Welcome Aboard IBMBA & GHRM MBA Newbies!!

The annual International Program (IBMBA and GHRM MBA) orientation kicked off this September 7th at the newly renovated classroom 4112 of the College of Management. With over 60 students attending this event, orientation was bustling with excited conversations from the beginning. As students conversed over their snacks and sandwiches, the professors also mingled  with students a bit to shorten the distance between student and staff.

The highlight of the event was the formation of bonds achieved with the team building event. This year, the departments invited its very own alumnus, Ryan Fernandez and Graham Dart, to introduce the workshop. Ryan and Graham started off by sharing some of their personal experiences with GHRM MBA and mentioned how their personal career path merged with academic studies. It gave the incoming and graduating students from IBMBA and GHRM MBA an idea of how they can make the two relevant.

They then dove into a series of group activities designed to mimic the challenges of extensive group work in the GHRM and IBMBA programs. Fernandez first got the groups comfortable by playing the name game. It allowed students to break the ice in intimate circles and find commonalities that they previously did not know they had. The task of remembering 10 or so names fell on a newly elected group leader, who all showed they were up to the task by reciting all the names of their group members by memory

One of the activities required groups to build towers out of 8 of their own pairs of shoes. This event not only tests teamwork but also each team’s adaptivity. Fernandez went around to discuss each group’s methods and approach. It gave other groups insight on how other people handled the same task. One resourceful group even used shoe laces to bind their tower together and the winning team won one of the prizes offered by local businesses by less than a centimeter.

The last activity highlighted the importance of communication online. Students guessed the number of lollipops in a giant jar filled about half way while using only LINE groups to communicate. Some took the mathematical approach while others stayed with logical inferences. A couple students even looked up potential answers online and worked around the online answers. Fernandez.

All the activities reflected a lot of the soft skills students will encounter in their IBMBA and GHRM MBA classes. Ranging from leadership to fellowship, flexibility and proactivity, the activities allowed incoming students to understand how to work with each other as well as pitching their own ideas. The sharing time at the end of each activity gave students insight into their own work methods, and other people’s. This two-hour long team building activity was both a fun and educational experience and reflects the motto of IBMBA and GHRM MBA. 

After the team building event, the program director, Professor Sharon Wang, and international program faculty gave a welcome speech to the new students and encourage them to learn and take challenge at NSYSU. Besides the director and faculty, the President of International Program Associate, and the Dragon Boat Team Leader also gave a big welcome to newbies.

At the end of the event, a campus tour was provided to every new student. Although it was raining then, everyone went home with a better idea about working with new GHRM and IBMBA teammates!