Jan/Feb 2014

IT’S NEW. IT’S IMPROVED.

NEWSLETTER EDITION

Bizad to The Movies

Exam Welfare Pack GiveawayHalloween

50 Hands Campaign

Epl@NUSBIZ

Events to look out for in 2014 2014 Bizad

Sports Events

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Freshmen Perspective

IFG Appreciation Day

Dear fellow Bizaders,

Welcome to the irst-ever issue of the Biz@ Publications Newsletter! On behalf of the 27th Publicity and Publications Committee, I thank you for supporting us as we embark on this journey to give you as many amazing stories as we possibly can, a relection of the enthusiasm within each one of us that is the Bizad spirit!

The Biz@ Publications aims The Biz@ Publications aims to be an inclusive platform for Bizaders, both in showcasing and publicizing events. Through our bi-monthly newsletter and annual magazine, we strive to bring about an air of positivity amidst the intensive lifestyle many of us are familiar with. We also hope to look into the common issues faced as Business students and ind workable solutions which all of us have a part to play in to create a better Bizad environment.

In this issue, In this issue, we take you through some of the most memorable moments of last semester, dig deep into the insights of our very own Bizaders and also give you a sense of what’s in store for the new year ahead. We hope that you would enjoy this newsletter as much as we have enjoyed working on it and hopefully gain a sense of refreshment for the year ahead based on what we have to offer.

WWe are also open to hear any feedback or comments you may have! Drop us an email at nusbizpubpub@gmail.com if you have queries and/or noteworthy stories you would like to share with us.

Here’s to an awesome semester ahead!

welcome

-Danial Hakim, Lum E-Sean(Director and Vice-Director of Bizad PUBS)

BIZAD TO THE MOVIES

There was also a pre-show activity where some lucky winners walked away with attractive food hampers and even free Golden Village tickets!

BizadBizad To The Movies is more than just a movie screening. It is one of the rare opportunities to take a break from the hectic university schedule and to spend quality time with friends who make uni life so much more enriching and meaningful. If you missed your chance this time, come on ddown next semester andwe assure you another thundering success!

1Bizad to the movies

EXAM WELFARE PACK giveaway

2Exam Welfare pack giveaway

The welfairies were also extremely heart-ened to see the joyful faces of the business students as they receive their welfare packs. The welfare pack items were spe-cially selected to cater to the speciic needs of students during this examination period. We hope that all of you have enjoyed our wonderful welfare pack over-lowing with love and goodies! Other wel-fare initiatives such as this included the Sticky sweets placed along the benches in Business School and distributing mini snack packs to students mugging during examination week.

On the irst day of Welfare Pack Giveaway, we already received positive and overwhelming turnout. Despite the long queues, most of the students were still able to enjoy themselves as they bonded with their schoolmates and re-ceivedfree ice-cold Coca-cola from our dearest welfairies.

3IFG Appreciation day

During the During the event, we presented limited edition Bizad IFG teddy bears, lanyard and decal which was sourced specially for the over 20 teams present. We also had the privilege of having our assistant dean, Dr Helen Chai grgrace the event and share meaningful insights with the athletes present.

All the sweat and hard work put in deinitely did not go to waste from all the strong friendships forged and memo-ries shared in the IFG. Our ath-letes embodied the Bizad spirit, ighting with tenacity and passion, truly proving themselves as deserving com-petitors and winners!

CongCongratulations to all teams and especially those who performed exceptionally well in the games; our Tchoukball Mixed and Volley-ball Women’s teams for attaining Gold and our Basketball Women & Men, Canoe Polo Women’s, Handball Handball Women’s, Swimming Women & Men and the Table Tennis mixed team for attaining Silver, well played Bizad! The success of this event is great-ly owed to all the athletes for put-ting in the time to participate and share in their experiences togeth-er. The 27th Bizad Sports Com-mittee looks forward to this IFG Appreciation Ceremony becoming a tradition for the many years ahead!

Appreciation dayInter-faculty Games

Participants were deinitely in for an unforgetta-ble experience and left screaming for more. Turn-out for the event was great – we even had to have it extended due to participation exceeding our

expectations! Feedback received was also greatly positive as many said it to be well-thought-out,

very fun and a great way to relieve stress from the hectic schoolwork. Some even

claimed that the event was better than the Halloween Horror Night at USS!!

