2021 Future Leaders Inclusivity Program Case Competition

Xiyu (Eryn) Zhang is a first year Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws student who recently won the Best Speaker Award and first place in the Future Leaders Inclusivity Program (FLIP) Case Competition.

Over the weekend of the 27 and 28 March, I had the incredible honour of participating in the University of Sydney Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) FLIP Case Competition. We worked together in teams to present business solutions to industry professionals and met the incredible leaders of BAP as well as many diverse, interdisciplinary peers. Competition participants came from many different parts of the world including China, India and more and studied a variety of disciplines – a mix of Law, Commerce and Science.

Teams networking and discussing with one another during the program

The two-day program was centred around the values of diversity and inclusivity. On the first day, we engaged in debates about workplace diversity and group bonding activities. I learnt a lot from hearing the different perspectives of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. The second day was when we received our case. We put our heads together to brainstorm ideas and construct convincing speeches around them. My team was very lucky to proceed to the next round where we were given another case to prepare and competed against two other teams. I thought we performed even better in the second round as we got over our nerves and could (relatively) calmly face and answer questions from our judges. 

Team presentation

What were the highlights?

There were so many highlights. Obviously, the fact that my team won the case (and got chocolates!!!) and I won the Best Speaker Award were huge highlights for me. But the process was just as memorable. I will always remember the heart-pounding hour of brainstorming ideas and most importantly, the lovely people I met that weekend - the BAP leaders, the judging team, and my peers - who all provided so much support and shared with us so much insightful knowledge and experiences.

Group photo of all participants

What was your biggest challenge?

The time limit was a huge challenge for me because firstly, I was working with a completely unfamiliar team that I hadn’t had time to get used to collaborating with and on top of that the case questions were very unexpected. However, I realised that the time limit actually pushed my team to become more cohesive and organised much faster than I anticipated. By the second round, we had already become highly coordinated and developed our ideas effectively and efficiently.

Team collaboration time

What would you say to other students?

Don’t hesitate to join! Even if you think this is something you’re not good at or you’re scared of meeting new people (I was both of these), you’ll find at the end that you’ve gained an amazing experience, learnt so much, and made a huge group of amazing new friends.

From left to right: Richard FitzGerald (Senior Director at BAP USYD), David Yoo (FLIP Winner), Xiyu (Eryn) Zhang (Flip Winner), David Zheng (Flip Winner), Sam Hain (Co-President at BAP USYD), Rhys Jennings (Co-President at BAP USYD)

Finally, I just want to say a big thank you to BAP for hosting the FLIP Case Competition and I look forward to being part of the organising team next year!

Discover more about Beta Alpha Psi through their Facebook page or website.

Parliament, Presentations and Partings

Parliament House was the first stop today. We joined students undertaking a summer program at the National University of Singapore to learn about the Parliament that runs this amazing city-state. Surprisingly, Singapore’s Parliament shares quite a few similarities with the Australian system, as they are both manifestations of the British system. Unfortunately today was not a Parliamentary sitting day, but nevertheless we could sense the solemnity of the House.

Finally the day has come to showcase what we have learned over these past two weeks, as we delivered our final group presentations at the CPA office. We were all shocked at the quality of all the presentations and the ability of all the groups to critically analyse Singapore’s housing issues. Reflecting on the work of my own group, I cannot believe how far we have come, from knowing nothing about Singapore to becoming experts in sustainable housing. It was different, and sometimes not easy, working as an interdisciplinary group, but this experience has definitely added a new dimension to my teamwork abilities. Learning to work with people from different backgrounds and how to utilise each other’s unique skills will surely be beneficial to my academic and professional ventures. As the presentations came to an end, it finally hit me that this was the last day of the field school. To perfectly finish off the trip, we headed out for a group dinner and enjoyed the Singaporean heat for one last time.

This blog was originially published on Sydney Life: Student experiences at the University of Sydney.

Betty Huang
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School and participant in the New Combo Plan, a short-term interdisciplinary field school in Singapore where students work together to understand and analyse the Singapore government’s housing policy

Out in the community

As presentation day looms all the groups are heavily focused on their chosen topics, gathering final pieces of research and solidifying the huge amount of information we have received over the past two weeks. For Team East Side, this has meant a significant amount of time spent in the community of Bedok, observing how the elderly are catered for in Singaporean housing plans and community layouts. This has meant a day of walking through housing estates and communities, checking for features such as wheelchair accessibility, exercise and social areas, community activities for the elderly and ease of access to key medical services such as dementia care.


