Day Out with Newly Arrived Grad Students

At Sapperton Days

Yesterday, I played tourist guide to two of my grad students. I have made prior arrangement to meet with them at the Sapperton Days 2016, street fair at about eleven in the morning on Sunday. It was an introduction to the culture and diversity of Canada. On that day, there were lots of displays and exhibits, representing businesses in the Sapperton area, food trucks with different ethnic and local cuisines, first responders like police and the fire and rescue department, community services and health clubs, and children's learning centres. The main attraction was of cause the New Westminster's vintage police car and the New Westminster's vintage fire truck other than the street dancing and music shows.

In a Chinese Herbal Shop

After an hour at the Sapperton Days street fair, we proceeded to Vancouver's heritage Chinatown. It was much calmer and quieter there. We walked around Keefer, Pender and Hasting. First, before we started, we actually had lunch in HON's Wuntun House on Keefer which has been serving Cantonese style cuisines for a very long time. In Chinatown, there were more than a few Chinese herbal shops and I took the opportunity to show them some of the unique items sold at the herbal shops, like snake skin, lizard skin, sea horses, star fish, shark fins, deer antlers and so on. We also walked through the Sun Yet-Son Park before heading back to Burnaby campus. I was with the students for approximately five hours on Sunday, enjoying the good weather.

Model United Nations in FIC

Participants and Organizers

Fraser International College organized and hosted the Model United Nations or also known as Model UN, over the past weekend in Discovery 1 at Simon Fraser University's Burnaby campus. The final day debate saw eleven enthusiastic students presenting their recommendations and views at the mocked conference at the assembly of nations. The was the second in the series of Model United Nations forum which will be a semesterly event at Fraser International College. This educational simulation or academic competition is a rare opportunity for international students to learn about diplomacy, international relationships and the functions of The United Nations.

FIC's Model United Nation

The international students participating in the Model UN conference, known as delegates, are placed in committees or assigned to a certain country, where they represent an individual country, committee or a particular cause.  The delegates will conduct research and formulate a report or paper before the conference that they will use to debate with their fellow delegates. At the end of this semester's Model UN conference, the top performing team was representing Greece.

The Ultimate Leadership Workshop Series

Team Building

About forty five international students from Fraser International College got to participate in the Ultimate Leadership Workshop Series which started yesterday in Discovery 1, SFU. In the first of the three workshops, students get to learn team building, effective communication, critical thinking and leadership skills. The participants were introduced to several simulated working environments where the opportunity is to learn to collaborate with their fellow teammates to accomplish a particular goal. The first workshop sets the stage for the participants to experience the process of team building starting with the forming phase.

Accomplishing Common Goals

Within these activities, challenges were intentionally introduced to simulate a real working environment, such as a mole to sabotage or slowdown the team's progress. This activity allows the participants to experience the storming phase of team building, where team members start to doubt their fellow teammates. In order to encourage participation, each of the six teams were lead by a graduate student that also participated in all the three simulated activities.

Collaborative Work Environments

The three experiential learning activities were develop for the COLW510 Collaborative Work Environments course with a learning purpose, and were run concurrently with the leadership workshop to benefit some of the international students that were keen to learn leadership skills. The workshop is part of the learning component in the course for the graduate students. And with the leadership workshop, opportunities are given to the undergraduate students to learn alongside the graduate students in activities simulating live working environments.

First Round FIC Universal Case Competition

Case Competition Presenters

The first round of FIC Universal Case Competition started on Tuesday in the fifth week of the summer 2016 semester. It took two days during the afternoon break period for thirteen teams to complete their presentations. It was obvious that the FIC Universal Case Competition is gaining popularity among the students at Fraser International College @ Simon Fraser University with the largest number of participants so far. The organizers were surprised with the overwhelming responds. Of the thirteen participating teams, there were also more than twenty nationalities represented in the case competition.

Team Triump

The topic for the first round were based on the social issues surrounding hate crimes which included racism, violence, gender, forms of discrimination and so on. In that two days of presentation, the participating teams have shown great confidence, effective speaking skills, used of presentation aids and team cooperations. The selected topic was chosen because social issues are better suited for the international student population of FIC. And the topic was common among the students from different program pathways.

