Sean Elijah Tan: Building a Stellar Stage for communication students

Sean Elijah Tan, a third-year Journalism student at Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM), spent his past semester break preparing the Stellar Prize (TSP) 2021.
As the organising chairperson, Sean aimed to grow the event from an internal award showcasing the work of XMUM Journalism and Advertising students, to an open stage for all university students in communications-related subjects.

“I had totally no idea of what to do at the very beginning,” Sean admitted, “But the sense of mission drove me to start little by little.”

Due to the pandemic, all preparation work was forced to move online, but distance didn’t stop Sean and his friends from perfecting the event process.

Consulting the ex-chairperson, recruiting committee members, meetings with different departments and award panels... After a few ups and downs, slowly but smoothly, the fourth annul Stellar Prize began to take its shape.

Apart from working for TSP, during the 6-week sem break, Sean also collected data for his thesis, translated research articles regarding China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and taught diabolo online to primary school students.

Sean said that his original holiday plan was to have some rest and enjoy books and movies. Though changes went beyond plans, he thinks that he has spent the semester break productively.

“Juggling tons of work improved my time management skills. No matter how many things lay before me, I can try my best to deal with it,” Sean said, smiling.

Zhuang Wenjun: Coming down from the ivory tower

Stepping into his final year, Zhuang Wenjun, a 1902 Computer Science and Technology student, obtained a summer internship at Baidu, Inc and spent all his semester break on software testing, software monitoring and software development.

His daily tasks include detecting bugs, reporting to programmers, and double-checking software after the bugs have been fixed.

During the internship, Zhuang gained rapid progress in Python programming and MySQL, a database management system. He also became skilled in SQL command and learnt the importance of databases in the Internet industry.

“This is my first-ever internship,” said Zhuan Wenjun. “Apart from gaining professional skills, this experience has broadened my horizon toward the internet industry and introduced me to the world of the grown-ups.”

Feng Yijie: Exploring possibilities with foreign languages

The second year Journalism student Feng Yijie worked as a teaching assistant for Gapper International Volunteer Organization during the semester break, organizing volunteers to teach English online to Indonesian children.

Her responsibility was to give feedback after reviewing teaching materials, assisting the voluntary teachers, and dealing with emergencies.

“I really miss my sleeping hours - But the children’s smiling faces and their improved language proficiency made me satisfied,” said Feng Yijie.

Feng Yijie also gave a presentation on behalf of Shanghai Museum to the children. Hearing the students saying “thank you, Miss” made her feel that all her efforts were worthwhile.

“I believe that learning a new language can enlarge children’s vision and motivate them to see a bigger world,” Yijie explained. “Though my strength is limited, at least what I did can plant seeds in the children’s hearts.”

(Contributed by Xu Sijia, Lei Jiacheng)