For those of you who missed out and are wondering just how good the event must’ve been, fret not! The Bizad Club will keep up our standards of having such top-notch

enjenjoyable events for everyone so keep your eyes open and watch your back! The next great experi-

ence may just be lurking around somewhere nearby… ;-)

Halloween

4Halloween

“Introverts living under the Extrover-sion Ideal are like women in a man’s

world, discounted be-cause of a trait that goes to the core of

who they are. Extroversion is an

enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into

an oppressive standard to which most of us feel

we must conform.”-Susan Cain

reverberating air of conidence in the voices of your peers, each time being replied with a smile of delight and a delicate tick off the list while your name is being glanced over unnoticed…

Class participation. LClass participation. Love it or hate it, it’s something we all have to experience as Business stu-dents. Even so, many issues are worth being considered in rela-tion to the overall system of this controversial component. Some questions that may arise from this – Is Class Participation fair?

50 hands campaign

550Hands Campaign

HOW ESSENTIAL IS CLASS PARTICIPATION

IN THE WORKING WORLD?

650Hands Campaign

One of the Top 10 Personality Traits Every

Successful Entrepreneur Has, cited by

the Business Insider is the

“Ability to Sell”

The fact of the matter is that the perceived skills that come with sharing our ideas with our class-mates out loud outweigh the idea of unfairness in the incongruity that may come with different lec-turers, different styles and different personalities of individuals. Through there is an effort made to standardize the grading system, it has to be accepted that subjectivities may come into play into the quality of answers and also regarding the ethics of

situations whereby students are compelled to speak for selish motives rather

than the genuine intention of beneiting everyone to learn.

As Business students particularly, assuming we take on a path similar to what our degree offers.it is nosecret that one would require the skills to present their opinions in a clear and concise manner manner to all kinds of

audiences. One of the Top 10 Personality Traits Every Successful Entrepreneur Has, cited by the Business

Insider is the “Ability to Sell”, which comes with the practice

that that we can have at a classroom level.

Communication is the essential Communication is the essential tool we have to possess and participating in class with quality and poise is a step out of the comfort zone we should all make to get to a level above where we already are. Ultimately, we will be judged on the content and structure of how we present a point of view and not just the volume of our voices, which is a strugstruggle regardless of any intrinsic personality

type.

the propriety of Class Participation. However, we cannot discount the fact that many professors do make a conscious effort to even out the playing ield by calling on those with eeyes on the ground, sailing pass the hands that shoot up a little that shoot up a little too frequently and evidently trying their best to give everyone a chance to speak. This gives those “disadvantaged” students amongst us the conidence to voice out when being called upon and surprise their fellow stu-dents with deep insights behind their seemingly blank demeanors. It is deinitely no easy task and wwe need to acknowledge the efforts of our lectur-ers and tutors in this aspect for taking into con-sideration the various learning styles of each stu-dent and encouraging us to give our best quality answers.

From the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking, author Susan Cain con-notes that “Introverts living under the Extroversion Ideal are like women in a man’s world, discounted be-cause of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.” Is our education system then forcing the inherently shy and reserved in our midst out of their comfortable capacity, and by doing so disadvantaging them?

Or is this plainly essential as every element of our University life is designed to equipus for what is to come in the working world anyway? Keeping in mind that our educators are helplessly left to revise their judgment calls based on human memoron human memoryand draw a question mark to

750Hands Campaign

Some other familiar incidences in the seminar room include the over-enthusiastic student with a bad case of verbal diarrhea. Taking us on an adventure with their varying tones and pitch, most of us get lost mid-sentence and the destination we inally arrive at meets the confused look of the Professor asking, “Is that answer related to the question?” On another occasion, theanother occasion, there is the heartless murmur of grumbles that rush across the room like a wave to sum the consensus of a poorly-phrased comment, suffocating the atmosphere for those around us who may feel vexed to raise their hands from fear of being harshly met with the same fate. All these frus-trating instances fundamentally stem from how we behave in the classroom, seeing as we may be crip-pling the progress of not only ourselves but also those around us. Hence, whether or not we learn to-gether as Business students may not stem from the existence of Class Participation itself but rather largely from the way in which we participate and work around it.