The Gentlemen

Although it is a competition, the atmosphere and momentum around the competition were focused on learning new skills, collaboration and support. With the opportunity, students learned to appreciate and understand the social issues surrounding us, and how important it is to work together to initiate change in our society.

In the two days of competition, twelve teams have been selected to advance to the semifinal rounds. And each team in the next round will start with a fresh case topic and instructions.

PMP Capstone Class visited Burnaby Village Museum

Original First House in Burnaby

The PreMaster Program CAPS510 Capstone class visited Burnaby Village Museum as part of their field assignment for the information collection phase of the course. It was an experiential learning trip to see and learn first hand of the different exhibits on display and presentations available on the museum grounds. Besides the learning opportunity, it was a great day to be outdoor with the excellent weather condition. The group were pretty organized and stayed together for the most part of the visit. And as expected of the graduate students, moving together from one exhibit site to another exhibiting the basic characteristics of building trust in the team formation process. This is a typical characteristic in the forming stage of a healthy collaborative work environment too.

In the Convinient Store

Other than that, the students actually took the opportunity to practice their interviewing skills with different individuals (professionally trained presenters) that spoke English as the first language. Overall, the students are showing greater confidence in handling conversations in English. From observations, they were making good eye contacts and comfortable with their body language when conversing in English. This activity also gave the students the opportunity to learn to be attentive listeners. As these international students are afforded with more opportunities to speak with local speakers within an informal setting, they will learn to adapt much easier and faster. Something they will have to earn before stepping into the SFU MBA program proper.

All Aboard for A Train Ride

Other than learning through their interactions with the locals, the students were also introduced to the rich and diverse Canadian culture at its best in Burnaby Village Museum. The volunteers were so supportive and enthusiastic to meet with these international students that they went out of their ways to show great hospitality. There were several occasions when some of the presenters just went on and on explaining the exhibits until I had to hurry everyone to move on to the next exhibit. I am really appreciative of the work these volunteers are doing. I believe they have left a positive impact on students on how friendly and welcoming Canadians are.

FIC Universal Case Competition Summer 2016 Workshop

Presentation Skills by Prof. Daryl Fuller

Into our third official FIC Universal Case Competition and we were overwhelmed with the participation of thirteen teams. This is the most participation we have ever recorded in the series. I am just happy with the overall marketing campaign done by the organizing committee. A job well done, in spite of being in the summer semester where the student population is usually at the lowest of the three semesters, I am proud of the volunteers, organizing committee and the project manager because against all odds especially at the beginning, they managed to recruit thirteen teams to participate.

A section of the participants

The organizing committee held the workshop on Presentation Skills just yesterday with Professor Daryl Fuller. He was an inspiring speaker, sharing his wisdom and experience with the participants on effective presentation skills. The participants were glued to his every word and narration of good presentation. This session with Prof. Daryl Fuller was also an eye opener to many of the participating students as to the tremendous benefits that awaits an established speaker.

Effective Presentation

The organizing committee also used the opportunity to reaffirm the participation of the teams that signed up to compete. In the classroom next door, a separate session was also held for the coaches of the case competition. And later the coaches were introduced to the participating teams. The schedule for the participants were also revealed yesterday and each team has approximately seven days to prepare for the presentation. So, the coaches and their teams went straight into preparation mode. Competition will start next week.

Preparing Grad Students for SFU's MBA program

In the computer lab for SAS Practice

A group of new grad students started this summer's Pre Masters Program which is a direct pathway to the highly recognized SFU's MBA just about a week ago at Fraser International College in the Burnaby campus. This group of students were one of the most diversely represented yet, coming from Ukraine, India, Indonesia, South Korea and China. After the first week of familiarization and course introduction, the second week was more of transitioning to some serious learning. Their course load included Quantitative Analytics, Collaborative Work Environments, Writing Literacy, Intercultural Communications and Case Competition Capstone.

Practicing the online tool used for Statistical Analysis

Most of them have been here less than two weeks and already adjusted back to being a full time student again. This pre masters program will help them transition and gain the necessary experience to a successful MBA experience. In fact this is my third year with this program and I have had the opportunity to transition and work with at least two previous batches of pre masters program students that have gone on to successfully graduated from the SFU's MBA program. I have been involved with the development of the pre masters program since initiation.