These are all crucial features of the Singaporean government approach to dealing with the problem of a rapidly ageing population through promoting ‘ageing in place’. This comprehensive policy aims at keeping the elderly living independently within the community for as long as possible in order to promote a cohesive society and avoid strain on a limited institutional care system. From our research and observations so far, this approach has been largely successful in maintaining quality of life for the elderly and keeping nursing home intakes low. These findings have made me think that perhaps Australia could learn from this approach considering the strain placed on our own nursing homes due to an ageing population.

Today highlighted to me the benefits of living in Singapore as we study its housing system and surrounding policies. For example, talking in person with a manager for the Singapore Program for Integrated Care of the Elderly (SPICE) allowed for a more complete understanding of how home and day care for dementia sufferers is practically carried out. Overall, being in this country has allowed for a more flexible and in depth understanding of our chosen area of research in Singapore.

This blog was originially published on Sydney Life: Student experiences at the University of Sydney.

Jack Collins
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School and participant in the New Combo Plan, a short-term interdisciplinary field school in Singapore where students work together to understand and analyse the Singapore government’s housing policy

‘Hari Raya’ or ‘Celebration Day of Fasting’

Tonight we attended ‘Hari Raya Puasa’, a Ramadan Bazaar in Geylang Serai. Approximately 15% of Singaporeans are Muslim and are currently celebrating Ramadan, which involves fasting from dawn until dusk. The bazaar had food markets that allow the community to collectively break their fast, as well as stalls selling new cloths, decorations and home wares; thus supporting the custom of buying new items for the home. An array of exotic Malay-inspired dishes and snacks were displayed at each stall including spicy fish balls, biryani (a dish of rice, meat and spices), chick-pea biscuits, fried sweet potato, kebabs and pide. These were complemented with colourful and tasty drinks including lychee, mango, sour sok and rose flavoured water. A group of us excitedly selected a few different dishes and drinks and sat in the park nearby to delight in the fascinating new flavours.

While enjoying our meal we reflected on Singapore and the appreciable diversity of this city-state. Singapore is represented by three main ethnic groups with 74% Chinese, 13% Malay, 9% Indian. This leads to an array of unique opportunities for cultural experiences: one night we can be eating dumplings and noodles in a Hawker centre, the next day immersing ourselves in the wonders of the Malay culture near Arab Street and the next nigh delighting in a spicy meal in Little India. There are also four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, which means there are often four translations on signs with the Straits Times, the Singaporean newspaper, publishing in multiple languages.

Diversity in ethnicities also means diversity in religion. On Sunday we listened to the Catholic church near our hotel ring bells, while tonight we were able to appreciate the sound of a local mosque’s call to prayer. Although Sydney is also a multicultural and similarly a cosmopolitan city, the way the cultures instil themselves into the landscape differs. Appreciating and embracing the new cultural experiences Singapore offers has provided an enjoyable trip and enabled opportunities for understanding this economically important city at a grassroots level. It is also interesting observing and comprehending how these cultures harmoniously interact and co-exist: a lesson of increasing importance in today’s globalised and interdenominational world.

This blog was originially published on Sydney Life: Student experiences at the University of Sydney.

Alexandra Meek
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School and participant in the New Combo Plan, a short-term interdisciplinary field school in Singapore where students work together to understand and analyse the Singapore government’s housing policy

The Sight Project: an initiative at the crossroads of disability, creativity and commercialisation

Enactus students at the university have been responsible for driving projects that tackle a range of social issues from education inequality to the integration and employability of refugees. One such project which has recently come to fruition is The Sight Project: an initiative at the crossroads of disability, creativity and commercialisation.

The Sight Project’s operations started last year, with the beginning of its three stage model. Starting with a series of workshops, artists with a disability are provided the environment to explore their creativity, as well as access to mentoring from professional artists in the community. The second stage involved the development of a business model where the artworks created during the workshops were leased out to cafes and businesses on a monthly basis to create dynamic public spaces celebrating disability and diversity.

