It has been more than two years since the circuit breaker. COVID-19 caused many of our lifestyles to change – going digital with e-payments, virtual meetings, virtual conferences and more. The pandemic had also put physical events to halt, and now that the measures have loosened, the NTU School of Biological Sciences (SBS) finally held their first in a long while physical event – the Welcome Tea Party.
Read till the end to watch our Tea Party video.
The Welcome Tea Party is an annual by invite-only event where prospective undergraduates who are offered a degree programme at SBS visit the school to find out what they can expect if they choose to study there.
The SBS Tea Party had to be organised in a smaller scale, without refreshments (or actual tea) for visitors, due to the mask on restriction still in place for indoors. It was definitely more personal and intimate, as the faculty and student ambassadors of SBS got to engage in conversations with them face-to-face and bring them around the SBS building.
A simple token of appreciation for our guests
Tea Party 2022 consisted of two segments:
1. Tours around the school conducted by SBS student ambassadors, including demonstrations by teaching lab assistants and research lab members
They were introduced to the common hangout spots in the building itself such as the beautiful green space outside of our Level 2 Study Lounge where the sunset can be caught and the Clade Room that is a great place to chill with fellow undergraduates (psst, there’s a foosball table and board games).
The live demonstrations in the teaching lab were supported by Yi Liang and his team of Teaching Assistants, as well as in research lab by Prof Marek Mutwil and his lab members. These demonstrations gave them a glimpse of lab work in SBS and made the tour even more fascinating for our undergraduate prospects.
Teaching lab demonstrators, who are also our undergraduates, speaking to our guests
2. Conversations with faculty in the foyer
While waiting for the next tour to start, our visitors could chat with our student ambassadors helping at the event, as well as the SBS faculty present. Most of our programme coordinators were also there to engage in conversations with our visitors to clarify their doubts and address any concerns they have.
Prof. Lars Nordenskiöld & Prof. Julien Lescar engaging in a conversation with a prospective undergraduate and her parent
A big thank you to everyone who have supported this event in one way or another.
Some of our faculty whom the visitors engaged with. (Left to Right) Melissa Fullwood, Liu Chuan Fa, Guillaume Thibault, Xavier Roca, Ardina Gruber, Thirumaran s/o Thanabalu, Sandip Basak, Jaume Torres, Lu Lei, Surajit Bhattacharyya, Chng Toh Hean
Student ambassadors who brought our visitors on a tour, helped out in registration and more
Teaching lab members, consisting of staff and undergraduates, who gave the demonstrations during the tour
We also hope that the Tea Party did help our prospective undergraduates make more informed choices on whether to accept our offer to pursue a degree at the School of Biological Sciences after the tour and chats with SBS faculty, staff and student ambassadors.
It was our great pleasure to host them in-person, stepping out from the usual virtual meetings and events through digital screens over the past two years. We have missed live events like this one! This is our first in a while, and we look forward to more soon.