Culture Corner team of UTM-i Global Buddies organized a Virtual Culture Corner (VCC) 3.0 event on 22 October 2021 through Zoom Meetings & Facebook Student Experience. The tagline of this activity was “My Town, My Pride”.
The primary objective was to enhance cultural appreciation among UTM students of various nationalities to promote diversity in culture, tradition, and customs. Besides, this activity was also intended to connect the team with UTM students through a fun and captivating experience during the pandemic season.
The team believes that this event could be a fun way for the participants to learn about different cultures and traditions worldwide from the comfort of their homes.
The team hoped that the spirit of Culture Corner programmes organized monthly before, which embraces the cultural diversity that all of us are part of, will not simply end due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The total number of VCC 3.0 participants was 56, which comprised UTM undergraduates and postgraduates. The participants were all UTM students from different countries such as Malaysia, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia and others.
Before introducing the presentations, an ice-breaking session was held to let participants know their team members in respective groups. Next, a few presentations were put in place for each slot of the Virtual Culture Corner, such as the presentations from the Malaysia representatives, UNESCO Club and the ISS representatives from Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia. The participants had tthe opportunity to attend presentations conducted by each participating ISS in the event.
At the beginning of October, the event was promoted to UTM students through various channels such as WhatsApp groups, Facebook page and also through Global Buddies official Instagram page.
The activity received good responses from the target audience who registered for the event and joined the Telegram group, which was created to facilitate the communication between the participants and organizers during the activity.
All the participants were required to fill up the registration form created using Google Forms. On the day of the event, a reminder message consisting of all the things the participants should have to keep in mind during the event as well as Zoom meeting link were sent in the Telegram group.
In addition to that, during the event, the participants were encouraged actively to utilize the chat room which acted as a space to share information and perspectives related to cultures and traditions. Towards the end of the event, the participants got to play Kahoot Quiz games to test their knowledge gained throughout the event and the winner got to win cash prizes. Based on the feedback collected from the participants, the majority of them were certain that they gained a lot of new information about international cultures all around the world. Most of them wished to travel to the presented countries after the pandemic. The virtual platform made the overall session more interactive and enjoyable for the participants although the participants were not connected in the same physical space.
In conclusion, Virtual Culture Corner 3.0 was really fruitful and achieved its objectives. The Organizing Committee of VCC 3.0 is very thankful to the collaborators, UNESCO Club as well as the Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia ISS representatives for their wonderful commitment and cooperation along the event execution. The VCC 3.0 crews also believe that similar kinds of events can be conducted in the future to continue enhancing cross-cultural understanding between UTM students from different religious backgrounds and nationalities.