We can only make the learning beneicial if the ambience permits so, requiring the effort and consideration of all students to create that com-fortable setting. We have to understand that learning to form opinions is a process of learning in itself, be wary of the different paces we may have to accommodate for and be gracious when someone stumbles with their someone stumbles with their words. For those of us who may be more reclusive, have conidence in your observations and be willing to share an opinion if you think it’s a good one. Yet for those who are guilty of having stolen the limelight more than once, be mindful to keep to yourself if you are aware that you need not be heard. If we take the efthe effort to be more forgiving in how we perceive everyone’s contributions and learn to ilter out the appropriate things to say simultaneously, not only is a more relaxed environment created for everyone to express their thoughts but we learn to be critical in honing our thinking and listening skills as well.

 

“50 hands campaign” is a

term conceived by a NUS Professor to describe the phenomenon of Class Participation and also encourage his students to actively and collectively voice out in class. We are all well aware that Business students are expected to actively participate in classroom discussions to develop and sharpen presentation skills, and help us gain the ability to marshal arguments through effective presentation. The photo below showcases a glimpse of class participation during a normal sectional class. A meme that was made by an NUS Business student, it created buzz and has even gone viral on Facebook pages like Sgag. Has the competitive nature of Class Participation gone too far or is it simply part and parcel of our education? Here are some of the responses we’ve gathered from our fellow Business students in relation to this photograph.

EAT SLEEP RAISE YO HANDS REPEAT #50handscampaign  

This showcases the competitive nature of our current society. I feel that class participation is a good way to prepare students for the working world. It trains students to voice out their opinions. #50handscampaign  

This is what I have to face every Friday during my double sectionals. SIANNNN #50handscampaign  

I do see the importance of class participation in today’s world. However, it is often difficult for the professors to ensure fairness among the students with regards to the number of times a student is allowed to class part. I do hope that the professors would review this and ensure fairness. #50handscampaign  

First impression: KIASU! HAHAHA #50handscampaign  

I do not like talking for the sake of talking. More so when we know that everyone is talking not for the sake of exchanging ideas or to gain knowledge, but instead for the sole purpose of nailing that percentage of class participation marks. Furthermore the weightage of class participation is just too high. #50handscampaign  

HAHA you will get used to this once you're in Year 2 #50handscampaign  

COMING INTO NUS BUSINESS SCHOOL

IS LIKE....how do I accurately articulate it?

Well, picture this. You have just crossed the fin-

ishing line in running the longest marathon of

your life. You worked so hard for this moment,

training your body day and night, and probably

have had to overcome some of the biggest obsta-

cles (both mental and physical) of your life. As

you pass that finishing line, your legs give out

from the exhaustion of the run. You can’t help

but feel extremely satisfied with what you’ve

achieved and overcome – possibly shedding

tears of joy as you kneel on the ground reveling

in what you have ac-

complished, if that does

not sound overly melo-

dramatic.

To put things into per-

spective, running that marathon would meta-

phorically describe the academic journey I per-

sonally went through before becoming a Bi-

zader. The journey was nothing less an easy one;

it was arduous. Saying that I had to shed blood,

sweat and tears would be an understatement for

it because by the time I was done, the idea of me

having been drained out of blood, exhausted all

my sweat and transformed into an unimpas-

sioned and impassive young lad insusceptible to

emotions (much less tears), would probably be a

more accurate description.

As a freshman, I figured that everyone coming in would

have gone through pretty much the same thing and

would have the same mindset as me – being thankful for

just being able to make it out of that seemingly difficult

journey. I imagined the lit-up faces of hopeful individu-

als like myself eager to make up for all the lost time that

had to be sacrificed in order to get to where we are to-

day – one of the most recognised University Degree

Programmes in the world.

But this was definitely not the vibe that I got from my

fellow Bizad freshmen. Some started to stress out over

academia even when ironically, term had not officially

started yet. Others took

it to a whole new level

by clouding their con-

versations with com-

petitive strategies with

the intention of gaining

an edge over others.

While I agree that it is instinctive for all of us to have a

competitive mindset in terms of bettering ourselves to

ensure our personal goals are achieved, somehow, I per-

sonally feel that many, in the midst of this, take accom-

plishments for granted and fail to be thankful for what

they currently have by focusing too much on the future,

some even forgetting to acknowledge the support sys-

tem that have been journeying with them all along.

