The Journey Continues... (pt.2)

      The sememster almost comes to an end. Let me just catch this moment and have the final glance of our wonderful talent show.

Searching the accompany and chord of the song.

Our 21 Guns team were just praticing and it's really difficult to find a time suitable for all of us.

Discussing how to distribute lyrics and how to sing it amazingly.

Tommy, you did a wonderful job on the stage.

Alisa, thanks for your responsibility and patience and carefulness.

The drama team was just having a discussion.

Aggie and Fanny, you two always have brilant ideas.

Happily laughing.

The night before, the drama still practiced at EAH.

Though late night, they still had fun and laughters.

Fanny, I know you're tired. However, everything pays off.

I think I was doing the rundown at that time, ha-ha~

Sean, you really gave us joyce that night. Thanks very much.

Queenie, you look powerful when you're dancing.

That's the last class of this sememster. I found  myself greatlt touched with those warming words of my fellows.

Insights of the Show

The Honours College Dream a Dream Talent Show finally came to an end on Apr. 26^th and with everyone’s efforts and contributions, we made the show a successful one and made the dream of HC students organizing a show came true. Now it’s time to look back a little bit and think about what I’ve learnt and how much I’ve grown up with this precious experience.

Let’s begin with our first committee meeting. At that time, we discussed for around 5 hours to settle those fundamental things of the show, for example, the theme, the target audience, job distribution of the team, time table of implementation, basic forms of performance of the show, etc. In fact, when looking back now, I am still proud that we’ve proposed a nice theme and slogan for the show, that’s ‘Dream a Dream.’ In fact, I got that inspiration from a song called ‘I Dream a Dream’ once sung by Susan Boyle. I suggested cutting the ‘I’, then we had dream not of an individual, but of ‘us’, of the whole HC batch. And with this set theme of ‘dream’, we found that the word ‘dream’ was really a good theme to let everything happen around it and we could come up with a lot of things compassing ‘dream’, since everyone had dream. Michael Jackson had one, Roddick had one, and whole class also did. We not only had dreams for ourselves, but also for others and for the whole world. That’s why I wrote in the proposal that ‘a world without hunger and a world of peace and a world of love’.

It was not an easy process to organize and prepare everything before hand; however, I find everything worthy. Apart from being the leader of the singing team, I was in charge of the general process of implementing the show, making sure everything was going according to schedule. I find this is a special role and helps me improve in a different way. Based on what I’ve learnt this time, a role like this is not supposed to focus on things that are not too minor; or else, the whole team may get trapped in a situation that it’s difficult to move on and finish everything as planned, since there is a lack of someone to monitor branches and departments of different job division. What is required from this role is conceptual thinking. However, for organizing such show and finishing such a relatively small project, this role also needs a kind of transition from ‘conceptual thinking’ to attention to important details, or else, contribution will be limited. I believe that’s the philosophy of being a good leader and manager.

As the leader of the singing team, we chose the song of ‘21 Guns’ by Green Day. It’s an anti-war song. We chose it, since we believe it’s kind of a strike to the dream of the world, a peaceful world. It was difficult to find a time suitable for every performer to practice. However, we did achieve ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ this time, since we really didn’t practice for too many times. And I believe that’s a lot due to our members’ individual practice at home and their commitment to this performance.

During the show night, though we thought we’d almost settle everything in advance, there were still emergencies which required us to react quickly, efficiently and effectively. I believe that’s also important for a good leader since we need to learn to deal with unprepared situations and still make everything look perfect for the audience. I think we made it this time. During the show, we committees still phoned a lot to each other, just to ensure everything and discuss a fast solution to emergency. This kind of skill will only be practiced when we are actually faced with an emergency, so I really did treasure this experience.

After the show, I though so much, not just about myself, but about the HC family. I think we really have become a family, a true family this time. It was just everyone’s commitment to the show that turned it a brilliant one and our fellows become parts of the family. With such a strong sense of willingness and eagerness to do a perfect job, we just made it a success. And just because of the great success, we feel proud of each other; and with this ‘pride’, we feel connected and attached to each other and sense a sense of belonging. After the show, everyone was happily taking photos with each other, laughing, cheering, hugging, and having fun. What were flowing in my mind were the words of “family” and “sense of belonging”. In fact, HC is the only true ‘class’ I will meet and stay in the University of Macau for the whole four years. Thus, this kind of emotional attachment with our fellows is really precious.

There is a saying. It goes like, “there is no the best, only a better one.” In fact, no matter how much we feel proud of our successful show, I realize there is still space room for us to do a more perfect job. And that’s the goal for the next HC batch. Thus, I sincerely hope next time our juniors will do a much better job and make the show a more successful one.

The Journey Continues... (pt.1)

     The Honours College Dream a Dream Talent Show finally came to an end last night. These several weeks of preparation have been a long long journey, a journey of leadership, a journey of cooperation, a journey of influence, a journey of friendship, a journey of family.

     I believe pictures tell a more vivid story, so let's start with photos~

Really thanks Macau Charitas for coorganizing the show with us and thanks Udani for recommending us such a nice idea, which makes the show more than a talent show, but also a charity show, a much much more meaningful one.

Thanks Alisa, this is a really urgent moment, you are just so smart~!!!

Thanks Nathaniel for devoting your precious time and performing for us.

Tang Yi, you reall have a great voice and you've always been improving on the stage.

