On the 27th of January 2022, the Holistic Development Portfolio organised its second Brown Bag Session, this time with Ryan Poon sharing on Public Speaking.
Did you know that around 70% of us fear public speaking? It is normal to experience some form of stage fright or anxiety when speaking in front of crowds or in formal situations. During the session, Ryan breaks down the essence of public speaking and how to tackle it on a step by step basis, with hopes that we can present with confidence.
Sharing many useful tips from how to prepare for the presentation, through understanding the audience and context as well as injecting humour, to improving one’s confidence through body language, Ryan reiterates the key idea that we can become better at public speaking through deliberate practice.
Ryan also showcased many counterexamples to help us better understand what not to do for a presentation, and naturally weaves humour into the presentation, earning lots of laughs from the audience.
Through captivating storytelling, smooth animations, use of highly relatable examples and apt dramatisation, Ryan showed us what it means to be an engaging and informative speaker, telling a story to his audience.
Now equipped with knowledge on how to tackle the beast of Public Speaking, will our scholars be better placed to handle presentations for their research projects or OFYP in the future? Only time will tell.
On the 20th January 2022, the Holistic Development Portfolio organised our very first Brown Bag Session with a focus on First Aid.
The Brown Bag Sessions are a new initiative, a peer-sharing platform for scholars to come together and impart various skills and knowledge, interests as well as share about causes they are passionate about.
The first session is hosted by Goh Kaixuan, who was an ambulance trained Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) during his National Service (NS). Still fresh out of NS and reservice, he had recent first-hand experience in administering first aid in response to medical emergencies, making this sharing session invaluable.
The session covered basic first aid principles as well as treatment of minor injuries that first aiders do. In this 1.5 hour session, Kaixuan covered topics ranging from cuts, bruises, sprains, and burns to electrocution as well as choking and drowning. There were also various demonstrations and hands-on learning experiences for the participants to carry out bandaging for bleeds and slings for dislocations and fractures.
The participants found the session to be engaging and the session was occasionally filled with laughter. They also liked the casual yet informative nature of the session and being able to freely ask questions at any time. Now equipped with basic first aid knowledge, we hope they are more confident in helping others during emergencies.
With the conclusion of the first Brown Bag Session, we hope you look forward to future sessions.
Tired of studying? Ran out of snacks? Fret not! The biennial Exam Welfare Initiative (EWI) is back to cheer you on!
After delays due to the changing SMM guidelines, EWI 1 was held on 12 November 2021, the last day of the semester. Each scholar received a welfare pack containing many delicious snacks and drinks, as well as stationery such as pens and foolscap paper! For this event, Foodieland and DyDo have very kindly agreed to sponsor us with some Japanese milk tea. Look at our happy scholars with the delicious drinks!
With so many energy-boosting snacks, our scholars will surely not be hungry while burning the midnight oil! All the best for your final exams, we’re cheering you on!
Cultivating My Money Tree is a return to form as scholars embark on their quest to understand investments better with the aim of developing financial literacy.
Cultivating My Money Tree was held on 28th October 2021, over Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions.
This 2 hour workshop was held in partnership with Mr Lionel Teo from Great Eastern Life Assurance. As a university student himself, Lionel was able to provide insights into investing as a student, making this workshop extremely relatable for our scholars. He simplified major investing concepts with the use of relatable metaphors and analogies, such as grocery shopping.
The workshop covered Index Funds, Mutual Funds, and a plethora of investment strategies, like Goals-based Investing, Dollar Cost Averaging, Core-Satellite Investing and Thematic Investing. In the second part of the workshop, the participants had the chance to deepen their knowledge through a hands-on activity. Each participant filled up an Excel File created by Lionel, which includes a questionnaire determining their Risk Appetite, Reverse Financial Calculator and Portfolio Management Template. It was definitely an enlightening session for our scholars as they learnt more about themselves.
Last but not least, there was a Kahoot! session at the end, which helped to consolidate the key learning points through active recall, and the top 3 scholars got to walk away with $10 GrabFood Vouchers!
