Residential Stay at St. Andrew’s Hall and NUS Community Engagement Festival

 From 28 February- 14 March 2014, the 5th Saints Advocate was involved in the student leadership residential stay at St. Andrews Hall for two weeks. The purpose of the residential stay was for us to gain better understanding of the expectations of a Saints Advocate, to share planning, reflective and facilitation skills, to interact with student leaders from other countries, and to raise awareness of intercultural synergy. 

                             Candid photo taken on during one of our daily night sessions of residential stay


On 14 March 2014, the 5th Saints Advocate partcipated in the NUS Community Engagement festival where we interacted with foreign workers through various games planned by the students from NUS. The festival was a platform to raise awareness of the minority groups in the society and for students to realize the needs and struggles that the minorities face in their daily lives.

 The activities I have engaged in as a member of the 5th saints Advocate for the past two weeks has been both an impactful and fun experience. The two-week residential stay at SA Hall has brought me closer to my fellow 5th members as we went through our day-to-day activities together. It pushed me to open up in order to learn more about people, their personalities and to forge relationships with others. It changed my perception as an individual as I grew to understand the need for social connections. One of the few workshops held during the stay- The Cultural Awareness workshop - was indeed a very meaningful session for me as I began to reflect on how quick I was to judge someone without understanding where they come from.

  The NUS community engagement festival that took place during the last day of our residential stay further emphasised the needs of our community, especially of those who have less of a voice in society like the migrant workers. As an Advocate, it is important to hear and provide for the real needs of such communities. Besides that, I was also able to take away several lessons from this program– things we as Advocates should do to minimise blunders during the execution of similar events. These include the need for matured facilitators who can look out for the group as a whole, understand fully what is going on and the need for attention to details (which can be done through dry rehearsals beforehand). At the same time, I became aware of what would and would not grab the participants’ interest in carrying out the activities. All in all, I realised what it truly means to understand and accommodate to the diversity of our community.

By Subethira
Member of the 5th Saints Advocate