16th of September came and went with a bang. Still fresh from the midnight celebration of Malaysia day and Aidilfitri, AMSA KCKL had their annual AMSA Alert to welcome the freshies to UKM and introduce them to AMSA in general. It was held in the Multipurpose Hall, in Tun Syed Nasir Residential College, National University of Malaysia (UKM). The event was graced not only by the current AMSA Malaysia board but even past leaders to see these eager young men and women speak out their passion as a medical student and as an AMSA member.
Like a traditional rite of passage, the influx of first years, some 200 people symbolizes a transfusion of new blood coursing into AMSA’s veins. They were excited, ecstatic and downright feisty in their participation and teamwork. The grueling morning was greeted with shouts of cheers from each group that comprised of students of different racial and social background. Fired up to bring glory to their teams, they roared their slogans and team cheer with vocals pitch and volume no less than the hakka from the New Zealanders rugby players.
Speeches from past and present AMSA Malaysia leaders and representative of the local branch gave the event a much needed “calm down” but it gave them good insight of the great things to come in their walk with AMSA. The temporary string of speeches was need to give that small dip in excitement to reach the climax of the event, the crime-scene investigation. Just like in the past, it was a great activity to test the critical thinking and teamwork of these new students but this year we gave them a little twist. The scene was acted out live and the props were amazingly realistic, great thanks to the people in charge. The gruesome crime scene set the stage for problem solving and clue – searching around the residential college. The air of excitement did annoy our neighbors a bit. For that we are truly sorry.
These guys are truly energized!
But the mischievous second years and facilitators did their best to mentally and physically challenge these youngsters. Even the Regional Chairperson had a go with playing with their wits. All teams were fantastic in spirit and strength but it came down to intuition or sheer luck that only a few got the correct “diagnosis”, so to speak. We shall remember the “Angry Birds”, “Butterflies” and many weird names of these great ladies and gentlemen.
With these people here, there’s great hope for AMSA in future. There’s great promise in the medical field of Malaysia.
