Community Service Initiative.
This module affords students the opportunity to engage in socially valuable action while critically reflecting on the nature of their action and the problems it seeks to address. The goal is for students to develop a holistic awareness of the variety of problems that call for action; how such problems can or should be addressed; and, the relationship between the specifics of these problems and larger social and ethical issues.
Week 1
The first week of the module are one of the biggest class bonding I have ever seen. With two semesters from Diploma, plus three semesters of Degree combined together as a class.
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With the class joined like this once in a while, there are a lot of information to take in on what to do about the project.
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First, project briefing, we are briefed about a charity make-over of a mini-library for Orang Asli in Kuala Lumpur.
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Second is to have the group separated on what to do in specific.
Our whole semester 6 is grouped as one, making us the logistics team to sort out sponsor-ships.
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Then to sub down the group to what we needed. Finally, I volunteered to be listed under Paint Department because I had contacts that can aid on the target. Also assigned as a group leader, with the members consist of Patrick Yong, and Aisyah Nur Anis.
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Afterwards it is our initiative that we achieve what we targeted to do for the part that we are assigned to.
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Week 2
there isn't a class this week, it is not necessary.
We took our initiative as a group to sort out the plan who will be doing what.
I distributed the task to my group mate on what company they should be going after as they need to get their possible sponsor-ship.
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Janson ( Me )
- Nippon
-Kansai
-Jotun
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Patrick
-Mr Paint Man
-Murobond
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Aisyah
-Dulux
-Graphenstone
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The list will be added on as the progress go by because, we won't stop at what we get.
As planned, we will not only be going to tackle paint companies but we are also tackling the hardware shops, even the our previous internship companies.
Week 3
This week, we have a short class to do our give our report of progress and also get advice from our Lecturer Mr Edwin, on how to ask for sponsor-ship and other ways to collect the things we need.
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Our progress is good as for Paint department. We will need to keep on follow up and also give out official sponsor-ship letter to to companies that were interested in sponsoring the Make-over project.
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The next step to take is to have Group 2 which is from the semester 3 degree to let us know of the design and let us know on what material they are painting the paint on. With this detail list we will be able to let the painting companies quote on the amount of supply for the sponsor-ship.
Week 4
It was our first presentation to the whole class on our progress of collecting all kinds of sponsor-ship, that is our group group 1.
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After project manager made the introduction, we went on with the presentation.
When it comes to my team, under paint department, I get to mentioned for the past few weeks what we have initiated to do, and what we have achieved at the moment. Then I went on to mention about what are the next step need to be taken.
Which is to have Group 2 and 3 to confirm their design proposal, the give us the list on what color of the paint to use and to be use on what materials. Also, me and my team also mention that we will initiate to go look for other companies and hardware shops for possible sponsor-ship.
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The search continues.
Week 5
It was a week full of follow-ups and the amount of other projects going on didn't stop us from making progress, even when some of us went for a educational trip to Cambodia.
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We did the lock down of the sponsorship provision from Kansai Paint with the Management Head Ms Kiew. They need more of the details from the other design groups. From the most information that Ms Kiew has obtained from us, She have given some concern about time that are needed for the paint to function in a proper manner.
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First thing is the backing clean up, the process might need to take a whole day for the team to commit on the cleaning of the backing of all surfaces to enable the paint to be painted.
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Second will be the primer that needs to be apply on the wood surface which will have a stronger after-smell that left at the space. Hence leading to the further need on the scheduling discussion.
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Scheduling will we discuss the week after with lecturers to assure the design commitment group can sort out their time to go to the site for the work that need to be done.
Week 6
It is time for us to have a weekly progress reporting to our class lecturer technically our project master. Also showing us some previous CSI project examples for us on how a well done job did by the seniors.
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It was a short yet effective progress updates from all the other groups including ours, to check with the pace of the project with the sponsorship and donated collections from different department.
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Group 1 is the Book team, their progress is added up to collect over 300 books with the target of a 1000 for the following week. Feedback was an okay progress but will have to speed up the pace on printing advertisement to put it all over the campus after inquiring the permit from the management office of the university.
Group 2 the Stationary team was a bit behind the schedule that the progress wasn't as good, because only a handful amount of stationary were collected as donations. Hence it is not enough and the team initiation wasn't good enough to show of a progress.
Our group Paint, did a good job on the progress, locking down the paint sponsorship from Kansai paint directly dealing with management Ms Kiew that they agree to provide us the paint, after they know the details of the color ration designed by the Junior of ours. Also after all the follow ups, Nippon finally have replied, and we have just reported to Edwin to have him update us on whether to get Nippon to sponsor us too. "Fantastic Progress".
The Furniture team is working really hard to acquire more sponsorship for the team as they have successfully collected 1000 ringgit from a member's previous internship company. And need to push more harder to get more of the money or furniture needed to fit into the site building.
