By Abdul Qadir Jilani, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore
AIT-Tiger Leong International Innovation and Leadership Camp has been a great opportunity for self-discovery and overall grooming of my individual personality. Over the past few days, I have learnt a lot from different presentations and visits. Comprehensive presentations on significant topics like innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship, and climate change and disaster management by competent experts of each field have compelled me to compare the performance of my individual personality and country to the progress Thailand and the developed world have made. The most important lesson I have learnt is that you never stop learning and therefore, you should always stay a student who possesses curiosity to know more and know better. If you always have a drive to learn new things, nature will open its doors of opportunity for you like the AIT Tiger-Leong International Innovation and Leadership Camp, in my case.
Another concept I have learnt is the concept of thinking, behaving and living like a global citizen. After meeting with great people from different countries with diverse backgrounds, I reached the conclusion that as human beings, we are all the same. Politics, class, caste, colour and religion is just a classification for identification, rather than being a potential reason for loving oneself or one’s country more than the others. Due to this camp, I have made some good friends from different countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia. I have learnt some phrases of different languages, tasted new foods and got to know lifestyle standards in different countries of Asia, mostly developed countries. The perception you make about people sitting from your country or area also change when you meet them personally and get to know that it is not acceptable to generalize without enough knowledge and practical experience.
The site visits were an exciting and fruitful part of the AIT-Tiger-Leong International Innovation and Leadership Camp, as they provided us with an opportunity to observe and examine the infrastructural development in Thailand especially in the fields of Science, Technology, Innovation, Business and Management.
The presentations from various experts also helped me to evaluate and realize the different teaching styles adopted by different instructors from different backgrounds for propagating their ideas to the students. I would specifically like to mention Dr. Voratas from the School of Engineering and Technology, whose discussion during the visit to the School of Engineering and Technology made me realize one of the most important things in life that being a leader may be hard, but being a follower is even harder. To be a good leader one has to be a good follower at first. Last but not the least, I realized the importance of the alumni-institution relationship by seeing the devotion and passion of Mr. Tiger Leong for returning the favor this university gave to him, in an excellent manner.
