Ma Man Kei and Lo Pak Sam College organized a student leadership training from August 4th to August 12th 2023 to develop students’ leadership skills
Prof. Mok Kai Meng, Vice Rector (Student Affairs) of the University of Macau (UM), introduced the “4-in-1” system of UM to all student leaders, explaining in detail the characteristics and training goals of the residential college system: as a residential college experience, undergraduate generally need to stay in the college for a year; through five measures and seven competencies, namely responsible citizenship, global competitiveness, knowledge integration, teamwork and collaboration, service and leadership, cultural engagement, and healthy lifestyle to train to become a whole person.
College Master of MLC, Prof. YANG Liu conducted an in-depth training with the leaders on the topic of “Problem Awareness and Solutions in College Management.” During the session, Prof. YANG and the student leaders had in-depth discussions on how to identify, solve, and prevent problems, as well as division of labor and activity coordination. They emphasized the importance of starting from the college’s mission and students’ needs, determining priorities, and ensuring the efficient operation of management work. The leaders realized the importance of teamwork in solving different problems, and recognized the need to take an active approach to discover and solve problems for students while respecting individual differences, understanding students’ thoughts and emotions, and providing care and support in the process of problem-solving.
Prof. Gary Fung, Associate Master of MLC by combining previous successful experiences and examples of organizing college activities, explaining how to organize college activities to the student leaders. He also explained to the students that College discipline is not meant to restrict students’ freedom, but to maintain freedom. Prof. Fung introduced the college’s discipline system and how student leaders should uphold college discipline and common disciplinary violations, urging student leaders to lead by example.
Prof. Viana explained to student leaders on how to provide academic support to 1st year students and pointed out that student leaders should pay attention to guiding junior students on their study methods, so that they do not waste their time but enjoy their university life. Afterwards, Prof. Viana used specific cases to train student leaders to actively address and handle problems that students may have.
Dr. Stanley Chan provided step-by-step guidance to student leaders on how to write activity proposals, as well as how to use the UMRC App, to help student leaders plan, organize, and carry out various college activities in a more standardized and efficient manner.
The College also organized ice-breaking activities to enhance cohesion among student leaders. Through fun and relaxed ice-breaking games, the student leaders became more familiar with and trust each other. At the same time, the successful organizing of this ice-breaking activity provided inspiration for the upcoming MLC orientation ice-breaking activities.
In the courses on counseling and Q&A, college social worker Carla Lee explained to students how to handle conflicts between students and how to identify and scientifically deal with classmates who may have psychological issues through role-play, case analysis, and other methods. The conflict management workshop taught student leaders about types of conflicts, management skills, and how to anticipate conflict management. The training on counseling and conflict management aimed to cultivating students’ competency in healthy living and enjoying campus life.
During the five-day student leader training, through various workshops, experiential courses, ice-breaking games, the integration of the “4-in-1” education platform was used to cultivate the seven competencies of student leaders and realize the educational concept of the holistic development.
