Improving The World Through CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility

I have discovered that Corporate Social Responsibility interests and fascinates me. Through incorporating activities and elements benefiting society, I feel I’m giving back to the community and the environment.

More and more companies are incorporating CSR into their business, as well as creating social responsibility webpages to showcase their morality. Large organisations involving themselves in activities and programs purely for the benefit of the environment and the wider community are the organisations that will develop long-term reputational and financial success.

On week three of my internship experience, I was invited to attend an important interview between an influential client and the owner of a Malaysian youth magazine. Our client was the managing director of Brickfield’s Asia College, a critically successful establishment involved in many projects and developments that benefit the disadvantaged, as well as the wider community.

The interview concerned a funding project called ‘EduNation’ where free online tuition is provided to Malaysian students. BAC is attempting to further develop the project to an international scale, for all age’s groups and children wanting to learn more. It was fascinating listening to the goodwill of BAC’s managing director.

He spoke with a general concern for the disadvantaged and less fortunate. This man explained current business initiatives of his college, such as giving scholarships to those who couldn’t afford education, projects empowering women, communicating with the ministry to allow refugees to sit examinations, and many more volunteer projects for students at the college.

The inspiring interview led the magazine director to actually request future collaborations on similar projects, as the two discovered their similar interests for their community.

The wider benefit for the environment is endless when large organisations begin to immerse themselves in sustainability. CSR allows people to come together to establish meaningful connections, improve the environment and help the less fortunate. As well as individually making the world a better place, large corporations can create a world of change through collaborating on CSR projects to improve the world we live in.

Lessons I learned from my 3-months internship

Mistakes are opportunities to learn

Every day I wake up telling myself: “Try your best to stay out of troubles. Do not make mistakes at work.” Ya, I’ve to admit that I am not good in accepting criticism so I tried my best to avoid troubles. I chose to do everything in a safe way. I felt relief realizing I’ve survived my day without making any mistakes or getting scolded by my supervisor. But soon it makes me wonder if what I did was correct. And that’s when my supervisor’s words delivered a shocking blow that woke me up completely.

“You’re playing too safe! Interns are bound to make mistakes. And that’s what distinguishes an intern from a full time employee. Treasure your opportunities to make mistakes now because girl, that’s a cruel world out there that you wouldn’t want to step in after you graduated.”

Don’t afraid to ask

I’ve this issue that I like to pretend to be a Miss-Know-It-All at work. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t that kind of person whose ego is over flowing primarily through their mouth and believes they've got the answer to every question. It’s just that I would rather ask Mr. Google instead of getting help from my supervisor. I guess part of me wanted to prove that we Curtin Students are SMART! (What, I’m proud of my school!)

There was a time when my supervisor asked me to draft a Gantt-Chart for the upcoming event. I swear I’ve never heard of this word in my entire life. And instead of telling my supervisor that I don’t know, I said: “Sure, I will have it on your desk before 5pm.” DANG, my stupid ego. Then I spent hours for research and tried to come out with a stupid gantt-chart template by my own, and for sure I FAILED.

So, I say goodbye to my unnecessary ego and turn to my supervisor for help. And that’s when I heard her angelic voice said: “Ohya, I think I created a template last time. Just use mine. All you need to do is to fill in the blanks.”   

So my friends don’t afraid to ask questions. Like what they said, there’s no stupid question.

A good supervisor means everything

One of the most valuable workplace traits that both my supervisor and I share is to enjoy our works. We like to work in an environment that we can make fun of everything and sometimes that even inspired us with some new ideas for the events.

Also, I really want to express gratitude for the trust my supervisor put in me. I was given more tasks to perform after the first two weeks of my internship. As soon as I gained my supervisor's trust and demonstrated my capabilities, she gave me more opportunities to come out with PR plans and also run few of the projects by my own. It was a truly amazing experience for me. 

ARE YOU READY?

 I used to doubt my ability to work because I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the real-world.

