21 June 2024

Off to an Exciting Start, AUN Summer Camp 2024 in Brunei Darussalam and The Philippines is Just the Beginning

By
Patitin Lertnaikiat
AUN Programme Officer;

The ASEAN University Network (AUN) Summer Camp is one of our latest and most exciting flagship youth programmes that debuted in 2024! This year marks the first running of this new annual programme where talented youths from across 10 ASEAN countries will have the opportunity to undertake one of the most stimulating interregional academic mobility in order to build their capacity, knowledge, and competences. Throughout each camp hosted in each ASEAN country, the programme will span across two weeks where participating students will be able to attend insightful lectures and actively partake in immersive hands-on experiences where they will be able to develop skills needed to be the leading global talents rooted in the ASEAN region. Apart from long-lasting personal development, this initiative is also an excellent opportunity for students, academics, and professionals from industries and businesses to build connections that will give prospective talents a window of opportunity in their future career. 

To preface, the idea to launch this initiative at an ASEAN level was pitched by Professor Tan Eng Chye at the 2023 AUN Rectors and Board of Trustees meeting, who invited AUN Core Member Universities to participate and contribute to this programme. Met with positive response, AUN began collaborating with Member Universities to organise the “AUN Summer Camp”.

Now in 2024, as summertime has approached, the AUN Summer Camp is breaking into the higher education scene with a strong showing of 7 ASEAN countries participating in hosting the camps with AUN Member Universities from 10 ASEAN countries sending students to participate. With the objective to promote interregional cross-border exchange and stimulating multidisciplinary learning experiences, this year will accommodate up to 1,000 students aspiring to be the leading talents of the future.

The operation of the 9 AUN Summer Camp 2024 in 7 ASEAN countries begins in the month of June and continues all the way to September, with the majority being scheduled during July. 

For the month of June, two AUN Summer Camps were already conducted with the first at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) during 1 - 14 June 2024 in Brunei, and the second at Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) and De La Salle University (DLSU) during 2 - 15 June 2024 in the Philippines. The summer camp at UBD ran with the theme of “Green Horizons: Harnessing Digital Transformation for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development”. This is followed by the dual-hosting between AdMU and DLSU with the theme of “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.

 

Highlights from UBD-AUN Summer Camp 2024

 

First Week

As officially the first country and university to host the AUN Summer Camp 2024, UBD from Brunei Darussalam provided 82 local and international students with the valuable knowledge and experience from the theme of “Green Horizons: Harnessing Digital Transformation for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development''. The opening ceremony of the UBD-AUN Summer Camp 2024 featured a video presentation of UBD-AUN Summer Camp 2024 as well as cultural performances from Brunei’s Darussalam’s Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.UBD-AUN Summer Camp was officiated by Dr Haji Azman bin Ahmad, the Permanent Secretary (Higher Education) at the Ministry of Education, who delivered a keynote speech emphasising the theme “Green Horizons” in connection with the vision for a thriving sustainable and inclusive future.  In attendance also was Haji Muhammad Iqbal Fakhri Bin Haji Damit, Recipient of ASEAN Prize 2022, whose speech on “Youth Empowerment in ASEAN: Futuring Together” emphasised to the students the critical role of youth in shaping the future of ASEAN. 

Throughout the first week of the programme, UBD-AUN Summer Camp students attended seminars and lectures focused on the topic of biodiversity, sustainable development, and the technologies that assist in such endeavours. Highlights in this section of the programme includes the lecture on “Sustainable Development and Environmental Conservation: Strategies for a Green Lecturer” by  Ms. Khairunnisa binti Ash'ari, Co-Founder of Green Brunei.

Apart from seminars and lectures, the students were granted the opportunity to visit the various labs in UBD, followed by a workshop titled “How to give a TEDx-style talk?”. On Friday of the first week, UBD provided an extensive tour at their Botanical Research Centre, allowing students to experience and immerse themselves in a real facility equipped with the proper technology aimed towards biodiversity and sustainable development.

Weekend

After a week jam-packed with seminars and lectures, the students will need time to take it easy and relax. As such, Saturday started the morning with a group activity for students to discuss on table topics, which gave room to bond, connect, and reflect on the knowledge and experiences acquired throughout the past days. Afternoon approached with free time for students to recuperate by taking it free and easy with their time. 

Sunday followed suit with a recreational activity in the morning at Bandarku Ceria, a lively tourist attraction filled with market stalls lined up throughout the main roads for students to enjoy their time and soak in the daily life experience of Brunei. In similar fashion to the previous day, the afternoon was time for students to spend their time as they wished while visiting the Jerudong Park.

Second Week

Earlier in the first week, the students attended the workshop on how to give a TEDx-style talk, now in the second week they will take what they have learnt and give a presentation utilising the techniques acquired from the workshop. In addition to presentations, the students also partook in a Beach Cleanup operation at Serasa Beach, giving them the experience of making a direct impact in preserving a recreational landmark of Brunei. Afterwards, the students also attended the Green Horizons Flower Planting Ceremony, where they had the opportunity to get hands-on with planting flowers at the UBD campus. 

