A different learning journey

by Jolene Cheong (Singapore)

I chanced upon this course because I had to clear my T&E module. I had no idea what this course is about. All I heard from my friends who took this course before is that prof pam is a very nice prof, and hence I bidded for this course – without much expectation. Initially, I was quite worried because as the name “Technology Entrepreneurship” suggests, I supposed that a lot of IT skills would be involved and my IT skills are really really bad.

In contrast to the boring technology lecturing that I had expected, this course totally changed my learning experience! Firstly, it is very hands-on and really prepares us for the working life out there, unlike all the very theory based courses (esp when I am taking accounting courses). Honestly, the experiences Prof Pam provides us with are even better than doing an internship! Most importantly, (heaving a sigh of relief), this course does not touch a lot on technology (which is not of interests to me), instead it teaches me a lot of entrepreneurship skills!

I would very much want to set up a small business of my own in future and Prof Pam really exposed us to a lot of experiences about entrepreneurship. Other than leaving us to set up a business of our own from scratch, she talks about her real-life entrepreneurship experiences, gives us advices and tips on new startups so that we can be more “street-smart”, inviting successful entrepreneurs to speak to us so that we can hear about their real-life experiences and learn from them and get inspired. I found all these very useful and on top of adding more depth to the course, it makes the course enjoyable!

Although I have to say that this course is more time-consuming that I have expected, I guess it is a reflection of how tough starting and running a new startup is. In fact, I believe that starting and running a new venture (esp without guidance) will be even tougher than this. I believe that we are now under a very sheltered environment, with the prof and the TA and fellow classmates giving us a lot of help and guidance, and as prof pam mentioned, we are working with fellow university friends who do not have an agenda working with us. I believe that in the outside world, setting up a business would be much more difficult and we would face much more difficulties.

I enjoyed working with my group mates (aka business partners). Everyone is very accomodating towards each other and we had a lot of fun working together. TV production had been one of my interests and although it is abit embarrassing and weird seeing myself on the screen, I always feel a sense of achievement and satisfaction after each of our productions. Because there is a lot a lot of hard work behind every production – camera angle, NGS, cooperation and collaboration between actors, timing etc. The final production you see on the screen is actually after a lot of hard work! Also, this is the first time I tried editing videos. Have never done it in my life before. Initially I was quite clumsy and felt quite frustrated because I was not familiar with the program and there was just so much to edit and hearing your voices over and over again was kind of irriatating after a while (haha). But when I looked at the end product, I really felt a sense of accomplishment and felt that all the time and effort was worth it.

All in all, I did not regret working with my “business partners” as well as the “business idea” we have come out with. I believe that HeyChinaTV! has a lot of potential! Not forgetting all the guidances and advices given by Prof Pam, our TA Andy, and our classmates, our business would not have come thus far without all your contributions! =)