We had two projects involving the community. The first one was collecting soil samples from Beautiful Gate Foundation (Puchong), a disability services and support organisation to evaluate the type of microbes found in the soil. Following with that, we conducted a session on hand washing and hygiene keeping for the people with special needs at the organisation.

The second community service was organising a workshop for secondary students on Sexual Health Education. Sexual health education is no doubt a significant and necessary education in an adolescent’s growth. Unfortunately, accurate, inclusive and positive information on sexual health is not easily accessible in our community even until now. It was our honour to share our knowledge on sexual intermittent diseases and corresponding prevention and treatment approaches.

These community service projects taught me the true value of being part of the healthcare system, which is to educate the public on general health precautions and practice the concept of ‘Prevention is better than cure’.

Besides core science modules, including molecular biology, immunology, microbiology, cell and tissue culture, omics technology, we were also given the opportunity to learn from modules in the areas of entrepreneurship, bioinformatics, quality management and many more. The IMU Medical Biotechnology faculty did not only want us to solely be a scientist that focus on lab samples, but a scientist that can stand in the shoes of a businessperson to sell the product made in the lab. These modules bridge the gap between science, technology and business which assisted in the development of all-rounder and up-to-date students. It also taught us to do research and analysis on the current market trend to understand the community’s needs. Innovation is important, but practicality cannot be neglected.