What is your preferred FTS model and why?

What is your preferred FTS model and why?

                Due to the growing need to be updated and to learn more I choose FTS Model A. This Model is the best yet the most expensive among the offered FTS models. Nevertheless, I outspokenly suggested this model to my guardians as this will give me the best experience of a field trip. This FTS model will include one major field trip outside Mindanao, one minor field trip in Mindanao, 1 national seminar and 2 hours interpersonal skills training.

                There are four major reasons why I choose this model. First is, it presents an out-of-town trip. Who does not like out-of-town trips right? The feeling of going into a trip with your batch mates and learning while you are there is kind of exciting. All of us would love to experience a trip to the countries’ capital and learn through its diverse environment the ways of the business world, the corporate world to be exact. Although not all of us would enter that world, majority of us would still find our way in to businesses. In that reason, experiencing the business world at its busiest is a must and will add knowledge to us of what we may face ahead. Aside from all that academic stuff is the fun that comes with the trip, the unforgettable experience of watching your friends’ first airplane ride, the look in their eyes when they first set foot to Manila, all of those are priceless and will add to the memories of being a college student.

Second reason is the one minor field trip in Mindanao. I love this big island of ours with no doubt, I even wanted to start my dream road trip right here. And this minor field trip here is a welcome thought for me. I hope and pray that this minor field trip would happen in Cagayan de Oro for I haven’t been there and a very special friend of mine have said that Cagayan’s ICT industry is booming together with its growing metropolis. But aside from that I also love to see nature, the flora and fauna that surround Mindanao that we may encounter while on our way. I am a nature-lover and I am guilty of that, all I can do for now is admire the beauty of Mother Nature while watching my very own carbon footprint.  Sitting on a bus window seat and just immersing my self in awe and wonder at nature, mesmerized in its lush greenery and relaxing this strained thinking machine inside my skull. While on that floating imagination, I will be thinking of ways and means to improve my skills as a Computer Scientist not only to help the economy but above all to help manage resources and ease up the burden to our environment. All of this wishful thinking will only come to life is and only if that one minor field trip in Mindanao will be held to Cagayan.

Third reason is the Y4IT national seminar that is included in the travel itinerary. I do not have an idea of what is in store in the said event yet, that is why I am interested. How would an event as big as that would feel like? Meeting and interacting with other ICT students from other parts of the Philippines would be awesome and may inspire the scientist in me to create and innovate. Not only this may become a meet-and-greet it may also pave the way for realization of ideas or things that I want to do after college, may it be my own startup business or apply for a position in a company. All of us students have a long term goal of being successful but the road to that success is vague and not to mention the challenges. That road becomes vague in the sense that, we as youth do not have the clear insight of the path that we want to take, or if that path is what we are in or not, if it is for us or not is not in our hands. This national seminar would greatly give us a bird’s eye view of the latest in the industry.

Lastly, the interpersonal skills training included. This workshop would definitely boost our confidence in expressing ourselves, not just our opinions but our bright ideas to the people that matter. Imagine a classroom or a workplace that has little to no interaction even with the correlated workloads the employees have. This work environment would be hell even if the air-conditioning unit reaches below zero. Why? You would work on a supposedly shared task seemingly alone even if your workmate is just a footstep away if both of you does not have the necessary interpersonal skill needed for just a plain business talk. A shared task should always be shared; it would not be named otherwise if it can be done by some super human. Its ease and especially its burdens should be well distributed. In this fashion when the project becomes successful all team members would have a taste of how it is to overcome a task through effective communication and distribution of work. This alone is not the sole application of interpersonal skills; it can also help with everybody’s social life. Most people engaged in the field of ICT are dubbed as nerds, well things have changed. ICT people are now called geeks, now defined by Webster’s Dictionary (2014) as a usually intelligent person who does not fit in with other people, while nerd is defined as a person who behaves awkwardly around other people and usually has unstylish clothes, hair, etc. Thus the stereotype of ICT people being nerdy is improved to being geeky, and is now the new sexy as what the trend says. This improvement is kind of positive and should be fostered. I am personally convinced that this interpersonal skills training would help us budding technologists and scientists to be outspoken and learn to express ourselves in words and in actions. We should take into consideration that one person who can talk confidently to another may affect the other to talk also.

                The said choice of Model A is hereby made because it exemplifies the meaning of a field trip for me. A field trip for me means going in to places to learn new things and be up-to-date to the trends in this world of ours banded with the new technology, explore unfamiliar territories for future ideologies that may help us think of what are needed, what needs to be done, and what needs to be re-done - in short re-thinking the old ways to solve new and emerging problems, above all of this is to learn through observation of the real work that happens outside of the classroom. In line with this, I also believe that field trips can help us be ready to face the real world - the professional and corporate world ahead of us when we graduate. I am positively looking forward to the realization of this year’s Field Trips and Seminars of our batch. A crazy ride ahead would sure to give us an exhilarating and fond memory. Hasta la vista!