Written by: Jamie KO (FS2009-10, Singapore Management University)

 

The Pre-Departure Gathering and Christmas Party held on 5 Jan 2019 (Saturday) was a great opportunity for new Fung Scholars to get introduced to the Foundation and Singapore Chapter, while the rest of the Fung Scholars from multiple previous batches had the chance to catch up.

 

With almost 20 Fung Scholars in attendance, this is one of the largest events organised by the Singapore Chapter. As the day of the event was on the 12th day of Christmas, Fung Scholars came dressed in red and green to add to the festive atmosphere.

 

After I  did an introduction on the Foundation, Scholarship, and Local Chapters, Narcissa KOH (FS2017-18, National University of Singapore) shared about her recent exchange experience in South Korea, and different Fung Scholars also contributed their learning and tips for the new Fung Scholars.

To help Fung Scholars get to know each other better in a fun way, we got everyone to play a game of “Get-to-know-each-other” bingo over lunch, which Jia Yi LIM (FS2016-17, National University of Singapore) helped to prepare. We collected a series of interesting facts about Fung Scholars through a pre-event survey, and created a Bingo sheet, and the person who completed the most boxes (by finding the right Fung Scholars who matched the facts) would win a prize.

 

 

Everyone enjoyed the pizza lunch (thanks to Sridhar GOPALAN (FS2017-18, Singapore Management University), who recommended the restaurant and helped coordinate the ordering – all the pizzas were wiped out by the end of lunch!) while finding out more about each other. Tzin PHOON (FS2013-14, National University of Singapore) managed to collect the most number of names (from every single attendee), and won the prize!

 

 

After lunch, we played a round of Pass-the-Parcel, which was prepared by Pei Ling TAN (FS2017-18, National University of Singapore) – the aim of the game is to pass the parcel around when the music is playing, and when the music stops, whoever has the parcel needs to unwrap a layer, and do the activity listed on the layer.

 

 

Finally, we wrapped with an activity to get everyone to reflect on the past year and their goals for the coming year, which they wrote on a postcard which would be mailed to them in 6 months.

 

 

Even though the event officially ended at 3:30pm, many of the Fung Scholars stayed behind to catch up with each other, and we only left the venue at 5:30pm! There were also discussions and interest in organizing other activities, such as going to do climbing, volunteer, and other activities for Fung Scholars to get to know each other. It was a fantastic event where alumni also got a chance to update each other about their work and career changes. Looking forward to the next Fung Scholars Singapore Chapter gathering!