Amidst the demanding curriculum and stress in the face of examinations and interminable assignments, how often do students actually make an effort to stop and remind themselves of the little things on campus to be thankful for? Well, you’d be gladly surprised to hear that students in NUS do remember and appreciate the efforts made by unsung heroes around school.
Last semester, the 35th NUSSU Executive Committee (EXCO) embarked on a weeklong project inviting the entire student population to give thanks to people who made their time in NUS a meaningful one in spite of the long hours spent studying in school. Students were extremely receptive and welcoming of the event and wasted no time in spreading the spirit of thanksgiving.
Thanks! NUS, which took place from 31 October 2013 to 8 November 2013, gave students an opportunity to thank individuals by writing postcards and declaring their appreciation on NUSSU’s Facebook page (known as Thanks!fessions) to others. NUSSU conducted the event by setting up booths across various faculties where students penned words of gratitude on postcards to anyone who had brightened their mundane days. They were also encouraged to present the postcards to them, snap a photo with their heroes and upload them onto NUSSU’s Facebook page. The postcards were especially well-received as more than 1000 post cards were immediately snapped up by students on the very first 2 days of the event at the booth in University Town (UTown) alone. Representatives of NUSSU had to think quick on their feet to find more resources and manpower to re-direct postcards to the booths that required a replenishment of the postcards in order to meet the high demand at certain booths in the various faculties.
The support staff behind NUS’s daily operations were also treated to wonderful performancesput up by NUSSU and NUS Voices while enjoying a picnic at University Town’s Town Greento mark a closure to the weeklong thanks! NUS campaign. The attendees included shuttle bus drivers, security guards, canteen staff and housekeeping and maintenance workers. They were also presented with hearty fruit baskets, snacks and drinks to accompany them throughout the evening with 25 students from NUSSU serving the support staff and cleaning up the premises.
Heading the project were the General Secretary of the 35th NUSSU EXCO, John Paul Chua, and the Assistant Secretary, Lim Kok Seng. Together, they shared that the campaign was more than successful from what they first envisioned it to be.
“There were plenty of feedback from students who requested for more postcards to be placed around campus even after the weeklong campaign and it was very heartening to receive such positive feedback,” said John.
They had even received feedback from the NUS Provost, Professor Tan Eng Chye, to continue the project on a long-term basis because of its feasibility and sustainability. However, John felt that the event should only be kept to a yearly event because the main aim of the project was to drive home the message to people about the significance of appreciation. If more postcards were to be printed and distributed around campus, it would defeat the purpose of the campaign.
“The campaign started out simply with a clear goal in mind: to prompt students who are too busy with their own lives in school to stop and give thanks to the unsung heroes around them, especially the really hidden back-end support staff who run the daily operations in school. Ultimately, what we would like to achieve is a community that sees students using their own methods and means to give thanks. They should have a sense of ownership in how they want to express gratitude to the people around them,” he added.
Professors of the individual faculties also received the thoughtful postcards unexpectedly from students. The Directors of the different offices in NUS were also caught by surprise when some of the students presented the appreciation postcards to them.
“My team and I also saw admin staff from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences hanging the postcards in their offices. This was evident of how much the appreciation messages meant to them”, said John.
Often, students get pre-occupied and stressed out with the overwhelming workload they face in school and may tend to take certain intangible things for granted. However, little reminders of how much there is to be thankful for in school go a long way in making one’s day. The best things in life are often free; so why not be generous and tell someone how grateful you are to him for making your day in school? Whenever you get jaded and exhausted from school, remember that there are also people who are working as hard as you are in creating a better environment for everyone in NUS.
Give thanks to someone each day, every day.
