Sunday, August 06, 2006

NUSEA's The Road Less Travelled series

We started a new series of events called The Road Less Travelled at NUSEA a few weeks back. We basically get one of our friends or mentors down to the NUSEA office at Mountain View and they speak to the NOC students about their experiences. We have had one of these until now where Desmond Tan (President, SEA) and Jasmin Ong came to speak about their personal experiences as Singaporean expatriates in the US. It was an interesting talk followed by a nice discussion.

There are a number of objectives behind the Road Less Travelled series. Firstly, the exposure to the experiences and perspectives of these individuals would be highly beneficial to the NOC students. Another goal is to encourage the NOC students to open up and network with these individuals. It would perhaps improve their networking skills too.

So, how is this series different from the other programs that we organize (Mentorship Unplugged, RainMakers Live). Well, this brings us to the 3rd objective...

Due to a geographical separation between some NOC students, we have found that there is a dearth of communication between them. We also understand that if there's one network that the NOC students can hope to capitalize on after the program, it would be the NOC alumni network. Over the period of one year, these students literally live with one another. They form extraordinary bonds during the course of their stay in the US. Some of these students are well on their way towards becoming successful entrepreneurs.

During the Road Less Travelled talks we hope to encourage the students to discuss and debate amongst themselves. This would help them to learn together and, in the process, understand each other better. Ultimately, this would strengthen the bonds between the students and form a strong network of NOC students who can reach out to each other long after the completion of the program.

This is a pilot project by the NUSEA committee and we will monitor the progress to see the results of this effort. We hope it turns out to be a success and achieves all of the above mentioned objectives.

Prashant.


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