Hotel Management & Food Service team on the go

The Hotel Management and Food Service booth team has been both excited and busy as they set out to look for more goodies for you!

Yeah, that’s right. Just not too long ago, the team went to “Sticky”, the newly opened shop in 1Utama that sells candies, in hopes to get you all some tasty treats when you join us for our SSH celebrations!

And guess what? The wonderful people of “Sticky” have agreed to be our sponsors! Not only will they be providing us treats to give to you as door gifts, they also promised to give a special game prize which we will reveal during our event. Be sure to check back with us in December to find out what it is. ;P

The simple meeting at “Sticky” turned into something more, as we got a live demonstration of the candy making process, these candies are handmade! Boy, were we impressed!

Sticky- Even the entrance looked sweet

Just looking at the display of colorful candies made our mouth water

We were treated to a live demonstration on how these candies are hand made

Its amazing how so much work is put into these tiny but delightful candies

Other than the visit to “Sticky”, we also visited our very own Tunku Abdul Rahman College restaurant, well, technically, we were visiting the kitchen. Hotel Management students, with the help of their practical lecturers, run the entire restaurant! We were lucky to have a rare look behind the scenes of the busy restaurant, and in this visit, we learned how to make “Sushi Roll Sandwiches”!

I am sure many are familiar with “Sushi rolls”, but for this, instead of rice, we use bread. The process was fun, and the results, splendid! They were so delicious, we had a hard time trying not to finish all our rolls immediately after making it so we can show you our end product, it took great restraint on our part.

I bet now you are wondering why are we doing this, correct? It is because we are going to teach you how to make your own “Sushi Roll Sandwiches” and the best part, we are even going to reward you for it too! All this will be happening at our booth! So, check out our "Sushi Roll Sandwich" recipe at http://www.scribd.com/doc/23338298 and practice!

Special thanks to Chef Mak who taught us how to get things done
It took great restraint to not finish all these before taking a picture

So, keep tabs on the Hotel Management and Food Service booth. We will be seeing and serving you soon! ;)

A mission for inspiration

In need of inspiration to decorate booth in a way that is appealing and creative, the team for the booth of Graphic Design went to the Pipit 3rd anniversary bazaar, it is a one day craft bazaar for independent artists & designers to sell and promote their handmade craft, it was held at Annexe Gallery. The Annexe Gallery is a non profit centre for contemporary art and is a platform for young artist to express themselves through all kinds of events.

On the day of our visit, there were more than 20 stalls selling DIY craft, accessories, hand-made dolls, bags, patchwork, coin purses, painting, illustration and so on. This year, Mari Brand from Tokyo was invited to this event to share their limited hand-made product as well. There were so many things to be seen, everything was so colorful and nicely made!

Mari Brand is known as the main attraction for Pipit. Check out their signature icon, the handmade apple on the Xmas tree.

Handmade luggage necklaces by Evangelione, a passionate craft artist from Johor Bahru

The crowd gathering in front of a handmade accessories stall. The goods are selling like hot cakes.

Art on canvas

Special patchwork pillowcase with compartments to place remote control and tissues, according to Filifele’s co-founder Beny Kong.

After visiting Pipit craft bazaar, we proceeded next door for a graphic design exhibition. With all that we have seen, we can definitely say our mission of gaining inspiration was successful!

Some of the artworks are displayed in luggages

3D Art

Can you read the hidden message in this painting?

We also went to another gallery where paintings were up for sale. Those paintings are from local artists, ranging from abstract painting to our country tourist attraction KLCC tower.

Wouldn't you like to bring some of these inspiring art home?

Want to see how we are going to fully utilize our new found inspiration? Come over to our booth this December to see!

We are back!

First of all, we would like to welcome all our readers back. You have been missed in the recent short hiatus to improve our blog. But never fear, for we have returned…with a new story too!


In preparation for our upcoming event, most of the 81 student organizers stood united on a hot sunny day! We rolled up our sleeves, we tucked in our shirts and we started to move all the reusable props and materials from our college hall, which we plan to use for our event, one by one, into a storeroom as we ran an inventory check.


But it wasn’t just the guys doing the heavy lifting, for you see, majority of the student organizers from APR 2 and AMS 2, are girls. So yeah, the girls did their parts too, carrying massive pieces of wood and other materials around. With the scorching hot sun, well, let’s just say that a lot of us have really nice tans now.


We can definitely claim that this event is a product of our sweat and tears (you know, from yawning, due to lack of sleep from all the work :P). We are working our fingers to the bone because we want this event to be a success! For it to be a success, we need your support too!


So, come, join us this December! We will give you a celebration to remember! ;)


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The boys working under the hot sun


The girls did their parts too


The important part was that we worked together

A chat with the head of SSH!

