GEM Trailblazer Summer Programme 2024 @ NTU

In July 2024, I escaped the cold, dry, Australian winter, to the hot, hot, HOT, Singapore summer. I arrived in Singapore a couple days before the course started, with my boyfriend and fellow student, and we explored the city before we started the intensive course: E-Startups and Social Media Strategies.

The highlights:

1. Hitting up the main tourist spots and taking cheesy photos
2. Shopping too much, eating way too often and drinking dangerous amounts of bubble tea and soft drinks.
3. The actual course content.

Touring Singapore:

The NTU GEM Trailblazer Summer Programme included guided tours around Singapore, however, since it was our second time here, we chose to forego it. We also prefer making our own itineraries since it allows more flexibility and therefore we could take our time without being rushed. On one of the days we took our time to walk to the Merlion and took many, MANY photos.

Shopping, eating and drinking:

Singapore is a huge cultural hub with amazing design products not found in Australia. In relation to this, Asia has fantastic fashion and other items, especially Fila. The Fila products in Australia are not close to being comparable to the Fila products in Asia. Some other shops we perused were The Paper Bunny for the cutest bags, Kinokunia for blind boxes that were three times cheaper than back in Sydney, and World Fishing Centre SG for fishing goods that were almost five times cheaper than Sydney!

As for eating and drinking, everything was so much cheaper and nicer than back home, the only fault I found was the lack of vegetables in the meals. I’m not much of a veggie eater but I was craving them towards the end of the trip

The course content:

Our course was E-Startups and Social Media Strategies, taught by Lecturer Adrian, who is the CEO for his own company, Media Freaks. He and his guest lecturers jam packed the content but taught in a way that we could still follow along and understand. As someone who is interested in marketing and was upset to find that my degree did not allow for electives outside design or the pre-selection of transdisciplinary courses, it was like a gift from god to receive an opportunity to travel AND study something I had an interest in.

Overall, I had an amazing time learning and travelling, and hope that everyone has and takes an opportunity to at least once, study and travel outside the comfort of their daily lives!

Hannah Yim
Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Destination Australia Cheung Kong Exchange Program (DACKEP) Grant

For more information about the UTS Global Short Program visit: www.uts.edu.au/thinkglobal