Fire alarm on campus

Fire Truck on Campus

I was in the middle of a meeting with the project manager of the Universal Case Competition Organizing Committee when the fire alarm went off. Immediately, I stopped the meeting and lead everyone out of the building. As for the meeting, we continued with the discussion in the designated safe zone outside the Discovery 1 building. The meeting was the first for the next semester's UCC Case Competition, where we plan and schedule the dates for all of Spring 2017 activities.

Waiting to return to class

Apparently, someone has left a plastic container in the microwave oven in the student lounge on the first floor. The student has not only forgotten about the container left in the microwave oven, but has wrongly keyed in the instructions. Instead of three minutes, the microwave oven was timed for three hours. Thick smoke was seen coming out from the microwave oven and the student lounge which triggered the fire alarm.

Fire truck on the background

Everyone in the building were scrambled out onto the narrow open space between the two discovery buildings for about twenty minutes before allowed back in. When we reentered the building, there were a strong smell of burned plastic which confirms the microwave oven fire. Coincidentally, this incident happened during the noon lunch break and there were no classes or exams at that time. I went straight back to my classroom and once the students were all settled in their places, started the lecture.

Study Methods Workshop

Study Methods Workshop

Like the LinkedIn workshop, I also facilitate the Study Methods workshop in Fraser International College once a semester. I will usually conduct the workshop after the midterm exams and about a month before the final exams. Although, the workshop was opened to the FIC community, only a handful of students turned up for the workshop. But still, it was a good turn out, just slightly more than thirty five students at the workshop, which was a decent number of participants for any workshop in FIC. I used power point slides as the main tool to deliver my presentation. And hand out printed notes that summarizes the material I have shared at the end of the presentation.

Emphasizing a key point

Other than sharing my own past experiences when I was a university student, I also provided crucial study tips as to how to prepare for exams. One of the most important key to succeeding in exam was discipline. I used to follow a regimented schedule, not allowing distractions from among some of the activities like. For instance, I have a specific time for daily gym workouts and even time spared for other forms of recreation. I don't allow distractions in my study schedule unless it was really an emergency. I was that focused to do well.

Fullhouse

Another important trait that I have when revising for exams was that I was really thorough and detailed on my notes. I would usually read the lecture material first. And then, write notes based on the material from the textbook before each lecture. After the lecture, I would compare my notes against the material shared by the professor, I will rewrite the notes adding in the material that I have just missed out or just mentioned by the professor. I always want my notes to be concise and complete. It makes my revision for exams so much easier and within my control. I may put in a lot of hours into my studies but I was a student. And students were expected to study. The one thing I learned about being a good student is that there are no short cuts. Just like building a career, focus, dedication and hard work are the only solutions for success.

Halloween Event in FIC

Colorful costumes

I went back to FIC on Friday although it was an off day for me to catch up with some work and at the same time join in the festivities of the Halloween Event. The student area on the top floor was turned into the stage for a costume party. I saw many familiar characters, in costumes of cause, and a lot of happy faces enjoying the short break from class. There were staff members, students and a few faculties involved in the activity. But, we were so caught up in the fun than bothered about distinguishing who is who.

Who are these two?

The event was really positive towards student teacher engagement, student advisor engagement and also not forgetting staff faculty engagement. Overall, I would say, the event was a great success in terms of fostering communal relationships. But student involvement was still at the minimal in spite of the large population growth in FIC in recent semesters. Maybe this event wasn't attracting enough interest among the students. Anyway, attendance to events like this is nothing new, I have been meeting the same group of students in these events.

All in characters

Only a handful of students that feel the need of building bonds and friendships through participation in events like this one. Many don't see the long term benefits from participating in extra curricular activities. Or they may be shy or not comfortable with large crowd. Whatever the reasons, their focuses in life are very much different. That is why, at FIC we are very diverse, we have events catering to different interest and needs of the student populations.

BUS200 Introduction to Canadian Business Fundamentals Individual Presentations

Individual Presentation

The individual presentations in the BUS200 Introduction to Canadian Business Fundamentals course in Fraser International College and SFU's Beedie School of Business have just started on week eighth of this semester. The individual presentation is a course component of the overall course. And each student currently enrolled in the course are to select a topic from a list of topics provided to them at the beginning of the semester.

Stressing an interesting point

They are to conduct research and collect appropriate information using the tools provided in the course. They will also have to write a report of their findings and analysis, which they will present in class. Each student is grouped in a specific group coinciding with the weeks in which they will deliver an oral presentation to their fellow classmates. So, on each week, starting from week eight until week twelve, between five to seven students will take turns in their own classes to deliver their individual presentation.