Mr Lee Hwee Chuin, mention that name in the School of Social Science and Humanities, and you would be sure to see a smile. Why? This is because Mr Lee is no ordinary head of school, instead, in the hearts of the many students in SSH, the former lawyer is smart, modest, friendly, is reputed for his sharp wits and charismatic persona.

The Media Relations team was very lucky to have been able to find a small free slot in his schedule for a short interview so that you may have a better understanding of what SSH is all about!

Simple versatility is not something that only the students of SSH possess, but is possessed by the head of school as well. Initially, this interview session was planned to be held as we engaged in a ping-pong session with him, so that he may show off his ping-pong prowess.

However, due to Mr Lee’s busy schedule and the ping-pong venue being unavailable. We proceeded with the interview in his office instead.

Anyway, here is what he had to say:

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1) What is the vision and mission of SSH?

SSH has a vision to produce graduates who are generally known as well-rounded, students who are academically sound inbuilt with very strong and updated skills and trainings which means they have got the practical experience and academic inclinations. The mission is to educate as many young people with the right attitude, ethics and morality as well as knowledge.


2) TARC is 40 this year, as SSH turns 10. In the passed 10 years, what kind of impact has SSH made toward TARC?

I’d say that SSH has definitely liven up the atmosphere of the entire college.

Life before SSH was about studying and taking exams, studying and taking more exams…There were no events then, but that has changed. Things are livelier now.


3) How long have you been a part of SSH?

I joined TARC before the establishment of SSH. I was in TARC since 1995/1996 whereas SSH was established in 1999. In those days, SSH was under the School of Arts and Science. I was the first lecturer under SSH at the point of its establishment.


4) What were your initial thoughts when you were given the post of the head of SSH?

Honestly, I didn’t know what to think or do. I definitely did not foresee this when I first joined TARC as a lecturer.

But I then began to understand my role, which was to push SSH to be amongst the best.


5) What are the significant changes you saw in SSH’s growth over the years?

SSH is by far the youngest school in TARC and it is also the most vibrant. SSH has a wide repertoire of disciplines, and we are not normal by standards (whispers: Some say we don’t follow the rules), our growth has always been directed to be more forward looking, liberal and dynamic. At the same time, we know how to handle the serious part of things. This is clearly reflected in our lecturers and students. We have definitely come a long way in that sense.


6) What would you consider SSH biggest success story?

All of my graduates are my biggest success. They are all equal in my eyes. The ultimate goal is to see all the students that come here, to leave equipped with what they need to start their journey in the real world.


7) What do you expect to change for SSH through this event?

The misconceptions of SSH itself. The misconception that SSH students are deemed a few notches lower in term of brain-power, which is definitely not true.

The idea here is to change the concept and understanding of the word ‘quality’, to show that it doesn’t necessarily mean to score higher in exams but rather to show what it means to be human, it means to be well-prepared for the working life, it means ultimately to produce graduates who are well-rounded members in the society.

We hope to be the starting point for all our students to equip themselves with the ability to learn continuously during and after college, so they may effectively contribute to the society. I believe this is a harder task to achieve.


8) What is your leadership philosophy as the head of SSH?

To be accessible all the time. I believe everything can be done through proper negotiation.

My leadership style is to be approachable, and it is clear in this sense, since
students do come over to talk to me during my (meant-to-be-quiet) coffee sessions.


9) We were told by one very wise lecturer that an organization is not limited by the compounds of a building, but rather by its people and what they do. So, what is your opinion of the people (staffs and lecturers) of SSH who are charged with maintaining this organization known as SSH?

They are all highly qualified, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. There are times when they act individually, there are times when they act cohesive as a team.

Your lecturer is right, an organization is not a building, a building is merely something we need as a resource to accommodate our students’ activities, for instance, students need halls to practice event management. SSH is made of and by such people in it.


10) The overall concept of this celebration was actually chosen out of 10 pitch presentations made by the second year students of Advanced Diploma in Mass Communications, in Public Relations (APR2) and Media Studies(AMS2). We heard that you personally vouched for the concept of "Simply Versatile", is there any reason why you put this concept so close to heart?

We can be as good as five stars and beyond, and when we are required to, we can do the simple things as well… Versatility is more important to us. We need to learn the limits of rigidness and be creative with what we have, that is called being versatile, by being able to adapt. That’s why I felt that concept was good because the real world requires you to be versatile.


11) And what do you believe is currently done in SSH which can contribute to a student's path to simple versatility?

Whatever we do, can be converted into some form of an evaluative marking and therefore it can be used to evaluate students. That is why SSH focuses on teaching students practicality as well as academics. You may know the answer to a question, but when faced with a situation, do you know what can be done to actually solve it? SSH hopes to see students learn from that practical perspective, and I believe that it can make students more versatile in that sense.


12) If we were to ask you to use 5 words to describe the style of SSH's methods of
education, what would it be?