But now, I am confident enough to say: “I AM READY.”

For those who are doing your internship, make sure you enjoy and live your internship life to the fullness.

 For those who’ve completed your internship and are in your last semester, good luck with the final report and enjoy the last few months of your Uni Life.

 YOLO!

Yee Shen Yap 

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Skill is more important in knowledge..well, sometimes

Whatups, interns!

Years ago, I was forced to learn Photoshop aka The-most-difficult-graphics-editor-on-earth. My brother is a graphic designer and he couldn’t imagine how could his only-sister not knowing anything about designing, not even Photoscape. So for my ‘own’ sake, I started to spend thousands of hours learning Photoshop by myself. Well there’s this funny thing you know, my brother has literally provided zero assistance throughout my learning progress. I guess it was a new way that he found to torture his not-so-annoying sister.

But now, I really appreciate of what he did back then. Knowing me as a person who doesn’t accept criticism with gratitude, my brother criticised on my designs a lot and it drives me to improve myself to prove him wrong.

Few days ago, I was given a chance to fully in-charge in the event called Mentor Trial Session. In short, this one –day event are to provide insights to Miri community who are interested in becoming a mentor for The After School Project, which is one of our CSR project that an initiative to affordable learning to orphans.

Design the brochures, banners and poster becomes one an important task for me, especially when we have no graphic designer in our company. I feel extremely proud when I got the physical copies of my designs sent to my hand. 

So, what I’ve learnt is that - Always be prepared. As a PR person for the 21^st century, even though it isn’t necessary for you to be a computer geek, it would be better for you to be familiar with most of the editor software and be an internet savvy, if possible. So, brush up on your computer skills, polish up your presentation skills, and learn a new language, even a new sport (who knows when you’ll need to close a deal on the golf course). Do whatever that you think that is going to add value for your future.

These are some of the designs that I made for the event. Even though it wasn't as good as others, I still like it very much!  Tee-hee.  

Until Next time, Bye~

YeeShen Yap

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Building Good Relationships is important, but how?

It’s 8am on the Monday morning.

You arrive in your office. You turn on the computer and start to reply thousand of e-mails that you came in on weekends. You go through your lists of to-do for the day and start to get it done. After awhile, you look at your watch only to realize that you didn’t manage to finish all the works and it’s already 5pm. You switch off the light, you take a bow. Then, you called it a day.

Let’s face it, IT’s BORING!

The one thing that I enjoy the most working in PR industry is its flexibility. I’m not that kind of person who can spend the whole day in front of computer doing paperwork. By working in corporate PR, I’ve the privilege to talk with my colleagues even during working time and most importantly, I’ve the opportunity to participate to some of the events that were organized by Miri community. Few weeks before, I was invited to an event organized by John Curtin Leadership Academy (JCLA). As most of you are Curtin Student, I’m sure you are quite familiar with JCLA. For those who don’t, JCLA is actually a leadership program of Curtin University that provides leadership skill training, such as understanding of workplace, and leading edge skills in the job market and encourages entrepreneurial spirit.
 There were seven students participated in the Poster Presentation Event that day. They were set to initiate projects over the next few months that will benefit the local community and hopefully to attract potential industrial organization to sponsor their projects. The event started with a speech from Professor Mienczakowski, the pro vice-chancellor of Curtin Sarawak and followed by the presentation from both teams (seven of them are grouped into 2 groups for work for 2 major projects). After having some light refreshments, the potential sponsors were given a chance to speak with the students to have further understanding for the projects.   I personally was so impressed by their performances. Their performance during presentation session were remarkable, especially when most of whom are only first-year students. I wouldn’t have done it when I was in my first-year back then. I only find the courage to speak confidently after taken few of those PR classes. Another round of applause for all those little soldiers.
 So back to these event, it is not common that me, as a Curtin Student, to get invited to Curtin-organised event as a representative of a well-respected company, but not some who-care-who-you-are kind of student.
 What can you ask for more? You get to talk with corporate leaders and public relations officer from other organisations (that you wouldn’t have a chance to speak with as a student), and not to mention there’s always delicious foods and drinks prepared after the event.
 At first, I wasn’t really sure about the purpose of attending all these events, because to be honest, it has no direct relation to our business at all. After attending dozens of those events, I started to realize it doesn’t matter if you could make any profit out from the events, it’s about how many connection you’ve established for your company.
 Few days ago, I was introduced to the public relations manager from Accor group, a French hotel group. Also, I spoke to few of the freelancers who work in the media and it really helps me to understand the industry better and understand the angle that they are looking for from media’s perspective. It is not necessary for us to speak about our company all the times. You can talk about anything, the perfume you use, the car model that you think is environment friendly, the ideal type of boyfriend, or whatsoever. It doesn’t matter at all. It is important to make people feel good and comfortable about you so there’s a high possibility that you’re the first person they come to when they are looking for future partnerships or opportunities for the company.

