"The White Coffin" wins award for creativity in Ichikawa

This is the cover of the monograph containing a collection of creative writings by our student volunteer activists. I also wrote a very looong piece. It was the "evidence" submitted to the AFHC for the creative developments award.
You can download the PDF from the Healthy Campus website (>7MB)
I am hoping that this Award will encourage more students to write. We hope to get it printed for posterity. We always want to print on recycled paper but the printer will tell us it is impossible to get recycled paper or say that the quality of the printing, especially if you have nice photos, will be lousy.

And here's the certificate sent via courier. International validation.
No, I decided not to attend (something about too much CO2 emissions already) but 111 papers were presented from 10 countries with about 300 participants at the conference on Healthy Cities in Ichikiwa, Japan on 25th October 2008. 15 cities, 1 university (USM of course) and 2 individuals won AFHC Awards. Membership in AFHC now stands at more than 100 which includes cities and universities, etc.

So what does this all mean? For one, it means that the students have contributed one small point (or mark) to USM's KPI in terms of "international recognition and awards". Well, at least I hope it counts.

But more important is we have provided a channel to recognise student's efforts and creativity beyond mere mugging to pass exams. Read the document - I am sure you will be suitably impressed at the energy our students have; and you will be surprised at how creative they are in their writing. If you are one of those who nitty-pick on the grammar and sentence construction, try to just enjoy the journeys. Remember that not everyone is a language expert. And not everyone is in love with English.

You will start to get the sense that students really want and need to be "allowed" to roam free, to do the things that matters - to them and to the World. Students want more than just attend boring powerpoint lectures and turning in assignments that are the product of "cut and paste" (Hey, did you read the news that half of the high and mighty Cambridge U students admit to plagiarism?). Students want to make a difference. They want their presence felt. They are so bored that some even skip lectures - they can catch up just reading lecture notes.

So, congratulations to all my heroes - the student volunteers. This is for them.

We should celebrate. But we won't just want to have another boring lunch - do we?