Dynamic, Liberal, Practical, Simplfied yet Forward Looking.


13) What message do you hope that people would get from this overall celebration campaign?

The only message we want to disseminate is the dynamism of SSH and its inhabitants. I’m proud to say that our PR course is one of the best.


14) If you could make a prediction, what do you see in SSH’s future?

I’d say that I would foresee that our practice, in combining practical competence and academic excellence, be used as a benchmark by all other educational institutions attempting this kind of programme.
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The media relations team posing with Mr Lee

**Special thanks to Mr Lee for being such a good sport!

Visiting Leo Burnett-An experience to remember

On the 12th of November 2009, three representatives from the Advertising booth team visited Leo Burnett, which is not only an international advertising firm and but also the 4th largest communication network in the world.

Uncle Burnett’s portrait greets us upon arrival

With the strength of 170 personnel, LB Malaysia boasts a wide portfolio of clients under its belt such as PETRONAS, Malaysia Airlines, Tenaga Nasional, McDonald’s, and others. Leo Burnett is also the place where the late Yasmin Ahmad worked since 1993.

Once we stepped into the entrance of Leo Burnett, we were astonished by its beautiful and cozy interior design. The thoughts of "WANTING TO GET A JOB HERE!!" entered our minds, especially so when we were invited to their "leisure room" to await for our meeting. We were anxious!

Our nervousness faded away as Ms. Mazuin Zin, who is the Client Service Director, and Mr. Suresh, the Strategic Planning Director, greeted us warmly. We were there to gain support for our Advertising booth in terms of information and materials. They were helpful and friendly, lucky for us, we had their support without any hesitation. In fact we were informed that we are the first group of students to have approached them in terms of requesting support from them. We are definitely very honored by this. The kindness we received is definitely appreciated.
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That pathway leads us to the Late Yasmin Ahmad’s office

Pool table and bar area

Spacious workplace

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At the end of our meeting, Mr. Suresh agreed to bring us for a tour in LB’s office.

Advertising is a demanding career that leaves one not only feeling accelerated but also exhausted, that is why LB Malaysia has such a relaxed office setting. As we looked around, there were pool tables, sofas, a bar, an amphitheatre and big glass windows where we can see the sun shining from the outside, this explains LB’s organizational culture more or less. The earth-tone space emits the sense of comfort and belonging-ness.

All in all, we would like to say thank you, the people of Leo Burnett, for such an insightful visit.

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Before you go, let us ponder one of Uncle Burnett’s most memorable quotes “When you reach for the stars you may not quite get me, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either”…

Watch out!

We have just completed the designs for our T-shirt, bunting, banner and poster for the coming SSH 10th Anniversary Celebration. We are so excited,we just want to tell the world!

But first,let me give you a low-down, our concept for this celebration would be the "SSH City", the idea is that we all have our place and roles to play in society/real world, so we want you to see us at work, in an SSH city!

Doesn't that just sound like fun!!?

Ok, I shall not let you wait any further...here are our designs which will be hitting Tunku Abdul Rahman College soon.

So, WATCH OUT!

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These are the designs for the bunting, banner and poster! Look out for it...Click to enlarge

If you see people dressed in these cute t-shirts, be sure to come up and talk to us, other than being simply versatile, we are very friendly also! ;)

A Visit to the Royal Premiums – Royal Selangor Pewter

The tourism team paid a visit to the Royal Selangor Pewter Visitor Centre, which was a rewarding experience for the Tourism team. The entrance is free and the centre gives complimentary guided tours in various languages. The pewter-making facility consists of three main sections – the gallery, the factory and the retail shop.

The tour begins at The Gallery where we learnt about the company's pioneering past since its founding in 1885.

Eugene, the tour guide explaining the history of Royal Selangor Pewter

The various displays at the gallery are Malaysia olden-day tin money, old pewtersmitting tools, and first generation designs of antique pewter made in the late 1800’s to the 1960s.

The Gallery also offers educational exhibits for a better understanding of the technological aspects of pewter.

A simple chart that shows pewter’s chemical composition.

Also, the tour guide threw us some interesting trivia – that the Royal Selangor factory produces 1578 kg residues daily, which will be re-melted to make new products.

Followed by the Factory tour, on up-close and personal view, we were shown different pewter production processes - Casting, Polishing, Hammering, Moulding and Engraving.

A worker making a customised champagne holder

There are rows and rows of workstations where employees work on products, in fact, Royal Selangor is the world’s largest pewter factory!

The factory demonstrates a very impressive of tidiness and cleanliness.

Also, we were given the chance to render design on a pewter tankard.
Clement and Chui Ying tried to hammer a design on a tankard

The factory tour does offer a workshop called “School of Hard Knocks” whereby visitors will be taught the basic art of pewter-making and keeps their master piece at the end. The workshop requires prior booking, costs RM50 per person and it is open to groups of 5-50 people.

