Google Student Ambassador Summit: Day 1

Taking risks is definitely one of the most rewarding things EVER. ..so far

It all started with an application that one day of March 2012. I sent in my application to this Google Student Ambassador program not knowing what the outcome would be. It was those things I didn't tell anyone until I found out the outcome. When May arrived, 120 students from across Southeast Asia got emails telling them they were selected to be the Google Student Ambassadors for Southeast Asia for school year 2012-2013. 

There was one thing really risky for me though. We had to attend a summit in Singapore for three days. The opportunity cost of going to Singapore would be missing classes and having to catch up in missed lessons and take make-up exams. The no-brainer decision, the experiences and lessons I will have and learn, plus the people I would meet in Singapore would definitely over power the norm of going to school. But also, if Google told you they were paying for your airplane rides, hotel accommodation, and all your meals, wouldn't you say YES immediately too? :))

The Filipino Google Student Ambassadors first time to assemble as a group.

One the first day of the summit, we had to come in our national costume. For us Filipinos, the guys came in their Barong Tagalogs which made them look even more dashing ;) haha! And we girls came in our Baro't Saya.

Filipinas

When we entered the hall where the summit was going to be held, a surge of happiness entered me. I had that "this is it" feeling. Like, man this is legit! hahaha! The stage background was simple which is very Googley but at the same time powerful cause again it made everything feel more legit! We were also greeted by many white and red chairs with cool bags on it.

They gave us our second Google Swag (first was our GSA ID's) - the bag which I'll call the Gmail Bag since it is the visual which we associate with Gmail and I don't know what it's called. :)) It was definitely cool we got this because there are only about 1000+ of these bags and those 1000+ belong to the other Google Student Ambassadors in the world.

The Google Student Ambassador Bag

The first day was all about getting to know everyone. The flight of one of the countries part of the summit was delayed which meant an extended getting to know you part. The Googlers encouraged us to get to know everyone and mix with the other nationalities which we did. It was great meeting everyone with the warm smiles and handshakes.

Some of our new friends!

 A few minutes later, when all the GSA's were in the room, we were all officially welcomed by some of the Singaporian GSA's and some of the Googlers!

Hilary and Shailish from Singapore

 

The first day was definitely a get to know you day! It started off with the human bingo as an ice breaker. It's that game wherein you have to find people with the same interests as you and you get them to sign the paper. If you get five in a row, you shout BINGO! Sorry, I had to do that. It rhymed. :))

Moreover, wearing our national costume was great too cause it showed our diversity yet at the same time, the game brought us together and showed us that as human beings in general, we are alike in so many ways. A lot of us shared the same favorites like color, fruit, TV show, music genre. Also, a lot shared the same dream jobs, used the same phone, even up to the most random what we thought the oddest looking animal is.

Then, we had a two talks and another game. The 2nd game we played was the Name Game. It's the one wherein you have to associate an adjective that starts with the same letter as your name (ie., quiet Queenie). This game was quite a challenge but at the same time fulfilling. It was a challenge because we had to learn so many new names and at the same time some of the names were quite difficult to pronounce considering the diverse accents we have. On the other hand, it was fulfilling when we knew each others names AND pronouncing them correctly (or at least we tried our best to). :)

Next came dinner time!!!!

Dark chocolate and vanilla gelato :) #heaven

After dinner, we divided into groups wherein each country had to be represented. This was the group I was in. We had a groupmate who was super into K-Pop so she taught us a Korean word, "Daebak" which means AWESOME which eventually became our group name. We worked three days together exchanging ideas and discussing stuff. We worked well together. :) 

Half of our group

The other half

After a good discussion, the night ended at the Google office, then we went back to the hotel.

1st batch of Google Student Ambassadors from Southeast Asia :)
credits to Minty Cai for this last photo

Then, the Filipino GSA's bonded that night. :)

Click here to read about our 2nd Day