed up our orders. Ended up having some Singaporean-style pizza, which had otah or something instead of the ham-and-cheese we'd ordered.
Some free time after lunch. Group 3 was hanging out at the garden swings. And we had a planned surprise coming up! It's Shaniszah's birthday today! (:
Here she comes!
She had sat down. But the rest are currently distracting her by talking about some of the food in the advertising phamplets. Spinach balls. Rofl.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANISZAH!
We had two campers whose birthday falls on the same day. The two cakes were bought by the people at National Youth Council and all the campers sang the birthday song for them. :D
There was one final activity before the end of the camp. It was like a mini trial of what we would go through if we sign up for the various activities. Like writing in to companies for sponsorship, looking for beneficiaries, etc.
I was in the SHINE group since I'd written that as my preference. Each group was further split up according to the three activities. Those in YCM and Sing-Mal had to be the companies and beneficiaries. They have to process the e-mails and organise interviews. SHINE had to write 'e-mails' to them and convince them and go for interviews.
The goal was to get at least $5000 in fundings, a company and a beneficiary in 2 hours whereby the game ends. Sounds easy? I think not. We had to deal with rejections, brainstorm an entire project in 10mins, scribble out e-mails on postcards, etc. Sometimes you're informed you've an interview at 3.30pm and you only have 10 minutes to plan out a proposal. It was a crazy time bomb waiting to go off.
The pictures were taken during the rare moments things die down. Most of the time, people were running in and out of the room to check the mail box and going for interviews. The room door simply goes bang bang bang.
Writing out the e-mails on postcards.
We had to refer to the list of beneficiaries and companies plastered onto the window panes and decide which one(s) would be best for us.
The beneficiaries and companies were located in another room opposite us. I'm in the room where the SHINE peeps are brainstorming. People can be seen running along the corridor on the right all the time, rushing for interviews.
This is the mail box whereby beneficiaries and companies post their replies to us. The mail box became a bit of a joke, though. Some jokers decided to put bogus emails. Such as Company X offering money-lending services. It went something like 'Need $$$? Call Company X now!!' Sounds so loanshark, lah! :D
Alex is drawing on Royston's arm.
At the end of the camp, there was a debrief then a thanksgiving session. We were provided with decorative stones and have to give it to people who we think have been 'gems' to us, inspirational people, role models, whatever you want to call it.
It was sweet, really. Everyone went around giving each other the stones and thanking each other or saying stuff they like/think about the person. We gave our group facilitator, Alan, stones too.
Yay!
When we reached there, everyone was separated into groups. (She was in Group 6, I was in 3.)
My group members are all nice and friendly. Played some games, had some briefings on the various NYC events (SHINE, Young Changemakers, and Singapore-Malaysia Youth Camp!) and some lessons on leadership.This was one of the leadership games played. Everyone was given a card with a value (can be 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, $1, etc). The facilitator would announce an amount (e.g. $1.35) and everyone has to gather people to form a group worth that amount. This game is more complex than just screaming 'come join my group!' or '1 more 10¢!' A short and simple game, but it was sufficient to bring out the different kinds of leaders in our midst.
Next up: Tug-of-war! All the groups had to challenge each other. 4 groups (4 representatives each) will challenge each other per round.While it is a fact that guys have more strength, a team comprising entirely of girls are equally capable of beating them. Group 3 had lesser guys so the guys had to go up pretty often and tug-of-war's no walk in the park. This game really tired everyone out. But I remembered we were one of the winning teams. Yay! (:
I see Ashsiqqin and Group 6 fighting it out. Her teammates are really aggressive and passionate about this. Could have compared their cheering to that of a lion's intimidating roar.Group 3 is also known as Zzz... Monsters. Someone suggested it and the name stuck from there on. Afterall, who doesn't like sleeping? Check out the cute monsters we drew along the border of the poster!The Survival Game. Also known as the Stay/Trek. It was also the part of the camp where I learnt my biggest lesson.SCENARIO
You and your companions have just survived a plane crash. Both the pilot and co-pilot were killed in the crash. It is mid-January, and you are in Northern Canada. The daily temperature is -25°C and when night falls, temperature hits -40°C. The ground is covered with snow on the ground, and the countryside is wooded with several creeks criss-crossing the area. The nearest town is 20 miles away.
Will you stay or trek? Make your decision in 30 seconds.
Did you pick trek? Too bad. You lose. If this was a real-life situation, you would have died.
I'd selected 'stay'. While the facilitator revealed 'stay' to be the correct answer, the reasoning was not revealed. But the rationale is pretty simple. You have nothing on hand whatsoever. How are you going to find your way to the nearest town? If you end up in the middle of nowhere when night falls, you're going to freeze to death. It would have been wiser to stay where you are, scavenge for resources and build a temporary hiding area to get through the night. You can use the rest of the time to plan your next move and move out the next day.
