Outreach Tour 2021- Pusat Tingkatan Enam Belait

​​BELAIT, WEDNESDAY, 4/08/2021- Before the second outbreak of the COVID-19 wave in Brunei, Brunei Religious Officers Student Association (BruROSA) and Brunei Students Union (BSUnion) had the opportunity to organise our annual Outreach Tour programme for the sixth form students at Pusat Tingkatan Enam Belait. Apart from the BSUnion and BruROSA councils, Eli PMUBD, Brunei Students Union in Australia & New Zealand (BSUANZ) and BSUnion members also participated in this tour as volunteers.
Outreach Tour is a programme where we visit sixth form schools around the country, conducting activities and invite speakers from different backgrounds.  This programme runs with many different aims-mainly to empower the students in various ways. In this programme, we invite speakers from diverse backgrounds to share their life’s experiences and lessons. Through this, we hope that students are driven to grow & expand their comfort zone, get an insider perspective of domestic and overseas institutions, and open their minds to how youth from diverse backgrounds can build their future in many different ways. By conducting this programme, we also aim to provide a platform for students to voice out their concerns as well as to discuss and guide them through a sharing session.
 
The programme started with an opening prayer recited by the financial secretary of BSUnion, Iffat Roslan, followed by welcoming remarks presented by the President of BruROSA, Fikri Ali.
 
First ice-breaking activity: A penny for your thoughts
The programme kick-started with the first ice-breaking activity: A penny for your thoughts. In this activity, students are encouraged to share something unique about themselves or what they have done. The purpose of this activity is to make them feel more comfortable and familiar with their groupmates and facilitators.  

​First speaker: Mateen Khairol Asmie
The first ice-breaking activity is followed by a talk delivered by a third-year mechanical engineering student from Cardiff University, Mateen Khairol Asmiee. In his speech, he shared his personal growth and lessons learned throughout his journey of studying abroad. 

​Second ice-breaking activity: Pitchfire
The end of the first talk brings on to the second activity, which is called pitchfire. In this activity, students are asked to pitch on the benefits/perks of the topics given. Some of the topics are as such: Pepsi vs coke & Jollibee vs KFC.  In the final round, two female and male students volunteered to showcase their talents. The female students debated around the school’s dress code (school uniform vs casual clothing). On the other hand, the male students argued on the current issue related to learning (physical learning vs online learning).
 

​Next, two speakers of different backgrounds delivered their talk on their respective topics.
 
Second speaker: Marzeedah Mohamad
The Second speaker is a representative of the local institution-Marzeedah Mohamad. She’s a UNISSA graduate who has excelled in her degree programme. Presenting the topic “Pengalaman belajar di Sekolah Arab hingga ke UNISSA”, she explained her academic journey from high school to university-adapting to life’s circumstances. She also emphasized the importance of being considerate and showing support to our parents to attain barakah. Through that, Allah will give a better pathway in our pursuit of success.

​Third speaker: Ahmad Syauqie bin Haji Setia
The last speaker of the day- Ahmad Syauqie bin Haji Setia, President of SCOT, enthusiastically presented his talk with the topic “Winging It”. In his speech, he encouraged the students to pursue lifelong learning by seeking knowledge out of their academia, expanding their comfort zone by attempting things outside their daily norm, and defining their success by following on any pathway that genuinely makes them feel happy. 

Sharing session
Towards the end of the session, students gathered in a circle with their respective facilitators and assigned groups to discuss any concerns or worries that they have in mind and reflections on the programme. Facilitators consisting of BruROSA and BSUnion councils, Eli PMUBD, and volunteers with their capability, helped the students by giving them advice and provide a listening ear to the students.

​The programme concludes with closing remarks, conveyed by the Vice President of BruROSA, Shahirah Bakar and a closing prayer recited by the financial secretary of BSUnion, Iffat Roslan.

​Finally, we would like to express our highest appreciation to Pusat Tingkatan Enam Belait for giving us this golden opportunity to conduct Outreach Tour for this year. Hopefully, we can continue to organise this programme next year in shaa Allah!