This is the second of a three-part blog takeover series on the Resident Assistant (RA) Exchange Programme (RAEP). The RAEP was first launched in Sept 2014, with an aim to provide overseas exchange opportunities for deserving RAs, in a residential context. Selected RAs are expected to give back to their community in the form of large-scale residential projects upon return from the week-long programme. The inaugural run in Sept 2014 kicked off in the City University of Hong Kong. In Sept 2015, the programme established a new exchange partner, La Trobe University, in Melbourne, Australia. The programme took place from 21 to 27 September 2015.
Hello, my name is Pauline and I’m a Resident Assistant in UTown Residence!
Before going on this trip, I made a pledge to myself to learn something new on this trip – and indeed I have. In fact, I learnt something new every day that I was there – both in formal and informal ways. So I’m going to share my most memorable moments via this blog post. My takeaways can be classified into three major perspectives: (1) As a resident assistant; (2) As a student; and (3) As a tourist.
Are you ready?
Day 1: We arrived in Melbourne at the crack of dawn (5am!). Our main mode of transport the whole week was a rented car, because that’s mostly how everyone gets around in Melbourne – we didn’t want to get lost on public transport on our first day! On our drive, we even went into downtown by mistake, which was way too far from the campus. Like did you know that La Trobe Ave is not on La Trobe University? Well, we didn’t! We reached the campus after close to an hour, when the actual drive was probably only 30 minutes or so.
Our (wrong) detour taught me an important lesson that we should make use of tools at our disposal (the GPS), and trust our teammates who are navigating. New challenges will always present itself in life and uncertainty will always be there, but when you’re prepared and trust your teammates, the journey still can be enjoyable.
Day 2: This is the day we officially started the exchange program. We met the staff members in the accommodation office, toured the campus, have joined their RA meetings in the evening and even toured in off-campus residences with their Night Manager, James.
La Trobe’s residential community is very conservative in size in comparison to NUS, but this has allowed their residential life team to be more focused across the board, in terms of engagement and programme support. For eg. I noticed a strong focus in mental wellness programmes. This is something I really hope to emulate and pilot here in NUS for my own residents. Here’s a collage I made of the rooms we toured!
Day 3: I had the opportunity to join a tutorial with my academic buddy (for a week), Maddie Riddle. Maddie is pursuing a Bachelor in Strategic Communication, and lives in Glenn College (one of the three residences in La Trobe). The tutorial I attended with her is on Online Journalism, and our assignment was to produce an audio report of La Trobe with still photographs. This allowed me to tour the secret & lesser-known places in La Trobe!
My academic buddy, Maddie & classmates
Journalism happened to be my undergraduate major, so this assignment was just my cup of tea. It was really fun to team up with my classmates (for a day) to capture campus life. The classroom environment is very interactive and the assignment was interesting – it was like reliving my undergraduate days. I also learned new techniques in online journalism, and you can view my assignment here. It also happened to be their tutor’s birthday that day, so I even got to partake in a class birthday song!
Day 4: It wasn’t all fun and rainbows though. Our exchange program fell onto the NUS recess week, which also meant that most of us are rushing for deadlines and midterms (during the week after we return to Singapore). Today I stayed in during the morning, instead of heading out with the rest for some quick sightseeing, and attended a lecture in the afternoon. In the evening, we all attended a courtyard party called Everything is Awesome. There were tacos, hotdogs, fries… You name it. I spent a full day in school today, like any other student!
Though I gave up half a day of sightseeing opportunities, I’m glad I got a full day of student experience in return. Knowing that my work is complete gives me peace of mind to completely partake in all the other activities for the week! Prioritising was the lesson I relearned today yet again. I also met a professor from Singapore while on campus today – he excitedly stopped me after catching a glimpse of my NUS hoodie! It was a heartwarming day for me. 🙂
Day 5: We did a video conference with staff from the La Trobe-Bendigo campus in the morning. It gave us a better picture on how to manage different demographics living in a rural area (Bendigo) and a city (Bundoora) area. In Singapore, the city is everywhere! So the differences between a rural and city area may be difficult to appreciate, unless given the chance to learn from a university like La Trobe. We took the afternoon off downtown and popped by St Kilda Beach, in search of its famous Brighton Boxes. St Kilda’s is the most famous beach in Melbourne, and we were so lucky to have had the time to see it. In the evening, we attended a yoga session, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the instructor could not turn up! But we made some new friends, so all wasn’t lost.
There was a lot of unexpectedness in this day. We did not initially plan to go to St Kilda’s that day, but decided to optimize our free time before the evening yoga session. The Brighton Boxes at St Kilda’s are not marked (at all!) on maps nor the GPS, so we spent considerable time figuring out the directions. But when we arrived, it was the golden hour and everything was beautiful. So sometimes, the unexpected can turn out better than you imagine! Another unexpected situation today was when the yoga instructor did not turn up due to unforeseen circumstances. This is something I have personally never experienced before, and I cannot imagine what to do if it had been my event! This is something that can happen absolutely anywhere, including NUS, and I’m glad that this incident gave me a new perspective on what to preempt for in future event planning.
Day 6: Today we had a meeting with La Trobe’s community standards manager on how they manage disciplinary cases. In the afternoon, we attended a networking event organized by Australasian Association of College & University Housing Officers (AACUHO), in which housing officers and student leaders from different universities gather to discuss on a variety of issues like sports engagement, managing diversity in residences and alcohol tolerance on campus. We also had a chance to visit the residences at Deakin University, which was a nice side activity of the event.
I found the networking session useful! The discussions highlighted the challenges and solutions for common residential problems and set the tone for future interuniversity collaborations. I imagine that if NUS were to embark on such a networking event in future, we could potentially see many more interuniversity collaborations, especially for residential life too.
Day 7: It is with some sadness that I say that this was the last day of our trip. We took a drive out of the city and along the Great Ocean Road – the weather was perfect!
All I can say about today is: being able to take some time off to do one of the world’s greatest coastal drives, was a great blessing for all of us. We talked about our learning takeaways and plans after returning to NUS, and basically everything else under the sun. I enjoyed every moment. Being able to come to Melbourne also allowed me to appreciate wildlife that is not so easily accessible back in Singapore, and reminds me how important it is to treasure and preserve the fragile beauty of nature in this world. Finally, the last takeaway and perhaps the most important one personally for me, is that if we have good teammates, nothing is insurmountable and every day can be a good day if you make it so.
Presenting a collage I painstakingly made, of all our precious group photos together!
