My name is Clarence Ming Zhi Chua. As a fresh graduate from the University of Adelaide College, I took up the challenge to become one of the student ambassadors for the year 2017/2018. It is definitely an honour and pleasure to be given the opportunity to meet and welcome new international or domestic students on behalf of the College.

A brief introduction of myself, I am currently a first-year law student at the University of Adelaide. With my one-year experience here in Adelaide and the College, I volunteered myself as a student ambassador in order to gain more experience and knowledge, and assist new students starting at the College.

My experience as a student ambassador has truly convinced me once again that the quote: “never forget the roots of your success” has to be practiced wherever we are in life. Over the one-year span of my life at the University of Adelaide College, I indeed received significant help from the teachers and admin staff in completing my Foundations Studies. In fact, from my point of view, contributing a small amount of time and energy to serve as a student ambassador will never actually compensate what the College has given me, but it is a start! Further, becoming a student ambassador makes my future resume look more complete but it also contributes to my knowledge with the life lesson the role has taught me. From appreciation to leadership, all these values are the crucial ones that determine how far you can go in life.

My first duty as a students’ ambassador was not an easy job. Although it was not the first time speaking in front of other students, it was very a speaking in front of 200+ new FSP students. It was a blend of excitement and nervousness which left me with butterflies in my stomach. Thanks to all the efforts put in by my English teachers during my Foundation year; I was able to overcome the nerves and present my speech confidently. During the speech, I got to share my thoughts and experiences with the “juniors” and hopefully, what I delivered will give them a head-start in succeeding in their Foundation year. I am grateful that during my orientation week, there are a number of seniors who dropped by and gave words of advice to me. In return this year, I am happy to take this opportunity to keep this going and hopefully, it will become a tradition for the College where graduates come back to share experiences with the new students.

In general, the experience of becoming a student ambassador was definitely eye-opening. From this opportunity, I have gotten to know more friends and improved my social skills. I also learnt that working together as a team will makes the challenge easier, and it also helped to lighten our individual burdens of the tasks at hand. Working together as a team is very important when it comes to assignments and group work. Therefore, I would strongly recommend getting involved in being a student ambassador to any of my juniors that are setto graduate from the College.