JA Stem Innovation

February 20, 2013

Today is the JA Stem Innovation Camp Competition that I was selected to take part in. This competition was held in Triam Udom's Alumni Centre and is sponsored by Blackberry. Before I tell you more about this particular competition, I'm going to fast-forward back 3-4 months before, ok? Laughs. Why am I asking you? You don't really have a choice.

There is this program called Junior Achievement Thailand. It has numerous programs and workshops for schools to take part in. The first program introduced to my school was JA Banks in Action which was sponsored by Bangkok Bank. I joined it as an ECA and happen to be on the winning team in my school. How that happened is kind of a funny story because it was a co-incidence. Anyways, as a result of this glorious win, a group of 4 students including me, were sent to compete with other schools at Bangkok Bank's headquarter. We had to make a presentation regarding an answer to a question (I forgot what I said but I remember I made a fool out of myself) as well as play a simulation game regarding interest rates.

So, because of our stupidity of deciding not to prepare for this competition we outright lost the game. Yay. Laughs.

Okay, back to today's competition.

There were around 8 people from my school. The competition started at 8 am and lasted until 9 pm. I know right?! That's insane! I was like so tired. Anyways, when we first got there, we did ice-breaking activities. It was extremely stupid and ridiculous. I'll give you one example: singing 'Hello hello hello...how are you too? ...and you and you and you' while doing weird motions towards random strangers. MATURITY anybody?!

Laughs.

The intellectually stimulating part, never the less, came later. We were put into groups of 6 with students from other schools and had to make a power point presentation and business concepts regarding 'How can the Ministry of Education partner up with Blackberry (They're the sponsors) to encourage students to take STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)'. After the presentation, we were interviewed by a panel of judges based on our concept.

What else was there? Well, I got to know some people: a couple students from TCIS, one from Saint Joseph Bangna, as well as an Indian-Sikh student from RIS. And there was food! Breakfast, Coffee, Lunch, and Dinner! But the food wasn't that great though.

Okay. The most important information saved for the last. The winning team gets a Blackberry.

I CURRENTLY DON'T HAVE A BLACKBERRY!

This honestly sucks. It's not like I want the phone, I just want the certificate for my CV! Plus the judges were saying stuff like 'Everybody here is a winner', 'It was a tough decision', 'We were impressed by ALL groups', and other cliche sayings. It just made me more frustrated!

Oh well, at least I will have the certificate of participation which will be handed out to me in my school's assembly. And you know what they say: It doesn't matter if you win or lose. All that matters is that you participate.

Will be back soon,
S.