One of Business School’s best-kept secrets is a student club called Sandbox, where The NUS MBA candidates connect, discover and share stories beyond the classroom.
NUS MBA Sandbox student club was set up with the vision of creating a safe space for candidates to stand in front of their peers and speak and, in the process, bond as a cohort. It represents The NUS MBA’s collaborative culture and is an important element in the programme’s aim to deliver a transformative MBA education.
“I have seen people laugh and cry in those talks where people share incredibly personal stories and challenges they have overcome. We have single moms, people with health challenges, those who failed with their start-ups and so on,” said Prof Jochen Wirtz, Vice Dean, MBA Programmes Office.
“You meet these people, you know so much more about them, you connect and relate to each other in a very different way. It is not competitive anymore. It is a collaboration, helping each other, understanding each other,” said Jochen.
Empowering students
The club was originally the Sandbox Speaker Series, which consisted of regular sharing sessions for students to open up about themselves.
The late Adjunct Lecturer Lillian Cheng, Department of Marketing, Jonathan Kwan, a facilitator at The NUS MBA’s Launch Your Transformation workshop, and a small group of MBA candidates set up the Series in 2019.
For Corinne Ablaza (The NUS MBA 2020), who was among the group of candidates, the Series allowed her to connect with her cohort and had a lasting impact on her working life.
“The Sandbox Speaker Series allowed me to refine my presentation skills and gave me time to practice them. The audience gave me feedback so I could understand the key points for improvement,” said Corinne.
“In my professional life today, it has helped me to formulate “stories” in a way that I can break down a very complex topic into something much simpler and easier to comprehend for my audience. I have also gained more confidence in presenting, with or without Powerpoint,” she said.