Logical but not every one thinks the same way. The only other person on my team to think the same way is Alex. Everyone else chose to trek, and I don't blame them. Humans are pretty much 'fight or flight' creatures. When a crisis comes up, they're too busy panicking to think rationally.
But when the group had to decide as one, the final answer was 'trek'. Here's my big blunder. I DID NOT SPEAK UP. I simply went along with the majority despite knowing we're heading for doomsday. I can't blame Alex for being disappointed in me for not speaking up. I was super disappointed in myself too. What if I'd spoken up? It could have been possible to convince the group that 'stay' was the wiser decision.
There was another segment whereby we had to rank 12 items in order of their usefulness in helping us to survive. I admit this one requires general survival knowledge. Imagine a compass being ranked dead useless! All because it could be suspected to be inaccurate. Almost everyone prioritised compass as number 1!
The number of people who made the 'stay' decision and those who managed to rank the items properly amount to 1 or 2 person per team, which isn't a lot in total. The facilitator described these people to be great decision makers and leaders on their own, but of no use in a group.
I've known all my strengths and weaknesses since eons ago. But I just can't work with people, not even in pairs. Brain power goes down. What's the point of being able to think rationally if one can't share it with others? I hate myself...
The girls and guys have two classrooms (fully-airconditioned too!) each to use as the dormitories. The camp's pretty relaxed. We could do anything we want. You can stay up all night or roam around and no one cares. Jasmine and I spent a couple of hours at the garden swing on the ground level, talking to each other. I think we surprised ourselves at how we can confide in each other so easily, despite just getting to know each other that day. (:Finally went to sleep at around 12 or 1. Linda slept on my left while Ashsiqqin was on my right. Lol. I didn't bring a jacket so I woke up shivering so badly.
The next morning we did obstacle courses and high elements. Mm, I quite enjoyed it. And I got to do the high elements. Had to walk across a log without support with Shaniszah at least 3 storeys above ground. I'm fine as long as it doesn't require arm strength. :D
SOCIAL LUNCH! Every group is given $40 and we have to settle our lunch ourself. We're not allowed to leave the grounds so we had to order. Group 3 had planned in advance and we'd already called up Canadian Pizza together with another group an hour or two prior to lunch hour. (: The only down-side was that they mixed up our orders. Ended up having some Singaporean-style pizza, which had otah or something instead of the ham-and-cheese we'd ordered.
She had sat down. But the rest are currently distracting her by talking about some of the food in the advertising phamplets. Spinach balls. Rofl.
We had two campers whose birthday falls on the same day. The two cakes were bought by the people at National Youth Council and all the campers sang the birthday song for them. :DThere was one final activity before the end of the camp. It was like a mini trial of what we would go through if we sign up for the various activities. Like writing in to companies for sponsorship, looking for beneficiaries, etc.
I was in the SHINE group since I'd written that as my preference. Each group was further split up according to the three activities. Those in YCM and Sing-Mal had to be the companies and beneficiaries. They have to process the e-mails and organise interviews. SHINE had to write 'e-mails' to them and convince them and go for interviews.
The goal was to get at least $5000 in fundings, a company and a beneficiary in 2 hours whereby the game ends. Sounds easy? I think not. We had to deal with rejections, brainstorm an entire project in 10mins, scribble out e-mails on postcards, etc. Sometimes you're informed you've an interview at 3.30pm and you only have 10 minutes to plan out a proposal. It was a crazy time bomb waiting to go off.
The pictures were taken during the rare moments things die down. Most of the time, people were running in and out of the room to check the mail box and going for interviews. The room door simply goes bang bang bang.
We had to refer to the list of beneficiaries and companies plastered onto the window panes and decide which one(s) would be best for us.The beneficiaries and companies were located in another room opposite us. I'm in the room where the SHINE peeps are brainstorming. People can be seen running along the corridor on the right all the time, rushing for interviews.This is the mail box whereby beneficiaries and companies post their replies to us. The mail box became a bit of a joke, though. Some jokers decided to put bogus emails. Such as Company X offering money-lending services. It went something like 'Need $$$? Call Company X now!!' Sounds so loanshark, lah! :D
At the end of the camp, there was a debrief then a thanksgiving session. We were provided with decorative stones and have to give it to people who we think have been 'gems' to us, inspirational people, role models, whatever you want to call it.
It was sweet, really. Everyone went around giving each other the stones and thanking each other or saying stuff they like/think about the person. We gave our group facilitator, Alan, stones too. 
CHARMAINE CHEONG.