The two aforementioned activities also received coverage from Borneo Bulletin, an independent newspaper, which can be read here

To wrap up the UBD-AUN Summer Camp experience, the final day on 13 June dedicated a full-day excursion for students to enjoy fun activities at Peliunan Park in the Temburong District. 

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Highlights from AdMUxDLSU-AUN Summer Camp 2024

 

Running alongside the UBD-AUN Summer Camp, the AdMUxDLSU-AUN Summer Camp 2024 took place throughout 2 - 15 June 2024 in the Philippines, hosting about 40 local and international students. As hinted by the name, instead of only one university hosting the programme, AdMU and DLSU opted to have a collaboration where the camp will be split into two legs. The first leg will consist of the first week being hosted by AdMU, followed by the second leg being hosted by DLSU. This unique experience allowed the students to explore the theme of “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” from the perspective of two higher education institutions, which provided a broader experience in the Philippines. Throughout the two weeks, the students attended various lectures and activities with a core focus on the following SDGs:

  • 4 - Quality Education
  • 5 - Gender Equality
  • 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • 14 - Life Below Water 

First Week

The first week of The Philippines AUN Summer Camp 2024 began with the first leg at Ateneo de Manila University. The lectures and activities of the AdMU leg emphasised on Sustainable Cities and Communities. 

First, the hospitality and culinary arts school of Le Cordon Bleu had a branch in AdMU where students were able to learn about the art of cooking and tasting food made for the community. An activity was also held alongside the lecture where Le Cordon Bleu prepared cultural dishes from each ASEAN country and students would work alongside each other to discover and learn about each dish and present the information between each other. 

Representatives from Nestlé also conducted a lecture to present their latest initiatives and innovations that have been greatly beneficial towards their efforts in sustainability. To ensure the knowledge shared is truly understood, in teams, the students interacted with a decision making game (The Climate Game from Financial Times) which simulated their efforts as a decision-maker to reach net-zero waste. Taking what they have learned from the lecture, the students were able to experience making heavy impactful decisions and consequences for a country’s sustainability without the costs and risks associated in a real scenario.

Afterwards, the Philippines based natural beauty products company Human Nature also shared their efforts towards sustainability by showing students real examples of products that are natural and green towards the environment. They also shared their initiatives and best practices in promoting sustainability such as the recycling competition which encouraged people to be mindful of waste. This was also combined with a lecture to hammer down the idea of sustainability for the students to understand.

To bring it all together, the students were able to visit the Gawad Kalinga farm where they were able to witness a sustainable farm that has the goal to alleviate poverty and build communities. Students had the opportunity to observe the various facilities and get some hands-on experience with some of the processes such as chopping compost and planting cherry tomatoes.

Weekend

For Saturday of the weekend, students participated in team building activities that helped to reflect on sustainability such as speed organising waste categories, trivia, or just physical activities for the sake of fun, it is the weekend after all! Afterwards the students were able to spend the rest of the afternoon with the much needed time to relax and recover. As the second leg of the Philippines AUN Summer Camp will continue at DLSU, the morning of Sunday was time for students to prepare for their departure in the afternoon with arrival at DLSU in the evening.

Second Week

De La Salle University began the second leg with diving straight into the beautiful waters of Batangas, where students had an unforgettable experience of working alongside DLSU’s own Marine Research Station to monitor coral reef status and identifying ocean life. With careful supervision and guidance, students were able to live out a day of a researcher at a marine station, with it learning plenty about sustainability for life below water.

For the days at DLSU, students attended lectures where they learned about business start ups for sustainable ventures, diversity and inclusion, and participated in a design thinking workshop. In the workshop, students had the proper guidance starting from ideation and going step by step to a solution, then finally to prototyping their solutions. The activity was able to help students in building their capacity in design thinking that will be applicable to their careers in the future.

In between the various lectures and workshops, DLSU staff also set up plenty of activities for the students to learn about the culture of the Philippines through campus tours, trivia games, and even some dancing to popular Filipino music! In the campus tour, the students were able to visit DLSU’s own art museum and witness the feeding of the campus’ beloved cats.

For the final day of activity on 13 June 2024, DLSU brought the students to the home of Patis Tesoro, an icon of the Philippines for her masterfully hand-crafted Filipino clothing utilizing traditional piña fabrics and hand embroidery. The time spent there allowed the students to meet Patis Tesoro in person and learn some of the techniques used in clothing produced such as beading, embroidery, and sewing traditional Filipino fabrics.

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And that is just the first two camps! Stay tuned for more news from AUN, especially as we approach the month of July which is when the majority of the 2024 AUN Summer Camps will be held, with 5 in total located in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. It is indeed exciting times ahead for the AUN Summer Camp and we are looking forward to sharing the experience with you!

For further reading regarding AUN Summer Camp: