ePOP Orientation Group – Pogoro @ Ice-Breakers
Warming the Cockles of Pharmacy Freshmen’s Hearts
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly caused upheavals in our society. All walks of life experienced changes and have gradually acclimated to a new normalcy; the much-anticipated Pharmacy Orientation was not spared either. As connecting in cyberspace becomes a quotidian part of our lives, all NUS freshmen orientation programmes followed the footsteps of NUS Open House 2020, by also going into cyberspace.
Although the initial thoughts of pioneering an e-Orientation were relatively arcane, the organisers of this year’s Pharmacy Orientation Programme (POP) thought out of the box and attempted to retain the human touch in the e-format. Leveraging on technologies, prelude activities including two e-POPcast sessions were held for freshmen to hear from their seniors and professors about university life. During the e-POP held from 13-16 July, orientation classics, such as inter-OG challenges and virtual escape rooms, were conducted in smaller groups to facilitate interaction and building of rapport. This also meant that the number of Orientation Groups (OG) were increased.
Once bonds were formed within each OG, the OGs combined to make up the five Houses of our Pharmily on Day 3. Freshmen were inducted into the Houses through a series of games and even creative and thoughtful tokens of appreciation. From this point onward, the five House committees take over the baton from ePOP and will continue to organize activities throughout the academic year to provide opportunities for freshmen to nurture lifelong friendships and support networks.
House Induction: Pasteur
House Induction: Procter
Taking the pandemic in their stride, Pharmacy Rag (RxAG) and Flag (RxFlag) have also increased their online presence in recent months. Flag Day was superseded by an online donation drive, where RxFlag continued to collaborate and raise funds for SHINE Service Center. RxAG’20 innovated a new RxZoomba activity to continue engaging freshmen beyond the 4 days of ePOP. Besides building camaraderie, the activity also served to teach freshmen simple dance moves so that a dance video can be produced and dedicated to thank donors of RxFlag.
Undoubtedly, some social elements were not fulfilled in this e-orientation. However, the online platform provided convivial experiences that would not be possible with a physical orientation – introduction to student’s pets, seeing friends’ exercise gears, musical instruments, shavers and makeup brushes during scavenger hunts, having a close-up look of a student’s eyes as he was showing everyone the interesting fact of having one eye with and the other eye without a double eyelid, or even having Masterchefs to show off their dexterous culinary skills to their OGs.
Horatio: one of the OGs of ePOP
Team Veedbat with their musical instruments
ePOP, RxAG, RxFlag and the five Houses of our Pharmily have definitely warmed the cockles of the freshmen’s hearts! They cannot wait to meet their friends in person and enjoy the petrichor as a Pharmily after the current thunderstorm.
Watch the ePOP Finale video here and view more pictures and posts related to all orientation events on their Instagram @pharmacy.orientation !
Students commencing the RxZoomba session with a warm-up
#PharmacyUnited
Article by Mr Tan Cheng Keat and Mr Joseph Tan (59th NUSPS Vice Presidents, Class of ’22)