Answering Question

On Tuesday this week, the class that I was assigned to, started with the first group of students doing the individual presentations. Today, I have students from the other two classes doing their individual presentations. And tomorrow, another two different batches of students will be presenting. So, looks like I will be listening to and getting to enjoy a lot of individual presentations from now until the end of the semester. Amazingly, through these individual presentations, majority of these students raise to the occasion and put up really better than expected performances.

Workshop on Creating Awesome LinkedIn Profile

A section of the workshop participants

Fraser International College through the Instructor Advising Program organized a LinkedIn Profile Workshop entitled, "How To Build An Awesome LinkedIn Profile" in Discovery 1 at the main Simon Fraser University campus. I was the workshop facilitator and had the opportunity to speak with a full classroom of eager to learn students. In the workshop, I shared the twenty one key points about building the best resume with the available multimedia tools and sections provided on the online social career profile building platform.

Facilitating the workshop

The LinkedIn Platform is practically used by ninety five percent of today's prospecting employers in their job search process. Some potential employers used the online social platform to find suitable candidates to fill vacant positions and some uses the platform to advertise vacancies. While others may use the platform to verify or evaluate shortlisted candidates. Which brings us to the point of the importance of this social media platform. Especially, for students to learn the finer points of building an awesome career focused profile on LinkedIn.

Another section of the participants

Although, the workshop was only an hour, I fully utilized the time to answer as many queries. And on top of that, provided the opportunity for the participants to have their professional photos taken. I have earlier made prior arrangements with the photography club to extend this service to the students. This LinkedIn workshop is only available once per semester and the next of such workshop will probably be available again in the Spring 2017 semester.

Fall 2016 @FIC Connect

Speakers @FIC Connect

Fraser International College celebrated the success of a their alumnus at a gala event in Hilton Metrotown. The FIC Connect Event which was initiated through the collaboration between the Student Support Department and Instructor Advising of Fraser International College was also an opportunity for the present cohorts of international students to engage with FIC alumnus. The alumnus that was invited to the event were mainly students that are presently pursuing their programs in Simon Fraser University.

Speaking @FIC Connect

Invited to the event was also a panel of speakers. They were selected from among the more senior alumnus and faculty members of Fraser International College. The alumnus were among the first international students that went through the FIC transfer program when Fraser International College were newly setup in Simon Fraser University about ten years ago. These four alumnus speakers has already established themselves in their individual professional careers. They were invited to speak about their journeys towards achieving their personal goals.

Networking @FIC Connect

Other than the alumnus, the other three speakers were faculty members of Fraser International College. The Connect Event created an opportunity for the present batch of students to learn and be inspired through the motivating stories that was shared. Many of the international students were actually moved by these stories and through the stories found solutions to their own challenges. At the end of the speeches, the students were invited to engage with the panel of speakers in a networking session. The event was a success and concluded at approximately ten o'clock at night.

The Final Round of the Fall 2016 Universal Case Competition

Case Competition Judges

We started early in the morning with registration opened before eight in the morning. Surprisingly, when I arrived at about five minutes before the hour, there were already participants, coaches and officials signing in. And to my expectations the organizing committee and volunteers were already on hand to welcome the early arrivals. This semester's organizing committee was really self driven and unbelievably task oriented. So literally, all I needed to do was a walk about. One of the first thing I did was to make sure that the rooms were set for presentations. Also, to make sure that the staff lounge were ready for breakfast. Earlier, I have bought a dozen of donuts and another dozen of muffins from Tim Hortons for that purpose.

Getting Pointers from Team Coach

It was amazingly easy to work with this semester's organizing committee. They had every aspect of the case competition well planned out and managed the event with excellent team work. Their time management was also immaculate. I have to give them full credit for that. In fact, the event was so well planned that we actually completed all the two rounds of the nine team presentations without a problem. One team did not show up and was disqualified. But we did everything else right on time. Managing thirty exciting students all dressed in their finest business attire was a task in itself. And able to complete the record participation case competition final rounds within four hours is commendable.

Two Members of Triple Threat

This semester's case competition organizing committee has set a tough precedent for future committees to follow. The Fall 2016 Universal Case Competition ended today with a tremendous success. We had a total of twenty one teams participating which was a record. And all the twenty one teams went through the first round on three different days. Their presentations were officiated by the eight faculty members of Fraser International College and they helped selected the final ten teams for today's final round competing teams. In the final rounds, we invited two faculty members of Fraser International College to pair with two alumnus as case competition judges.

One of the three Top Speaker

The winning team for this semester's Universal Case Competition is Triple Threat, made up of three first semester international students from Bangladesh and India that was coached by a Simon Fraser University Communications student from Vietnam. Whereas the top three top speakers were two Bangladeshi students and one from China. After the certificate presentation and award ceremony, the attendees were feted to a specially catered Malaysian buffet, sponsored by the college. During the lunch buffet, the participants get to mingle and network with the officials, the organizers, volunteers, and with other participants.