Finally, at the end of the tour, we were lead to the Retail Store featuring pewter items as well as jewelry by Selberan which belong to the Royal Selangor company. Though we can buy souvenirs from the Retail Store, pewter products is not that cheap!

Accessories collection by Royal Selangor Pewter
The Melon Pot revamped from the first generation design
Limited edition Lord of the Rings chess set

The factory visits indeed an eye-opener for the tourism team!

Invading 8tv and One Fm

As mentioned before, there will 10 booths featuring the courses of SSH, well, today, we, of the Broadcast Communication booth, would like to show you a bit of what we have in store for you.

On the 29th of October 2009, our Broadcast Communication team along with several other representatives from the SSH 10th Anniversary organizing committee invaded 8tv and One Fm (legally, with our visitor pass and all).

Ever had that feeling, sometimes when you encounter something so surreal, it just makes you feel small. That was exactly how we felt when we walked into the Media Prima building. We were, quite frankly, awestruck at the prospect that we were at the building which carried many of Malaysia’s major media stations.

Being briefed before starting our tour

Our chatter in the hallway of the building began to tone down, as our tour guide, the very nice Ms. Lai Sook Yee, gave us a brief introduction of Media Prima to the 30 of us that were there. Then, our journey inside this very large building began.

First, we visited the “8 E-News” (八八六十事) studio, which was much smaller than what we had expected, but the colourful décor of the set was exactly as portrayed on TV. What caught us by surprise would be to find that in the exact same studio room, was the 8tv “Quickie” set exactly opposite it. You have to give the wonderful hosts of 8tv credit, not only do they have to overcome the idea of millions of people watching them as they presented their segments. Sitting inside the set of “8 E-News”, we finally understood how it felt like to have glaring bright lights shining in our faces while two cameras sat across us to capture our every move.

A rare view...Taking a look at 8 E-news from behind the camera

Next, we visited the green room where you get your Chinese daily news from, we were all surprised as the room was smaller than the 8TV Quickie set and the decorations were much simpler. The set has only one simple table and a chair and two cameras facing it. One of the cameras has dual functions, which allows it to record while projecting the newscaster’s script, this is actually called the teleprompter, and the newscasters are actually allowed to scroll through their scripts using a navigation device hidden behind the laptop you would usually find placed on the table.

What we found even more fascinating was perhaps that we were in the studio for Chinese news with the highest viewership in Malaysia. Some of us who went for the trip commented on how surprising it is to find that some of Malaysia’s greatest shows were actually made in rooms considerably small. We guess it is as they say, “Good things come in small packages”.

This is where all your 8tv Chinese news is shot live

Next up, we visited 8tv’s interactive room. Don’t know where that is? Ever sent in SMSes to 8tv during their night chats and wondered where they actually go to? Well, they go to the Interactive room, where moderators observe the flow of shows that are on air and at the same time monitor the feedbacks by SMS.

Listening intently as we are told briefly the process of the 8TV Nite Chats

Finally, Ms Lai Sook Yee passed us to our next tour guide, Ms Mandy Chua who explained to us how a radio station worked. She took us into the studio of One Fm as one of their DJs, Jack of the “One Fm Happy Hour” segment did his thing. His partner, Ryan, was unavailable that day for he was at a training seminar. Though we were somewhat disappointed, we were very delighted to meet Jack nonetheless. Jack was a true professional, he was not distracted by our presence while on air, and the moment he was off the air, he graciously joked with us and posed for pictures. Many of the girls in the group swooned.

Us, at the One fm studio

Here are some interesting things we learned:

• A presenter must not only be able to speak well, but look good on the camera as well. This is what they call “camera face”, it has been said that sometimes, people who are really attractive are not able to portray the same attractiveness while on camera.

• Make-up is very important when doing a shoot, as the bright lighting in the studio will make the presenter look pale. Therefore, make-up is a must for the presenters to look... well, presentable.

• Did you know that there are delays for about 3 seconds for live broadcasts?

• Studios can get very cold sometimes, yes, even with the glaring bright lights! This is because the equipments used are vulnerable to temperatures that are too high. • We’ve mentioned that studio rooms are usually small, but do you know why they always look so big? Ah...the wonders of perfectly angled cameras.

The trip was truly a treat, not only did we get to see what a real TV studio and radio station look like for real, we even managed to see how they work. Let’s not forget the opportunities to meet celebrities as well. :P

Want to know more about what we have learned about the world of Broadcasting? Then please stay tuned.

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Look who we found in the hallways of 8tv…Paul Moss of Malaysian Idol and One in a Million fame.

Jack, being very gracious as he took a break from the show to pose with us

A group photo in front of Media Prima before parting with 8tv and One Fm

**A special thanks to our tour guides, Ms Lai Sook Yee And Ms Mandy Chua