Breaking the internet, organised by the Special Projects committee, provided me with the platform for me to step away from our commitments, be it academic or non-academic. The event was held physically, with appropriate COVID-19 safety measurements in place for the organisers and participants.
Heart of the cards?
The event comprised tasks for the team to complete, in order to receive hints for us to tackle our final task which consisted of riddles. There were challenges such as enacting popular memes and videos found on the internet, which allowed us to let loose and have fun with our friends. Riddles and puzzles were also engaging which really motivated my team to strive for first place (healthy competition!).
Most likely an Avengers reference
The event was held on a Thursday evening, which allowed me to end my week on a good note, especially when all of us were drained from the increasing academic workload in the middle of the semester.
Overall, I really enjoyed the interactions with my friends, and really had the opportunity to de-stress and take a breather from the hectic university life.
To be honest I was quite sad that there wasn’t a physical FOP ? But the virtual FOP was an interesting and fulfilling experience too. I thought that it will be awkward since it’s online but the seniors were very welcoming and enthusiastic which made it easier for us to talk and participate during the virtual FOP. Furthermore, the orientation group was smaller which it made it easier for me to get to know my batchmates that were in the same orientation group as me. I also enjoyed playing Code Names and the escape room, especially the part where we have to do different poses as a group ? Overall, I think the CNYSP FOP was the best virtual FOP I’ve attended!
Nihal forming a heart
Think-E (Altair)
It was unfortunate that we could not have our physical FOP which I was looking forward to, but the virtual FOP was much better than expected and provided a great opportunity for us to meet some of our new classmates and seniors before school started. The seniors were all very friendly and enthusiastic, which made it easier for all of us to open up too. Some of the online games were pretty entertaining such as the song challenge, which allowed us to discover some of our batchmates’ hidden talent in singing! Overall, it was a great experience!
Scavenger hunt!
From Zann and Zhen Xuan, FOP 2020 Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson
We hope that everyone has enjoyed CNYSP FOP 2020 and has gotten to know their batchmates and some seniors during this one-day event, and that it was a good start to your journey in the CN Yang Scholars Programme. We had a blast planning your FOP and we hope that the freshmen batch will enjoy planning FOP 2021 for the next batch of freshmen! It was a wonderful learning experience for the seniors as well and one that was full of ups and downs, but we had enjoyed trying and testing the games to make sure that it will be a fun day for everyone and we had become better friends along the way. We would like to thank everyone, juniors and seniors alike, for their enthusiasm during CNYSP FOP 2020, and we wish the next FOP organizing committee all the best!
In light of the COVID-19 situation, many of our 12EC events have to be cancelled or postponed, and many of you may be disappointed for not being able to participate in more events with your peers. Nonetheless, we hope you have enjoyed the events that were held in Semester 1, and our PnP committee has prepared a short montage for you to reminisce the good times with your friends and fellow scholars during the events. Enjoy!
“Have you seen her?” The Halloween event organised by the Social and Welfare portfolio was a successful event that many attended and enjoyed, and gave everyone a good break from studying.
Shooting down bottles with…eyeballs???
The event was started off with a buffet dinner, and it gave everyone a chance to gather and catch up with one another, away from our busy schedules, before the event officially started with the funeral of the protagonist, Charlotte. We then played a series of station games in our groups, which were simple enough but still allowed us to have fun with our group mates. The escape room was one highlight of the event, setting an appropriate mood for Halloween. One of the enjoyable aspects of this event was that it was quite relaxed and chill, with no need to rush from one station to another. There was even time set aside for us to play board games at our own leisure.
Strategy game much?
The storyline set for this event was riveting as well, and it was exciting and suspenseful to piece together parts of the story to solve the mystery as we played the station games. It was especially satisfying when we reached the plot twist and realised that Charlotte was, in fact, not dead! The night ended off with a fun lucky draw, where a lot of useful gifts were given out.
In all, this Halloween event was a pleasant experience that not only gave us a relaxed evening, but also allowed us to enjoy Halloween thoroughly with a compelling theme and storyline.
Conducted by Mr Leo Tan from the Career and Attachment Office, the Resume Writing Workshop held by the Holistic Development Portfolio provided great insight into what employers are looking out for in a resume.
Besides going through the content required in a resume, Mr Tan also engaged us by provided samples of resumes from different people, which gave us a chance to put ourselves in the shoes of an employer. By making us see things from the perspective of a different stakeholder, I was able to understand first-hand why certain resumes are particularly attractive to employers while others are not.
Our scholars looking at example resumes.
Furthermore, Mr Tan was also able to provide pointers for writing a resume for research attachments, as it has different requirements from a normal job-seeking resume. Given the research-focused nature of the CN Yang Programme, this special consideration was especially appreciated.
The workshop also included a segment on LinkedIn. Besides teaching us some basic functions, Mr Tan highlighted the usefulness of LinkedIn as a tool for professional communication, especially in the age of digitalisation.
Mr Tan giving important pointers about writing resumes, take note!
I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot from this session and I’m sure the other scholars in attendance did too.
Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT) has never been too well-known of a
defence technology organisation amongst most Singaporean youth, with the likes
of Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and Defence Science Organisation
(DSO) taking precedence in terms of reputation. This is due to the highly
classified nature of CSIT’s work which deals with cybersecurity and other
highly sensitive technologies which naturally are a cause for secrecy. However,
on the 8th of October 2019, we were fortunate to be given
the opportunity to visit CSIT as part of their open house event. As a
computer science undergraduate, I was excited to learn more about the
‘strategic technologies’ that CSIT was working on.
Our visit started off with a welcome talk in an
intimate setting of what was not more than 40 students from the various local
universities. The speakers shared about the nature of work they carried out at
CSIT and how CSIT fitted in amongst the various defence technology organisations
in Singapore. We were split into various tables and every table had an
attached person from CSIT so that we could ask any questions we
had. I found this first segment of the visit to be quite eye-opening as I
was better able to understand the complex defence ecosystem that Singapore had
and how all the various acronym-laden government organisations worked together
to bolster Singapore’s defence.
The second segment of the visit was round robin of the
booths of the five main technology areas of CSIT: cyber-technology, software
engineering and analytics, communications technology, systems and network
infrastructure, and crypto technology. Each booth had its own fun activity for
us to get a better understanding of what the area encompassed, from looking at
how virtual machines are designed and deployed almost instantaneously, to how
to sniff data packets that were being sent to an attacker in order to find out
more information about a cyber-attack. The booths were very engaging, and I was
really awestruck by the technology showcased, as even though it may not be
anything ground-breaking, we rarely get to see such things unless we are
involved directly in such work.
Finally, we ended off the visit with a dinner and
closing address by the Chief Executive of CSIT, who shared his own
views on the security landscape in Singapore and how the career
progression was like in CSIT, which is based on meritocracy rather than other
means, unlike other similar organisations. Overall, it was a very enjoyable and
possibly once-in-a-lifetime experience at the CSIT open house, and it definitely helped us to better understand the nature of work that
CSIT does.
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.
