UM-AUN Summer Camp: The Journey of Service Learning Malaysia

In the two weeks throughout 4 - 17 August 2024, 67 young undergraduates across the 10 ASEAN states seized the opportunity to participate in the ASEAN University Network (AUN) Summer Camp at Universiti Malaya (UM), Malaysia. Under the theme of “Global Citizens in Action: Service-Learning Journey”, the UM-AUN Summer Camp guided students on a journey through the intricacies of Malaysia’s own Service Learning initiative via lectures and observations which led up to experiencing and providing the genuine process for themselves and others in the field.

Service-Learning is a type of teaching and learning pedagogy the Ministry of Education of Malaysia’s Department of Higher Education introduced in 2019 as a new component called Service Learning Malaysia-University for Society (SULAM). The essence of Service Learning is instilling students with the ability to both deliver and receive education with service to the community. Learners of this pedagogy are trained to become autonomous in their seeking of knowledge and providing others with the means to do so as well. What sets it apart from life-long learning is that Service-Learning has a larger focus on community service and teaching others what has been learnt in order to pass down knowledge. The aspect of learning is never any less significant but rather it is a harmonious balance between teaching and learning.

The First Week

After the day of arrivals, the journey began on 5 August 2024, commencing with the opening ceremony to officially kick off the UM-AUN Summer Camp 2024. Students were assigned into 6 groups, where they will continue working together as a team until the end of the programme. Throughout the first week, the students underwent lectures and discussions that are necessary to fully grasp the idea of Service Learning. This is crucial, as the knowledge that was acquired will be needed to draft a proposal that lays out their planned activities for a day of teaching grade school students. With their knowledge about Service Learning, the first mission of each group was to create this proposal, as in the second week, the students will have the opportunity to conduct teaching in three grade schools of Malaysia: Pure Life Society, SK Sathya Sai, and SMK Dharma.

Throughout this entire journey, starting from the very first day, each group has been instructed that a final video presentation must be made which will showcase their entire Service Learning Journey. On the final day of the programme, the videos will be presented to experts from UM who will select the best videos in capturing the essence of Service Learning and the process behind it. As such, the students made sure to document their journey throughout the UM-AUN Summer Camp.

With guidance from Associate Professor Dr. Vishalache Balakrishnan - one of the main authors of the “Introduction to Service Learning in Malaysia”, a cornerstone publication that established the idea of Service Learning in Malaysia’s education system - it is without a doubt the students were given advice from the best possible expert on the topic of Service Learning. On the Friday of 9 August, the 6 groups reached this point with no issue in drafting a Service Learning proposal that was presented to the 3 aforementioned grade schools, which were all approved! With the necessary permissions acquired, each group was given 100 Malaysian Ringgits as their budget to purchase the supplies needed to carry out the plans laid in their proposals. Throughout the rest of Friday and the Saturday that followed on 10 August, the students were entirely occupied in setting up the necessary preparations to conduct their own Service Learning.

A Little Break

Before continuing to the second week, so far it seems as though all of the students have had an extremely busy week of learning about Service Learning and making proposals, however what is a summer camp without a bit of fun? Dubbed by UM as “Wellbeing Sessions” sprinkled throughout the programme, in between the serious lectures, discussions, and group work, there was time scheduled for the students to experience Malaysia and its cultures!

In the first week on Tuesday 6 August, the students had the entire day to tour Kuala Lumpur where they visited the Batu Caves, Central Market, National Mosque, Thean Hou Temple, and the Kuala Lumpur City Centre. The following day on 7 August, after the summer camp activities, the students went for a kayaking session at UM Varsity Lake. For the weekend, on Saturday of 10 August, the students were able to experience the rich Malaysian culture with Batik Drawing & Painting, Chinese Calligraphies, Malaysian Dances, and Henna. Of course, for Sunday, it was a day of relaxation for the students to recuperate or explore as they saw fit.

The Second Week

To begin the second week, the summer camp started with a quick morning Wellbeing Session on the Monday of 12 August with a visit to the UM Mini Farm where the students greatly enjoyed seeing the animals peacefully grazing. It was an excellent way for the students to relax as throughout the next two days, the Service Learning was conducted. Each grade school had two groups of the summer camp students visiting their classes, where the summer camp participants enjoyed the opportunity to teach young children academic lessons, life skills, good values, and how to be a citizen of ASEAN with SDGs. After providing teaching to grade school youths, the camp students also conducted community service by cleaning up the local streets and planting trees for the area. All in all, it was a heavily packed two days of teaching, learning, and servicing the community.

As we reach towards the end of the programme, up until now each group has been recording videos, taking pictures, and documenting their experiences throughout the summer camp. Two days worth of time, 14 to 15 August 2024, was given to the students to gather their materials and work together to create their final video presentation. On the 14th, lecturers guided the students by having discussions to reflect on the experiences throughout the past two weeks with them and provided helpful pointers to what content should be included in the videos. The following day was dedicated to a full day of work time for the students to finalise their videos.

The final day of the summer camp approached, and each group was ready to present their videos. All of the students were also dressed in their national attires, which was an impressive spectacle as you peered into the auditorium. The selected experts from UM were seated and eager to bear witness to the wonderful productions of each group. Before each group presented their videos, the members were asked to take to the stage for all to revel in the beautiful national dresses and perform their group cheer! All six videos rolled by in the morning, and the judges needed time over the afternoon to select the podium winners.

After a long lunch, the entirety of the summer camp reconvened once more for the closing ceremony where the video competition winners were also announced. After much anticipation, the 1st place and its runner ups were revealed to the students. It was truly heartwarming to see all of the students being proud of each other and their accomplishments, even if they did not make the podium. In the end, it was about the journey and not about winning prizes, and knowing the students will return to their home countries with a new perspective on Service Learning is an exciting proposition for how we might see teaching and learning evolve in ASEAN in the future. To close off the UM-AUN Summer Camp, two student representatives had the opportunity to deliver a most heartfelt speech that will continue to inspire all of them to keep learning and striving for excellence.

Images provided by Universiti Malaya