Now that our scholars have learnt to cultivate their money trees, will you too?
The long awaited (virtual) Convocation for the Class of 2020 has finally happened! On the 19th of June, the (already graduated) Class of 2020 gathered online to mark and celebrate their 4-year journey in the CN Yang Scholars Programme.
Here’s what some of them have to say!
Mathangi Palanivel
Thank you for organising the event! The juniors really put in a lot of effort, and I think I didn’t feel sad that there wasn’t a physical event this year! The games were fun, and the videos (interview videos and photo montages) were really heartwarming. It is great that the juniors went out of their way to gather our nostalgic moments which made us very emotional. Lucky draw prizes were very creative as well!
Benson Joseph
The event was well-planned and executed! The games were fun and engaging while re-kindling memories too. Additionally, the emcees and programmers did a great job. Finally, the publicity team did an awesome job at compiling past photos/videos.
Chua Zhi Hong
I was pleasantly surprised of an effective convocation even though it is through an online platform. Many heartfelt thoughts were shared, and activities well planned to bring back the good memories. Professor speeches, silly games and lucky draw — this is how I remember CNYang events in our time. Thanks you so much! One thing I felt bad is the emcees having to talk to themselves, as most of us generally avoid speaking. Next time, maybe can try arrow specific people more (its less scary to speak once spoken up) 🙂
Yeoh Kirk Ming
CNYSP Convocation was definitely a most awaited event, especially when our batch has graduated for more than a year at this point. The pre-event gift boxes prepared by the logistics team was very cute and its contents got us talking about certain memories and events that were highlighted. The event itself was amazing too! It was really nice being able to see all the familiar faces and names (for many who kept their video off) again. The different activities and games really brought us on a nostalgic trip down the memory lane. Kudos to the publicity team too for putting together the photo montage and various heartening videos featuring our batchmates and professors. Last but not least, the private Zoom session for us to just catch up among ourselves towards the end was a really nice touch. All in all, thumbs up to the planning committee for a job well done! All the best for the rest of your CNYSP journey and always remember to enjoy the experiences as well as the company around you!
We wish them all the best for their future endeavours!
BY NEO WEI MING – On 4th December 2020, the Social & Welfare Committee organized a Christmas-themed event ‘WhiteOut’ for participants to have fun and relax after the grueling period of mugging for examinations and to mark the end of semester 1 for AY20/21. It was an event filled with fun, games, laughter, and freebies.
We were first split into groups of up to four participants and each group was assigned a room, in accordance with the Covid-19 safety protocols. Each room had a game master, donned with a cute Christmas headband, who facilitated the games.
Several games were planned out for the participants and prizes were to be won for the top 2 groups with the highest score. One of the more memorable games was to guess the lyrics of Christmas-themed songs. Who would have recalled the lyrics of Christmas songs when our minds were still intoxicated by the stuff that we remembered for our exams? My group ended up doing countless of forfeits in exchange for hints and making several intellectual guesses with the hints given.
Another game was to search for the ‘lost’ stickers that were pre-planted in the room by the game master. Combing the room like FBI agents, my team was able to find all but one sticker. Who would have thought that our sneaky game master placed the last sticker on her headband? With each sticker comes with a Christmas-related riddle to solve. Admittedly, some of the answers were punny and some of them were obvious to the point of being overlooked. Nonetheless, a few of them were pretty decent though!
In the end, my group won the 1st runner up ✌️. Overall, considering the freebies, vouchers and, more importantly, the company and experience, I guess it was worth the time travelling to NTU for the event! I’m sure all the participants were appreciative of the efforts that went into the planning for this event. Kudos the Social & Welfare and Press & Publicity committees for making this event meaningful and memorable!
I wish everyone an early Merry Christmas ? and hopefully, 2021 will be a better year for everyone!
The CN Yang Scholars’ Club (CNYSC) is set up and run by the scholars of the CN Yang Scholars Programme. The management committee is elected by the scholars on an annual basis.
