February 13-19, 2023 – Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Khon Kaen University was honored to act as the host to organize the 7th 6-insitution HU-SO camp of 2023. The program, carried out at Ponpittayakom Community School, Pon Sub-District, Khammuang District, Kalasin; was aimed at building relationships among the 6 humanities and social sciences institutions. The opening ceremony was presided over by Assoc. Prof. Piansak Pakdee, Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relation, who also gave the opening speech while Asst. Prof. Marasri Sothip, Ph.D., Vice Dean for Administration of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University delivered the reporting speech; and Mr. Suriya Jaiwong, Director of Kalasin Primary Education Service Office Area 3, welcomed the administrators and students from all of the 6 institutions. At the opening ceremony, there was an opening performance: “Phu Thai Dance” performed by students from Ponpittayakom Community School. At the end of the opening ceremony, Assoc. Prof. Orathai Pia-ura, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, KKU, presented a souvenir to each of the network institution’s administrators, community leaders and distinguished guests, followed by scholarship giving to school pupils. The scholarships were from donation mobilized by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Alumni Association of Khon Kaen University.
Assoc. Prof. Piansak Pakdee, Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relation
รอง Assoc. Prof. Orathai Pia-ura, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Asst. Prof. Marasri Sothip, Ph.D., Vice Dean for Administration of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Mr. Suriya Jaiwong, Director of Kalasin Primary Education Service Office Area 3
The key objective of this camp was to make the students learn about social dedication and the common benefits rather than one’s own benefit. The camp also built relationship according to the MOU of the humanities and sciences institutions. The network is comprised of 6 universities, namely, Khon Kaen University, Prince of Songkhla University Pattani Campus, Kasetsat University Bangkhen Campus, Chiangmai University, Mahasarakham University, and Burapa University. The Project this time was organized under the concept: “Phuk Siaw, Tie the Relationship, and Link the Cultures”, and was organized in the form of a voluntary camp for the participating students to run activities together, exchange experiences, develop themselves on the basis of knowledge application to assist others. The students had a chance to learn to understand the community life and obtain more experiences from community learning. In addition, they also opened their world vision by learning about different cultures.
One activity at the camp was the base for learning community lifestyle. Each group of students took turn performing activities at “Ban Pon”, a community with good indigenous objects. For example, the sub-district is well known for Prae Wa silk, that is popularly known and has been given the name “Queen of silk”. Next, there is the milky plum, which is grown by a special technique until the fruit has special smell and sweet taste. The fruit products reach the market in over ten thousand tons each year. There is next the wickerwork, which is delicately made handicraft of the area that brings great values to the community. People in the community also are keen in Phu Thai performances consisting of indigenous music playing with performers dressed and sing in Phu Thai style and dialect. All of these demonstrate the qualities of what the community has and has been public related overseas in many occasions. The community, with its people being nice and friendly, is attractive as another tourism spot.
Moreover, there was another station at the camp for voluntary activities based on BBL or Brain-Based Learning. This means the use of knowledge and understanding of the brain to design learning and increase learning potential of kids during each stage of age. Participants built a playground for kids to exercise and balance the brain nerves. By exercising, total physical development will take place, making kids learn to concentrate, while their memory is improved. A pleasant learning atmosphere was also constructed, and this would assist learning.
The next station was the welfare station where participants cooked food, prepared breaks and drinks. This station was under the supervision of lecturers, staff and students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkhla University Pattani Campus who cooked all of the main meals with assistance from students of other universities.
Each day there were entertainment activities performed by a group of each of the 6 universities. This helped merging participants from different institutions together. They learned to make friends with others, trained to be leaders and express themselves. The activities were, for example, sport games such as strange eating, tug-of-war, water volley ball, study trip to Buddhanimit Temple (Phy Khaw) and Sirindhorn Museum, where students learned and opened their world vision by experiencing local cultures.
The last day was a cultural exchanging activity at the camp fire. The plays were from the North, the South, the Northeast, the Center, and the East. Both the students and Ban Pon community participated in the activity with fun and acquired art and cultural knowledge at the same time from the participatory event.
The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University likes to thank all who were involved: lecturers, staff, students, Ponpittayakom Community School, Ban Pon Community, Pon Sub-District Municipality, Khammuang District, Kalasin; and those who helped make this camp achieve all of its objectives.
News: Kittichai Kongkaew and Chanyanut Chuenchom
Photos: Facebook Fanpage, the 6-insitution HU-SO camp