2-day Individual and Team Building Camp
Nanyang Junior College organised a two-day individual and team building camp for all Year 1s. The camp was held on Thursday and Friday. The camp was held in the hall.
On Thursday, activities were focused on instilling the meaning of self-confidence and self-esteem. There was an activity were we had to go around the hall and find people whom we did not know, and then share your life goals with them. There was also a public-speaking activity were we had to stand on a table infront of the class and tell them your goals. As time was limited, I was the lucky last person to try out the activity before the camp ended at around 5pm.
The second day of the camp, today, was very eventful. It focused more on team-building and team spirit. The first activity was the classical trust-fall. One person stood on chairs stacked to about 1.5m high, and had to freefall backwards onto classmates who formed a large cradle to support the falling person.
It was during this activity where many things happened. The trainer, named Jack Lai from Absorbent Minds scolded a team "fuck you" with the microphone infront of the 500 participants, teachers and other students looking on from upstairs. He was unable to control his temper and flared up. Ironically, he said that he is an NTU graduate with an engineering degree. A person with such high education status, and received proper training to become a mass-trainer, said such crude remarks into a microphone infront of a large audience. I till now still cannot believe it. His actions made me lose my respect that I had for him since the start of the course.
Later on, because a few of us missed the chance to try out the trust-fall activity and really wanted to try it, Yvonne, Ee Ling and Scott asked the facilitators to give us a chance to try it. But the facilitator simply said that we'd missed the opportunity and did not allow us to try it. There was also this staff facilitator whom my entire class hated, I will not mention the name here. I feel that he did not have the appropriate communication skills to interact with teenagers like us. He spoke like a lawyer and did not try to reason out with us, but instead used irrelevant points to prove that we were wrong, or he was right.
An example was when Yvonne tried to fight for a chance to let a few of us try out the trust-fall activity. He used the example of a man murdering your wife, and whether you'd forgive him and give him a second chance. The example was ridiculous, and totally irrelevant in that context!
Then we had an activity called web-phobia. There was a spider-web laid horizontally suspended in the air. We had to get everyone across through the web without touching the strings. It was very difficult at first as we could not get the correct technique. But after countless attempts, we succeeded and everyone was jubilant.
Everything ended at around 5:30pm. I felt that the team-building camp was similar to the orientation camp I had in NJC. "Come On Over" by Christina Aguilera was also played at the end of the web-phobia game, and I immediately recalled NJC as it was one of the mass-dance songs NJC used... memories...
About 13 of us then went to Junction 8 for dinner. We ate at Food Junction and later took neoprints. I reached home at about 8:30pm, and I now feel like what every other JC student feels everyday - exhausted!
On Thursday, activities were focused on instilling the meaning of self-confidence and self-esteem. There was an activity were we had to go around the hall and find people whom we did not know, and then share your life goals with them. There was also a public-speaking activity were we had to stand on a table infront of the class and tell them your goals. As time was limited, I was the lucky last person to try out the activity before the camp ended at around 5pm.
The second day of the camp, today, was very eventful. It focused more on team-building and team spirit. The first activity was the classical trust-fall. One person stood on chairs stacked to about 1.5m high, and had to freefall backwards onto classmates who formed a large cradle to support the falling person.
It was during this activity where many things happened. The trainer, named Jack Lai from Absorbent Minds scolded a team "fuck you" with the microphone infront of the 500 participants, teachers and other students looking on from upstairs. He was unable to control his temper and flared up. Ironically, he said that he is an NTU graduate with an engineering degree. A person with such high education status, and received proper training to become a mass-trainer, said such crude remarks into a microphone infront of a large audience. I till now still cannot believe it. His actions made me lose my respect that I had for him since the start of the course.
Later on, because a few of us missed the chance to try out the trust-fall activity and really wanted to try it, Yvonne, Ee Ling and Scott asked the facilitators to give us a chance to try it. But the facilitator simply said that we'd missed the opportunity and did not allow us to try it. There was also this staff facilitator whom my entire class hated, I will not mention the name here. I feel that he did not have the appropriate communication skills to interact with teenagers like us. He spoke like a lawyer and did not try to reason out with us, but instead used irrelevant points to prove that we were wrong, or he was right.
An example was when Yvonne tried to fight for a chance to let a few of us try out the trust-fall activity. He used the example of a man murdering your wife, and whether you'd forgive him and give him a second chance. The example was ridiculous, and totally irrelevant in that context!
Then we had an activity called web-phobia. There was a spider-web laid horizontally suspended in the air. We had to get everyone across through the web without touching the strings. It was very difficult at first as we could not get the correct technique. But after countless attempts, we succeeded and everyone was jubilant.
Everything ended at around 5:30pm. I felt that the team-building camp was similar to the orientation camp I had in NJC. "Come On Over" by Christina Aguilera was also played at the end of the web-phobia game, and I immediately recalled NJC as it was one of the mass-dance songs NJC used... memories...
About 13 of us then went to Junction 8 for dinner. We ate at Food Junction and later took neoprints. I reached home at about 8:30pm, and I now feel like what every other JC student feels everyday - exhausted!
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