21 Guns. Tommy, you were playing good guitar and really did catch the correct rhythm.

21 Guns is an anti-war song by Green Day. We choose this song because we want to Dream a Dream for the world and together strike for it.

The gestures we made did match the implications of the song.

The chorus goes like:

One 21 guns

Lay down your arms, give up the fight

One, 21 guns

Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

We believe the song does convey a loving message to world, to those who are still fighting. 

"Hands up" is a kind of message saying that "Come on, just join us."

Aggie, "Why I just can't achieve my dream of being a magicican?"

You are just a genuis, a talented actor!

Hannah, thanks for joining our drama team!

Aggie, this is most wonderful magic and the most beautiful smile I've ever seen.

Udani, thanks for your special performance. You just have a good voice~!!

Really emotional~

Jose, you are one of those singers who use their voice to touch one's heart. Thanks for your Immortality.

Grouping singing: Heal the World.

This is a song by Michael Jackson, the greatest singer in the world, someone who really cares about the world and has a dream for the whole world we're living in.

Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me
And the entire human race

   

Yeah, you and me join together hand in hand, and we can realize the dream of the world.

Occupied Days, Preparation, Conceptual Thinking and Time Management

    These days, I am just occupied. Let me just make a list of what I am busy with in order to have a clear schedule in mind:

1. Opening Ceremony for 92nd Anniversary of 'May 4th Movement' Commemoration Series Activities

2. Forum I & II for 92nd Anniversary of 'May 4th Movement' Commemoration Series Activities

3. The HC 'Dream A Dream' Talent Show

4. Toelf IBT

    For 1. and 2., proposals have been done and are to be implemented very soon during the Easter Break from Apr. 21 - Apr. 22. Most of the things are finished in advance quite a long time ago, one months or so. Thus, as a result, everything is just running in plan and according to schedule. And I don't feel things in a hurry and get worried about the coming events since everything has been planned and even sudden circumstancs have been thought about in order to be prevented. I bevelieve that's what PREPARATION means. What I learn from such exerience is that Preparation Matters. My  mother always teaches me that Never Fight A War Without A Preparation. Preparation is the very key to making things in order and prevention of emergencies. It always leaves sufficient time to make thing done perfectly and details to be added.

    For 3. - The HC Talent Show. We have come up with the theme of the show, which is 'Dream A Dream', derived from a famous song 'I Dream A Dream.' Dream is the very key element we want to add into a show to make it more than a show just showing talents, and the very core we want everything happens around. That's the very conceptual and general idea about the show.  However, I do believe it's important that everything needs to be done conceptually and generally at the very beginning. And that's more than a way of doing things, but a PHILOSOPHY itself. When I am first on the position of V.P. of CMSA, I was told by our Formal General Secretary the way of thinking, 'From general to specific, from big picture to details and never change the order.' Till now, I think I am just trying my best to make full use of this principle and have gradually learnt that if chaning the order, we easily will get stuck to certain very very minor points and never move on according to the schedule. Thus, to hold the Talent Show, we firstly draft a conceptual idea about it and line from the start till end and then, we will add details into it around the theme; and that's more EFFICIENT way and also, what a good LEADER should enable an organization to and help it to achieve.

    For 4. - Toefl. In fact, we only have limited time to prepare it. However, we still have other things to be in charge of and deal with. The reality is, one day only contains 24 hours and what we can do is to make full use of it. Here comes to the issue of Time Management. Now, I plan to do some Toefl everyday and what I learn is that Managing time is not just spending as much as possible, but spending the time as efficiently as possbile. Efficiency is the key. By an attempt to achieve efficiency, I manage to reserve the time needed for Toefl review and tend to find the review time helpful to improve my Toefl skills, which are what I really hope to see.

    Inspite of these occupied days, I better find a way into a person who always prepare well, are with conceptual thinking and manages time in an efficient and effective way.

What a success: Live to Lead Workshop~!!

    Today, the Live to Lead Workship was organized successfully. It was such a good chance to have close interaction with Y1 students. When we were Y1 students, we also did ask seniors in the branch of 2012 for help and advice on application. And it's time for us to GIVE BACK and try our very best to help and serve others.

Perparation period: The Y1 students were just coming towards the EAH. A more exciting game was just about to start.

Y1 students full of anticipation and with shining smile.

Each 3 HC students sitting with a team of Y1 students: an good opportunity to interact with and get to know more about each other. A good setting indeed~!!

The workshop team was demonstrating how to play "You say what you see." A good change to test and practice COMMUNICATION.

In fact, I think the game not only taught us the philosophy of COMMUNICATION, but also something on strategic planning, for example, the first one should be someone good at body language and the last should be someone with a large vocabulary.

The special reward due to our group 3 being the fastest one in the "You say what you see" game.

A Y1 gril, major in Public Administration, the same as mine. Actually, I was very impressed by her activeness in participation in the team discussion. She had a strong willingness to stand out.

Thanks for youe previous wonderful violin performance~!!

Grace, speaking very native English. I was quite impressed by her brief sharing of today's experience.

Dr. Udani making a conclusion for today's workshop. Thanks for encouraging us to practice our leadership skills and making the class of 2013 more like a family.

Su anting's sing. Actually, she participated in the Singing Competition organized by CMSA. And I got to know her during that period. I was really shocked by her voice and influent Mandarin and Catonese.

Josefina's singing. Still wonderful performance. The song of I Turn to You, by Christina.

A group photo of our Group 3. So nice to have known each other & wish you all good luck for application~!! Always willing to help you guys~