Students Will Become Better People If They Engage With Community - Social Activist

From Shuhaida Mohd Said

PHUKET, Oct 30 (Bernama) -- Students who have the opportunity to engage with the community directly in the course of their studies and extra curricular activities will become better people morally, intellectually and spiritually and become more self-actualizing people, a social activitist said.

Rashidah Abdullah who is also a researcher, consultant and founder director of the Asia Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (Arrow), said if the students continue with social development or community work on a paid voluntary basis after university, the work will be internalized to continue to shape their lives.

"But it needs to be said that the main motivation of engagement with the community has to be to help, not to reap the benefits.

"You see a need, you care about it and you want to help. Later on, you see that this assistance has made a difference in people's lives and this motivates you further to do more," she said in a talk at the Regional Convention on Students Development here Tuesday.

She said community engagement would also help moral education and build character as well as test and challenge what the students believe in, care about and think is the right thing to do.

"The thinking skills are also sharpened greatly and specific knowledge is gained by being challenged, by seeing and wanting to understand reality.

"Great learning can take place around human realities which develop the capacities for understanding, thinking, comparing, analyzing and questioning," she said.

Rashidah said the engagement would also increase their understanding of people and community needs, and the feeling connected to communities can lead to greater human capacity for empathy and caring.

She also said lecturers need to link more with the community for the same reasons and benefits.

"There are four broad ways of linking, namely within the courses or curriculum, extra curriculum activities, semester breaks or holiday opportunities and voluntary service," she said.

The three-day convention which began yesterday, was organized by Universiti Utara Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, National Civics Bureau Malaysia and Prince of Songkla University, Thailand.

-- BERNAMA