By: Zhou Dan, Chinese, Nanyang MBA Participant, Intake 2011
Arriving a month early in Nanyang prior to the MBA course for my intensive English class, I met for the first time some of my future MBA classmates –they come from all over the world – from Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Thailand, Taiwan Vietnam and from my own country, China. Then during our MBA orientation, the week before our actual classes started, I met more people coming from more countries like Bulgaria, Germany, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Switzerland and the USA. Imagine – to be among this very diverse talented and passionate group of individuals of 18 nationalities (and looking forward to meeting more peers from other parts of world from the previous batch, which at some point we will meet in school), I was pretty excited to start my MBA program. It will be a 16-month journey of life-long learning which I am sure I will certainly be grateful of. Orientation week was just the start of this journey.
Our weeklong orientation was held mostly in school and it was divided into several parts which were about enhancing our skills and preparing us for the MBA program – Workshops included networking, case analysis, presentation skills, speed reading, learning style, and so on, which are essential in our MBA studies. It was the first time for most of us to really feel what MBA life is like through lectures, discussions and group work activities. Every day, from morning until early evening, we had intensive but enlightening and fun days. For me, this one week gave me a peek into a what is in store for me – a demanding yet exciting and fulfilling MBA life.
During the 2nd day of orientation, the most anticipated part by most of us – was team building at a sea sports centre located at the eastern part of Singapore.
As most of us are staying on campus, we all assembled early Tuesday morning to go to the teambuilding venue. We were all excited to board the bus and the anticipation of what was about to happen during the day kept us on our toes all throughout the 45-minute journey.
The team building consisted of various activities – activities that harnessed teamwork and care for one another, building trust amongst team members (Rope Course and Leap of Faith); achieving results and building on success, managing and embracing change, fostering better working relationship (GRPI Team Challenge); and instill confidence in ourselves, to develop unknown potential in his/her capabilities (Laser Tag Challenge). It was an entire day of running around, working in teams, mental and physical challenge, and most importantly – having fun with our peers and some staff of the MBA Office.
To many of us, the team building was the most unforgettable part of the orientation. We gained insights from each activity but at the same time had fun. In the Laser Tag challenge – we were divided into teams and members were assigned different roles to complete 3 missions. We learned to strategize, allocate resources and carry the mission to completion. On the fun side, we aimed and shot at a target (of course, using laser!), ducked for cover, and crawled stealthily to be missed by a laser tag shot. It was also fun holding the laser guns and posing for the camera, too.
For the Ultimate Challenge: Leap of Faith, we did an ‘aerial stunt’ where we jumped in pairs from a very high platform, and tried to catch a bar hanging a few meters accross. Some of our peers also acted as ‘belayers’ to those who were up on the high platform. A belayer is a safety person entrusted with the management of a safety rope that is secured to those who is jumping. Coordination is required between the belayer and the jumper, and in the process, also instills trust and camaraderie.
The Leap of Faith pushed us to our limits, to take the challenge of going beyond it. It also instilled trust between our partners, and our rope securers as all we have (for the jumpers) was just a rope tied as a harness to our bodies, to secure us from falling when we jump to catch a bar. For many of us, it was a big challenge, especially for the ladies. It was not easy to overcome the fear of heights and entrust yourself to team members of your own safety. What if I fall off the platform and the rope is not secure? What if my belayer suddenly lets go of the rope? Those were the questions that were bugging us the entire time we were at the platform. Nevertheless, brave souls who went up and leapt with faith did not let those negative energy and questions get in the way. Although very few people caught the bar, we all succeeded in building trust among our team members, our partner and in the process, developed a strong belief in ourselves.
Orientation week ended on a high note – a delightful dinner together with peers to welcome us, with the previous cohort student ex-co members, MBA faculty and staff. Anne (in photo, 1st from left), one of our classmates from Germany ,who always had a ready smile to greet everyone says, “The Orientation Week was a great opportunity to get to know everybody in an open and comfortable atmosphere before classes officially started. Especially, the team building tasks and the welcome dinner will remain in good memory for me since I enjoyed it very much to see how well our class, consisting of such a great cultural variety, works together in an early stage and can have such a nice time with each other.”
The week-long orientation was full of knowledge, fun and new learnings about ourselves. But most importantly, it was a start of new friendships forged where I gained nearly 100 new friends from all over the world. And it is just only for 1 week.