Renowned author Paul J Meyers once said, “Communication is the key to personal and career success.” At Curtin University, there is no stone left unturned when it comes to providing support for students’ improvement. As a part of the effort, Curtin University launched an online mentorship program – CHAtS – short for Conversational Help and Support and piloted this in collaboration with its campuses in Dubai and Perth. The program is designed to improve one’s grasp of the English language, particularly when it comes to conversational skills. The participants include mentors and mentees from both campuses who get to enhance their language abilities through conversation-based activities.
The first session was held on the 4th of March 2021 and was led by Tiffany Verga from Curtin Volunteers! and overseen by Marc Phillips from the Student Experience team. This program is expected to run till the end of the month.
One of the student mentors, Sabriena Angelin, who is currently pursuing an MBA at Curtin Dubai, said, “The CHAtS online session is definitely a treat to look forward to every week. Being able to get to know students from other campuses and engaging with them through fun activities, such as – Would You Rather and quizzes on Kahoot – makes it entertaining. It is a truly great learning experience for all of us.”
As students continue each week, these sessions will also allow them to learn about each other’s cultures. For example, the session started with a game of Kahoot, where the participants had to guess what various Australian slang phrases meant. These types of cross-campus activities are a way for the University to ensure students in all our campuses feel as if they are united in the ‘One Curtin’ experience.
Everyl Colaco, Senior Teaching and Learning Coordinator at Curtin Dubai said, “The pandemic has motivated individuals to get creative about how they communicate and has increased the frequency of communication. CHAtS has been a great way to boost communication amongst the students at Curtin from different campuses while building lifelong skills. I loved the format of the program!”