The pilot run of the program recently entered its last phase with an exhibition displaying these works. Titled, “Time & Place”, the inaugural annual exhibition was displayed at The Verge Gallery on campus. Opened on the 4th April 2014, by Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir (Governor of NSW) and Professor Tyrone Carlin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Registrar) the opening ceremony was certainly a celebration aimed to influence the social perception of disability for the better. The artwork was available for purchase through a silent auction, with all proceeds directly contributing to the income of the artists and reinvested back into the project.

In the coming months, the student volunteers are exploring exciting avenues of growth for this new social enterprise with the development of three streams of workshops to accommodate the demand of such initiatives. Workshop locations have been confirmed for The University of Sydney, Redfern and Homebush.

Joy Chen
Joy Chen is a Bachelor of Commerce / Bachelor of Arts student and part of the Enactus Student Leadership Team at The University of Sydney

AIESEC Go Volunteer exchange: A life changing experience

It’s eye-opening what travelling over the summer break can do for a uni student, especially if the purpose of travel is volunteer and social work. That’s what I found during my trip to Europe at the beginning of 2014, as part of AIESEC’s Go Volunteer exchange. AIESEC is a global youth network that develops leaders through international exchange. With the aid of a Business School scholarship, I was able to undertake my AIESEC exchange in Hungary over a period of six weeks. My ultimate aim was to develop cultural awareness and understanding in my work in two very distinct institutions.

My fellow volunteers, who were all from Brazil, whom I lived and worked with at the refugee camp.

The first was a refugee camp, whereby many of the refugees came from countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran, Cameroon, Syria and Algeria. Together with my fellow volunteers who were all from Brazil and Mexico, I taught English basics such as ‘My name is….’ and ‘it is nice to meet you’ to the adult refugees. As many of them had experienced various degrees of emotional, social and physical struggles in their own war-torn countries, their aspiration to learn English was one of their goals in their pursuit of reaching safe and democratic countries such as Australia or America. For some of them, their brave stories of enduring months of travel by foot or with strangers made me cherish how fortunate I am to live in Australia. And although my father was once also a refugee, this experience of living and working in a refugee camp propelled many questions in my mind about how Australia was dealing with its humanitarian issues.

Myself and a volunteer playing soccer with the kids at the refugee camp.

After two weeks of teaching and getting to know the families at the refugee camp, I was offered the opportunity to work in a school for blind and mentally disabled children. Having never had any experience of working with the blind, I was anxious about how I would cope and manage my interactions. However, my anxiety was unwarranted. Whether it be saying hello to me and attempting to hold up a conversation in English (very few Hungarians can speak English) or bringing fruit and other snacks to my dorm room so that I wouldn’t get lonely living by myself, the staff and students all made me feel so welcome and safe. The warmth shown to me by everyone in the school really motivated me to do as much as I could to contribute to their learning and teaching environment.

My grade 3 kids at the Blind School.

So what did my typical day look like? I would wake up at 6.45am, have breakfast in the school dining hall, and start my first class at 7.15am. I would usually go to five classes throughout the day, teaching children who ranged from 7-17 years old, all of whom had very unique personalities and levels of English proficiency. Usually, I was accompanied by the classroom teacher, who could translate for me. What was really inspiring was that the teachers at the school were also blind and aside from their teaching jobs, they each had unique interests and talents which they pursued. For instance, one of the English teachers that I worked with was an opera singer who was concurrently working on her PhD, and is involved in numerous charitable and social initiatives to raise awareness about programs and opportunities available to blind people. She is such a great mentor, colleague and friend to me, as are many of the other staff members and students that I met.

Making ANZAC biscuits at the Blind School.

All in all, working in the refugee camp and the blind school gave me so much motivation to explore ways in which I could better serve my community back here in Australia. Hence, although I am devoted to finishing my Bachelor of Commerce degree and am involved in a number of student start-ups and societies, I am committed to making a concerted effort to contribute to my community by volunteering for humanitarian and youth development causes, as well as attending festivities that celebrate cultural diversity. Looking back, I can honestly say that my 2013/2014 summer break was undoubtedly the best summer break I’ve ever had.

Christine Ma
Current student at The University of Sydney Business School.