Ya, pretty much that's it! 

Until Then. 

YeeShen Yap

   

Not-so-Typical first day at work

Woof! Can you believe it? Me, work and act like a real adult?! Well, after few days of my working life, I would say, it was pretty awesome. For my friends who are currently doing Public Relations out there, I’m sure you and I have something in common, we all are the people who like our life to be more spices, you know, to be more interesting and surprising. Personally, I couldn't stand to sit in front of my computer and work with those boring numbers for my whole day (No offense to friends who are doing Accounting and Finance yay). And working in the Corporate Communications Department under Interhill Group of Companies once again proved me right on choosing PR.

My first day of work was amazing. I've imagined thousands of situation that I might encountered on the first day of my work, you know, being a rookie of a company, you might need to spend your whole day read through the previous reports done by your superior,  make photocopy or even make a cup of coffee for your boss. Well, my first day of work was far more interesting than that.

My superior has literally put me on the battlefield the first hour of my day- To write a press release in one hour about one of company’s CSR programmes- 365 Green Day. Press release is not a stranger to me but one hour was a new challenge for me, especially you weren't involved in the activity and had no idea of what the program is all about. BUT, I managed to do it...ON TIME!

After that, I were asked to make a couple of phone calls and it was quite fun because few of them were actually my lecturers in Curtin. I always thought of making a phone call could be really boring, but being a PR person, it brings making phone call into a whole new level. When we normally make a phone call, it is typical to say hi, who is this calling from, may I speak to who, and why am I caliing….etc. BUT, what I did was: “Hi, how are you, where have you been, how’s your dog, have you ever been to the new coffee shop, bla-bla-bla”, AND after few minutes of chit-chatting, FINALLY I said: “Well, I’m actually calling to…..” I mean it could be fun if you've met the person in the real life, however, when you’re talking to a totally stranger and you've to act like you've known the person for your entire life, that’s the different story. BUT still, I would say best experience to start your first day. 

So that was pretty much the first week of me being a PR intern. Until next time.

Yee Shen Yap

Lessons, lessons, lessons

Hi everyone!

So my time as a PR intern at Swan Districts Football Club has drawn to a close, with its fair share of lessons learnt, both life lessons and PR lessons. I will be graduating this semester, which is very daunting but believe the internship experience has really increased my confidence for the big bad world.

One of the main lessons I learnt from my internship was that I can't learn it all in such a short period of time. I went into my placement knowing I would develop my skills as a PR practitioner by writing Media Releases and helping with events. What I didn't realise is that when I finished, while I feel much more equipped, I will still be learning constantly in my professional life.

As the PR world grows and develops in organisations, the more we are going to have to know and instead of this freaking me out, I am excited to sink my teeth into this new challenge. Instead of dreading the set readings at uni, I am going to seek out books that will help me progress as a professional - and I will enjoy it.

I hope everyone has an amazing break and well done for getting this far.

Keep learning!

Lucy