While most returning students begin 2017 cooped up within the four walls of a classroom, second-year UniSIM student, Rayner Loi Kit, started the year with a two-week Adventure Leadership Programme in the heart of New Zealand’s wilderness.
The experience is part of the overseas experiences that full-time degree students at UniSIM can get to experience.
“In an ever-changing environment, it is those who are adaptable and willing to step out of their comfort zone to embrace uncertainties who will excel.”
Rayner Loi, 22, second-year student, UniSIM
Rayner, who is enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Finance with Minor, said the great exposure has given him a first-hand lesson on the survival of the fittest.
He explained: “In an ever-changing environment, it is those who are adaptable and willing to step out of their comfort zone to embrace uncertainties who will excel.”
Such maturity for a 22-year-old is not uncommon at UniSIM, where courses are designed to give students a “foretaste of what it is really like in the real working world”, he said. This is evident in its seminar-format discussions, where students tackle real-world case studies.
As part of its unique “head, heart and habit” approach, UniSIM enriches students with a global perspective through special programmes and service-learning projects.
Students are also expected to arrive in class ready to debate and discuss as they are given advanced access to their course materials.
“Understanding the intricacies and nuances of the world and how our respective specialisations fit in is just as important as understanding our specialisation,” Rayner said of the common curriculum that all first-year students undergo.
Towards this end, students like Rayner also have to complete a compulsory 24-week work attachment and a service-learning project.
With fellow participants of the Adventure Leadership Programme in New Zealand. PHOTO: Rayner Loi
Sense of selflessness
For his service-learning project, Rayner chose to be a volunteer befriender and mentor to youths from challenging backgrounds. The experience left him grounded in his social responsibility.
He said: “Having benefitted from certain privileges of our society, I recognise my responsibility to serve and enable youths from more challenging backgrounds to grow and realise their true potential.”
Inspired to make a positive impact, Rayner and his friends are starting Good For Food, a web and mobile application that seeks to connect F&B restaurants and their food surplus with consumers, offering them at a discounted rate near closing hours in an effort to reduce food waste and promote equitable distribution.
The thirst to learn
In a span of just over a year as a UniSIM undergraduate, Rayner has gone from “wanting to go into private banking someday” to being passionate about social entrepreneurship.
“Making the trip to New Zealand – the homeland of mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary – has taught me the importance of remaining humble and the need for continual growth through lifelong learning,” he said.
“UniSIM has made me realise that learning extends beyond the classroom and that the world is my classroom.”
How to apply to UniSIM
Click here to enrol for the July 2017 intake. Application closes on March 19.
Upcoming information sessions include:
• March 4, 10am – for Business programmes
• March 11, 10am – for Social Work & Early Childhood Education programmes
Bookmark UniSIM’s online calendar for more details.
Produced by the TODAY Special Projects Team.
