After the last academic year’s successful Edu Fair, it is back once again to guide the students through whatever struggles applying to universities may bring them. During the Fair, the students were able to ask some university representatives, from all over the world, some questions about the courses offered in their university and about the admission process. All Secondary 3 to Junior College students were invited to participate in this educational event.
On the 8th of October 2021, all the Bina Bangsa School campuses across Indonesia gathered together virtually for the said programme. It was spearheaded by the School Counsellors of all BBS campuses. One of them is our BBS Bandung University Counsellor, Mr. Melvin A. Nifas.
The Fair consisted of 4 webinars covering the topics: (1) Building Your Portfolio, (2) Careers in Engineering, (3) Careers in Computer Science & Technology; and (4) Careers in Business and Finance.
In addition to these webinars, the Junior College students also got the opportunity to receive Live Counselling from university representatives via groups of 10. They were allowed to choose up to 8 of the 95 universities participating in this Fair.
The first webinar on ‘Building Your Portfolio’ had guest speakers namely Ms. San Lee from UC Davis and Mr. Domenic Lamberti from the University of Chicago. They both talked about the application process and on the importance of having a strong portfolio. Since both guests represented universities that utilise holistic admissions, students got to learn more about how it works and how it differs from other types of admissions particularly the academically-focused admissions.
Following their informative session, Ms. Zorian Wong and Mr. Albert Chung from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Ms. Jess Strong from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) led the session on ‘Careers in Engineering’.
From this session, the student participants learned how much in demand the engineering industry is and why people and companies are starting to need it more and more. In fact, the field of Industrial Engineering is the fastest-growing subfield, as reported by the Bureau of Labour Statistics in May 2019. Between 2019 and 2029, the 10% projected growth equates to an addition of 30,000 jobs.
The third session focusing on the topic ‘Careers in Computer Science and Technology’ was facilitated by Mr. Riko Kho and Dr. Grace Ngal, both from The University of Sydney, along with Ms. SeEun Kim. They got to clarify some students’ queries regarding the courses and majors related to Computer Science and Technology. They also promoted the growing Industry of Engineering.
The last session did not fall short in information. We got to learn more about ‘Careers in Business and Finance’ from Ying Tsoi (The University of Hong Kong), Andrew Low (Singapore Management University) and Ms. Josephine Pope (University of Melbourne). Students learnt that there are more branches of Business and Finance than they initially thought.
When asked about his Live Counselling experience, Junior College 2 student, Ethan Satya, stated:
“My experience in the University Live Counselling was very different from the past Edu Fairs we’ve had. Previously, students would meet representatives in booths physically. Since it was what I was used to, it felt awkward for it to be carried out online. Despite the pandemic, I can say that this year’s Fair is much better for me as there were universities that got my interest. Moreover, the representatives of the universities had great and strong passion and motivational skills in introducing their campuses and I certainly enjoyed their presentations.”
When asked about his most imporatnt takeaway from the event, Ethan added:
“One of the most important things I’ve learnt was that there are many kinds of possibilities that everyone can take to accomplish their goals and dreams. Even if we fail to achieve our goals at first, there are still many other things that can help us achieve them. Chances open up for everyone and there are endless opportunities for all.”
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Here are 21 of the 95 universities that participated in the BBS EDU FAIR 2021:
University of Cambridge
University of Oxford
Imperial College London
University of Glasgow
Lancaster University
King’s College London
University of Nottingham
University of Southampton
University of Warwick
The University of Adelaide
The University of Melbourne
The University of Sydney
The University of Western Australia
Curtin University
Monash University Australia
McGill University
The University of British Columbia
University of Alberta
The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Tokyo International University
Nagoya University
By: Mandy Ashley Satya Utama, Secondary 4 Logic