By Vasunthara Suresh, Foundation Diploma of Life Sciences, Bachelor of Biomedical Science
“Leadership is an action, not a position” – Donald McGannon
My education journey with PSB Academy (PSBA) started from the Foundation Diploma of Life Sciences (FDLS) in August 2019. After completing the FDLS in March 2020, I’m currently pursuing the Bachelor of Biomedical Science at La Trobe University where I will be graduating in April 2022.
Participating in Student Clubs
When I first joined PSBA, I was very eager to participate in student club activities as it was an outlet for me to destress and take a break from my studies. Furthermore, I loved the idea of finding a group of friends who shared similar interests such as sports, community service etc. With a passion for badminton, I joined the Sports and Adventure Club (SAC) in 2019. I was also thrilled to join Leadership Development Club (formerly known as Student Council).
Participating in the various student clubs gave me a taste of what student life is. The delight of bonding with new friends while balancing my academics. The zesty and joyful experience that I had in the first few months of joining PSBA made me think about taking it a step further and contributing to student life more actively.
Embarking on my Leadership Journey
Working as the vice-president of SAC was an invaluable experience for me to grow as a leader and as a student. It taught me many lessons – the most important of them being priorities and teamwork. I juggled between studies and SAC duties which meant I had to prioritise my goals.
While I appreciate the familiarity, the ever-changing priorities was a big hurdle for me to overcome. My SAC EXCO team and friends rendered great support through the tough days. We worked hard to create new events for our members, such as Friendly Futsal sessions and regular badminton practice sessions. Events like this built our bonds. We love meeting with members from all walks of life and bonding over sports as it brought a sense of unity among members, which was an affirmation for us as EXCO that we were moving the club in the right direction. We also had the opportunity to participate in the Campus Club Fair (CCF) in August 2019, January 2020, and June 2020, which allowed us to work with other student clubs and witness how they come together to fulfil their tasks and help others.
Pushing My Boundaries
For a while, I had considered running for the SAC President position. However, after much consideration, I decided to run for the Leadership Development Club (LDC) president. I wanted to try leading a club outside of my comfort zone. While the LDC recruitment process was ongoing, my mind kept going back to SAC. I did not want to entirely leave SAC as it had become a wonderful part of my PSBA journey. So, I decided to also apply for the role of publicity manager in SAC. I was now the LDC President and SAC Publicity Manager, and I was also entering my first year of Bachelor of Biomedical Science.
Honing my Leadership and Project Management Skills
I believe growth is an essential part of every being and this part of my life, where I took on two leadership positions and entered my undergraduate degree. Time management was of the essence and teamwork was more necessary than ever.
Every day brought on different obstacles, but even among the challenges, I found laughter and made tons of good memories with my EXCOs. They supported me and did everything possible to ensure the events ran smoothly. My LDC EXCO and I organised Campus Club Fairs for all PSBA students. We hosted a talk show called ‘Cosy Talks’, organised bonding sessions with our members and even created a couple of Mini-projects for our members to engage in. These events were so diverse and pushed our comfort zones. Now, I can confidently say that planning an event that we’d never done before no longer gives us trepidation. Instead, we marched confidently uncharted territory, made mistakes and learnt from them. We looked back at our successes and repeated them.
From the start of our leadership term to the end, it was an extraordinary journey to witness our character growth. With my SAC EXCO, we were unable to do many physical events, but we had a lot of fun organising events such as ‘Heels off, Gloves on’, where we learnt some basic Muay Thai moves from a professional instructor. We also did a 14-day fitness challenge, which received a lot of participation from the student body! It was such a joy to work alongside my SAC EXCO. And just as quickly as my leadership term started, it came to an end. Eventually, all good things do come to an end.
A Journey of Continous Learning
I have learnt many things from my time as a student leader. But my biggest takeaway is the importance of having a determined spirit. A spirit that never gives up takes its wins and losses in its stride and continues its journey without hesitation. A heart that is eager to meet challenges head-on and tackles them with the help of loved ones. If every individual had this determination, they could develop essential qualities such as time management, teamwork, communication, self-awareness etc.
If you would like to experience this journey and gain as much as I have, I urge you to apply for the leadership positions that will open up during the student leadership recruitment period. You will be signing yourself up for a tremendous journey filled with beautiful memories and experiences.
Be a member of our vibrant student clubs: http://ww.psb-academy.edu.sg/sta/join-student-clubs/
Our online campus club fair is happening on 25-31 October, to find out more: OCTOBER CCF 2021 (padlet.com)
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