Group 5 is the financial team that will have to ensure the flow of money goes correctly that we do not lose a penny. Double checking every time during a weekly meeting on how much money we have collected.
Moving forward we will have to produce slides for presentation to properly show visuals and proofs of the progress itself. Peace out.
Week 7
Presentation went on with the progress since last week.
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To summarize all the groups did a very good progress since the previous ones. A bit of amendment necessary to go on with the project progress.
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Edwin gave us direct criticism on we should improve the initiative approach to collect sorts of sponsors from different directions.
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We are able to receive updates from the Juniors on the design which we did pass it to Ms Kiew for her quotation with the paint code included. Also we initiated to also design some thank you post-card for post event give away to the sponsors.
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Our progress made thus far granted us to further the waits for the quoted paints to arrive and speed up the scheduling between the group who were meant to go to the site to do clean up and paint.
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'Again fantastic progress, keep it up!"
Week 8
This week is fairly shorter than usual. We are to give away fast progress update to Edwin as for our weekly progress check.
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Other groups were doing a good job on their progress. Where the furniture group did a GREAT job by collecting another 1.5K to the sponsorship added up to the total of 2.5K funds. Exciting news.
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Where our group were there to update that some of the paints are about to be deliver to our campus for us from Kansai Paint.
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And in about half an hour after updates, the paint has come, and the boys from the class took the responsibility to go down all the way to bring the buckets up to store in Level 5 Classroom. Also we were there to help out the stationary group to sort out the crayons to melt it down to make pastels for the project.
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Next week before holiday hopefully we will get to plan out the visit schedule for the hands-on team.
Week 9
For this, in the class we waste no time on giving updates of our progress to Edwin and after he give consultative comments to what we should upgrade on our progress. We went straight out for the second load of paint collection from a location given by Kansai Supervisor. It is not far away and there is not much, but we took the initiative to go there to meet up with the one who kindly gave us the possible amount of sponsors in order for the project to work.
After collection the selected paints for the murals on site. We went back to campus and have consecutive meeting afterwards on what will our progress be for the following week, not wasting a second on planning ahead for the project to come, also we asked if there are anything others need help on from the other groups in our class, because with our help the can move one faster, we are offering help in anyway possible.
After the meeting we spent a short while to label and organised the paint collected so far on he shevel in class, it will be easier for the juniors who are going to work on site to identify the correct color of paint to be use on where and on what surface.
Week 10
This week onward, the logistics team has done with the job already basically. All we have to do is to wait for the launching...
Unless, we take some initiative to help, always, in anyway possible.
So for this week, there are a short visit from the juniors to the site for primary cleaning, as they will do the things that need to be done weeks before the launching because of the defects and errors that might occurs, and that might need time to correct in a way.
The location is pretty far from the center of the city, so making trips there constantly will be mostly impossible, so we help on trips planning to that will visit the site once a week before launching and target to achieve the listed job that need to be done, so that they don't waste no time on site.
Even though most of the primary job were to e done by the juniors, but the stories are yet to be done.
Week 11
Some of us went for furniture shopping, unfortunately, I was unable to attend due to family dinner, but I was always there when they have any updates.
The most that I have involved in for the week is on that Saturday we went to help out on site, voluntarily. The important part is for us from the logistic team too to be involve with the project that we were involved in, not just logistically but also physically.
So the day begins early that we carpool from campus, because the trip is very far and have limited parking space, so we move in pack. Then right after we reached on site, there goes a bunch of hours of assembling furniture and arranging them into the mini library, only after it was fully cleaned and done painted with the help of juniors.
Not every one of us came, make they make use of their time differently, but I find it very exciting that I get to involve more than I thought I would. Getting sweaty, thirsty, hungry and all. I'm sure everything we did here is worth it in the end.
Week 12
Here comes the final day. The launching day.
This day. I couldn't find a car to carpool myself there to the site, so I went and ask Edwin if following him is possible. So yes, I followed him for the whole day for the launching, thought that we will be at the site as soon as I got in his car, but turns out we have some errands to run before we get to the site.
Starts of from printing of program sheets at Bandar Sunway, Then Edwin treat us breakfast, I say us because one our the junior is following us too, Alvin from Semester 2. So after that we have to go to buy a speaker with microphone attached. then only we jam all the way to the site. From 9 in the morning I hopped on his car, we reached there by 1.30 noon.
By the time we reached there, they have already done with most of the decorations and arrangements. So all there is left to do is for me to to micromanage little things that is going on on the launching events. Helping everyone out since there aren't any lead to follow, or nobody really tells me what to do, but it is okay.
Overall, the launching was very successful, seeing the smiles on everyone's faces makes me proud, I am very glad that I was part of all this also sad at the same time that this has to come to an end.