BY

“THE GUY IN THE STRIPED SHIRT”

„We need to be thankful for what

we have and not let overly-

zealous goals on wanting to be

successful get to the better of us‟

You see, if we constantly seek to achieve goals without

taking the time to stop and appreciate milestones

within them, there will never be an end as we stretch

ourselves further and further with every new opportu-

nity that comes along. How then are we to feel satis-

fied with ourselves just for who we are?

So my fellow Bizaders, stop there for a moment and

take some time out of your “I must achieve this” per-

sona and be thankful for being

able to call ourselves a Bi-

zader! Let’s look back at our

journey that we had to pave

ourselves through before

reaching to where we are to-

day. Let’s reflect on some of

our greatest moments in life

that I’m sure will give us

some basis of appreciation to

what we have today. And in-

stead of thinking of the next step to forge ahead, let’s

be appreciative and give thanks for our support system.

After all, I would think they are the reason that some

of us could be where we are today.

Well, even if your logic takes over on the account of

choosing to continue that path of extreme goal accom-

plishment, insisting that you can’t afford to waste a

I know some of you may think that this, being my

personal perspective, would not fundamentally

reach a consensus. Some seniors may even disagree

and argue that as time passes by, it is “nature’s

course” that I would essentially have to assimilate

myself into the culture that I am resisting and chal-

lenging today; that I would slowly but surely evolve

and join the army of full-fledged goal-driven Bizad-

ers, given the calibre of students and the competi-

tiveness that naturally transpires in itself.

I will admit that at times my natural instincts would

give rise to such tendencies to go be lured into “the

dark side”. But hey, in lack of better words, let’s

just try to see this as a simple

reminder to all of us that we

need to be thankful for what

we have and not let overly

zealous goals on wanting to

be successful get the better

of us.

Life is full of possibilities

but many of us fail to realise

that most of the time, life in

fact is full-er of impossibilities. Why not attempt to

change our perspective on solely wanting to achieve

good when we have the potential to instead live our

best life just by being thankful and giving thanks –

and yes throw into that equation if you must, a

pinch of competitiveness if achieving goals makes

you happy!

For now, let’s just be thankful and be proud of be-

ing able to call ourselves Bizaders shall we?

‘Life is full of possibilities but

many of us fail to realise that

most of the time, life in fact is

full-er of impossibilities.’

11EPL @NUSBIZ

Grammy winning superstar Bruno Mars is coming superstar Bruno Mars is coming to Singapore for a one-night perfor-mance on 26 March 2014, at Singa-pore Indoor Stadium. Melt away with his sweet single ‘When I Was Your Man’, or rock out with ‘Gre-nade’ and ‘Treasure’! Grab your tickets at www.sportshub.com.sg now

Avril Lavigne is coming back! She is set to get the audience high for yet another round of her popular mind-blowing, infectious tunes and also the latest hits off her latest self-titled album, Avril Lavigne. Coming 15 FEB!

Impressed by the new version of Spiderman movies starring Andrew Garield and Emma Stone? Who isn’t! This time, Peter Parker runs the gauntlegauntlet, as the mys-terious company Oscorp sends up a slew of supervillains against him. How is this going to change his life? Find out on 2 May at the nearest cinema.

Based on New York Times #1 Best Seller, Hazel and Gus are two teen-agers who share an acerbic wit, a dis-dain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. The Fault in Our Stars is brought to screen on 6 June.

Spend an awesome Valentine’s Day with your single friends or SO over this year’s V-day special movie, “Winter’s Tale.” Starring Colin FarFarrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Rus-sell Crowe, and Will Smith, this movie combines the usual drama with fantasy and mystery. Head down to the cine-mas after class to enjoy a great V-day

Having the Transformers Withdrawal Symptoms as Decepticons have all been destroyed? Fear noFear not. Transformers: Age of Extinction is here to cure!

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Nicola

Peltz, Jack Reynor. Make your way

to the cinemas on

27 June!

12Events in 2014

Head down to Resorts World Sentosa and immerse in the mag-ical world, encompassing the lives of a terrifying warrior called the General and an enig-matic girl, who seems to have ability to create The Light, Nova.

Kill a hard, hot, heavy, hit-ting rock lineups in the irst ever Singapore Rock Festival with Korn, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch and Veil Brides! This electrifying quadruple will be up on a quadruple will be up on a single stage at Fort Can-ning Park on Wednesday, 5 March 2014, 6pm.

132014 Bizad Sports Events