The New Kids in Town: March Intake Orientation
The day started off as any other for most of the students, but for some of them, this day was a new beginning. The March intake commenced on the 29th March 2010 at Taylor's College Sri Hartamas. At as early as 9:00 a.m, fresh faces had begun to fill the lobby, each one eagerly waiting for their orientation to start.
While most of them looked excited and happy to begin their college life, the fear of what awaited them on this journey could not be hidden as they stood there outside the Alpha Theatre waiting for their Orientation to start.
During their break in between their orientation speeches and activities, we had a chance to interview and get to know some of them "Newbies". Much to our surprise, a number of them were from several states outside of Kuala Lumpur, totally eager to explore their new posh neighbourhood, Sri Hartamas. While some of them might be indifferent to the cold temperature in the college, others admitted to be shivering throughout the speeches as they did not come prepared with jackets and sweaters, though some were shivering even with 3 layers of clothing!
After the break, the Student Council of 2010 took over the Orientation ceremony. Not only were these fresh faces introduced to the Student Council, they were also taken for a virtual tour of the college and its surroundings, i.e : Plaza Damas & Hartamas Shopping Centre ; the short tour included recommendation on restaurants for the March intake to spend their precious lunchtime at. Definitely saved a lot of time for them on exploring the place by themselves.
Saving the best for the last, next in the agenda was the ice breaking session. When told they were supposed to get into groups of tens, according to their numbers attached to their goodie bags, the newbies were hesitant at first about the ice breaking session. Moving with the speed of a group of snails climbing up a wall, they did, reluctantly separate from their newly formed cliques during lunch.
Shortly after settling down with their new groups, they were told to pick a team leader who was to explain to everyone in their team about the mini “Amazing Race” organised by the newly elected Student Council of TCSH.
“There were five checkpoints in this college, all on the ground floor. These were the clues leading to the checkpoints. They had to go to each checkpoint and complete the task given.”
The team that could complete all the five tasks given within the shortest time would win – as simple as that. When the lovely Ms. Dachaini gave the green light, all the March Intake students stormed out of the Alpha Theatre as what you would see on television when Phil (of the real Amazing Race) says "Go".
1. To move a rubber ball across a sheet of cloth, which had holes all over it, from one end to another, without letting the ball fall through any of the holes. (4/5 on the Tough Stuff meter)
2. To stand in circles and introduce themselves with a unique pose for them to be remembered by, and the following team member was supposed to introduce him/herself as well as imitate the previous member's pose.
3. To pass a rubber band to all the team members using Rocky biscuit sticks.
4. To form a human chain and try to get a hoola hoop out from the human chain, without breaking the chain. (This, by far was the most complicated and time-consuming)
5. To make a sentence, using 3 words (minimum) each, contributed by 9 of the team members while the tenth member would have to rephrase the entire sentence, without missing a word.
One of the perks of watching these energetic fresh faces performing their tasks was when they performed their first task, they actually thought outside the box and decided to throw the rubber ball across the sheet rather than actually rolling it across. They got credit for their creativity, but not the passing thumbs up, and unfortunately they were forced to repeat the task.
All in all, the March intake students had an enjoyable first day of college which they will surely remember for the rest of their lives. Being a smaller group compared to the January intake, they seemed to cooperate well with one another and as they stepped out of college that day to begin their voyage of college life, they had made many new friends and bonds among themselves, to sail through the journey of A Levels and SAM together, hand in hand.
By DHABITAH ZAINAL ABIDIN and SITI AISYA AMINUDDIN BAKI
While most of them looked excited and happy to begin their college life, the fear of what awaited them on this journey could not be hidden as they stood there outside the Alpha Theatre waiting for their Orientation to start.
During their break in between their orientation speeches and activities, we had a chance to interview and get to know some of them "Newbies". Much to our surprise, a number of them were from several states outside of Kuala Lumpur, totally eager to explore their new posh neighbourhood, Sri Hartamas. While some of them might be indifferent to the cold temperature in the college, others admitted to be shivering throughout the speeches as they did not come prepared with jackets and sweaters, though some were shivering even with 3 layers of clothing!
After the break, the Student Council of 2010 took over the Orientation ceremony. Not only were these fresh faces introduced to the Student Council, they were also taken for a virtual tour of the college and its surroundings, i.e : Plaza Damas & Hartamas Shopping Centre ; the short tour included recommendation on restaurants for the March intake to spend their precious lunchtime at. Definitely saved a lot of time for them on exploring the place by themselves.
Saving the best for the last, next in the agenda was the ice breaking session. When told they were supposed to get into groups of tens, according to their numbers attached to their goodie bags, the newbies were hesitant at first about the ice breaking session. Moving with the speed of a group of snails climbing up a wall, they did, reluctantly separate from their newly formed cliques during lunch.
Shortly after settling down with their new groups, they were told to pick a team leader who was to explain to everyone in their team about the mini “Amazing Race” organised by the newly elected Student Council of TCSH.
“There were five checkpoints in this college, all on the ground floor. These were the clues leading to the checkpoints. They had to go to each checkpoint and complete the task given.”
The team that could complete all the five tasks given within the shortest time would win – as simple as that. When the lovely Ms. Dachaini gave the green light, all the March Intake students stormed out of the Alpha Theatre as what you would see on television when Phil (of the real Amazing Race) says "Go".
1. To move a rubber ball across a sheet of cloth, which had holes all over it, from one end to another, without letting the ball fall through any of the holes. (4/5 on the Tough Stuff meter)
2. To stand in circles and introduce themselves with a unique pose for them to be remembered by, and the following team member was supposed to introduce him/herself as well as imitate the previous member's pose.
3. To pass a rubber band to all the team members using Rocky biscuit sticks.
4. To form a human chain and try to get a hoola hoop out from the human chain, without breaking the chain. (This, by far was the most complicated and time-consuming)
5. To make a sentence, using 3 words (minimum) each, contributed by 9 of the team members while the tenth member would have to rephrase the entire sentence, without missing a word.
One of the perks of watching these energetic fresh faces performing their tasks was when they performed their first task, they actually thought outside the box and decided to throw the rubber ball across the sheet rather than actually rolling it across. They got credit for their creativity, but not the passing thumbs up, and unfortunately they were forced to repeat the task.
All in all, the March intake students had an enjoyable first day of college which they will surely remember for the rest of their lives. Being a smaller group compared to the January intake, they seemed to cooperate well with one another and as they stepped out of college that day to begin their voyage of college life, they had made many new friends and bonds among themselves, to sail through the journey of A Levels and SAM together, hand in hand.
By DHABITAH ZAINAL ABIDIN and SITI AISYA AMINUDDIN BAKI
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