The
last day of week 13 marked the end of the last lesson of ES2007S. ES2007S is
definitely one of the most beneficial and enjoyable modules that I have ever
taken in my five semesters in NUS and it is pretty amusing to look back on the
first few weeks of the semester and remembered how I almost dropped this module
during one of the bidding rounds. I was afraid that the constant work and
preparation needed for lessons through the semester would be too overwhelming.
However, 13 weeks later, I am glad that I trusted my instincts and went on with
this module anyway! J
If I
were to identify the biggest takeaway from this module, it would have been the
working experience and interaction from the group project. Having to work
closely with people of vastly different working styles and perspectives on
certain things taught me the importance of compromising in order to produce the
best possible outcome for everyone. To take, we sometimes have to give first.
In the
initial group meetings before we finalized on the research topic, I suggested
that we work on Cybercrime and Education in Singapore, something which I felt
strongly for. However, I realized that my fellow project mates were not as
particularly keen on this topic. Thus,we geared in the direction of education
and welfare, before finally deciding on tackling the issue of congestion in NUS
Shuttle Buses(ISB), (which was actually a topic probably done by so many others
and I personally thought was hard for us to prove it to be successful). Despite that, due to group consensus, we went
ahead with this topic.
It was then, that I realized how important it
is to meet people halfway, especially our work mates-ones who we will be
working directly with. This lesson serves as a vivid reminder to constantly see
things from people’s perspectives and not merely fighting for my own ideal,
when I venture out into the corporate world in future.
The
group project also taught me important organizational skills as we were
responsible for coming up with our own timeline and pace ourselves towards the
completion of the project. In addition, during the proposal presentation
sessions, I internalized the importance of listening intently and picking up
verbal cues while my peers were presenting, as it not only helped me understand
their topics better, but it also enabled me to learn from them in terms of
presentation skills, be it their strengths or areas in which they fell short.
Finally,
I have also seen improvements in my presentation skills. Being a natural fast
speaker, talking at a slower pace has always been an issue for me, especially
so when I get excited about what I am about to say! Dr Jaidev shared that
making use of pauses, and internalizing them, before starting on a new section to
consciously slow myself down actually helped quite a bit! The use of purposeful
hand gestures was also one important point to note.
Overall,
from the feedback on my final oral presentation, I was quite glad to have heard
from my peers that I have improved. However, I still need to work on it to ensure
that I remove my habit of saying “right” after I finish a sentence, which I
tend to do in hope of gaining the approval of the audience.
All in
all, ES2007S has been a wonderful experience, it taught me lessons I could not
have learnt from books, and it in fact motivated me to keep improving myself,
to be a better communicator and hopefully, a sought-after fresh graduate when I
leave NUS! :) Thank you Dr Jaidev, for sharing your inspiring stories and
interesting perspectives on the corporate world, and thank you ES2007s
classmates, for I have truly learnt something from each and everyone of you!
Special thanks to my groupmates Dinah, Mayee and Akaash, for seeing through the
completion of our proposal, and making our oral presentation a success! ;)
