Getting BRAT-ty in Genting

A sneak peek at what the BRATs young journalists got up to in the misty hills of Genting!

WE made friends with the super cute (but also pretty fierce) police K9 unit dogs, followed a cable car maintenance team on their rounds, and even got to play around with a brand-new fire truck!

Yup, we’re talking about our BRATs December camp – the young journalist camp where participants get to experience real-life multimedia journalism through exclusive, oncein-a-lifetime assignments, facilitated by the awardwinning R.AGE journalists.

We’ve been running the BRATs camp since 1993, but every new camp still manages to excite us – and let’s not even get into how psyched the BRATs themselves were.

#TeamSatpal, for example, got a ring-side view of the Genting Auxiliary Police K9 unit’s training session.

Although the unit keeps a low profile, these well-trained police dogs play an important role in Genting Highlands’ safety: not only can they stop criminals and riots, they can also sniff out explosives and – so important for a place so full of hotels – bedbugs!

While #TeamSatpal had a field day with the K9s, #TeamClaire had a blast checking out the Fire Department’s brand-new fire truck and learning about the life-saving work that is sometimes required on the hilltop, where other emergency services might not be able to respond in time.

#TeamMayLee, on the other hand, went behind-the-scenes to learn about the major security units and how they work together to keep Genting Highlands safe. This exciting glimpse at the hidden world of Genting – behind the gloss that the customers see – was just the beginning.

Our second day of assignments was a great ride: and by ride, we mean the sparkly new Awana Skyway cable cars! From riding the glass-bottomed gondolas to following the maintenance crew on their 5am rounds, the teams had full, exclusive access to the safety and operations units that work to keep the Awana Skyway safe and customer-friendly.

The camp isn’t all fun and games, though: the BRATs worked really hard on their stories, photos and videos, which will all be published in the NiE and StarEducate sections later this month.

But that’s part and parcel of being a journalist, and most BRATs love it so much, they come back and intern with us!

Once a BRAT, always a BRAT, right? And you guys from the Genting December camp, welcome to the #BRATsFam!

These BRATs not only learnt multimedia journalism from the award-winning R.AGE team, they also lived the #JournalistLife and went on exclusive assignments! — Photos: SATPAL KALER

— LIM MAY LEE BRATs assignments go behind the scenes! #TeamMayLee pose with Megat Ariffudin, Awana Skyway’s assistant technical manager, who gave them an exclusive tour of a gondola garage, the maintenance site for cable car gondolas.

— CLAIRE ANTHONY BRATs also get to practise their new journalistic skills by interviewing personalities and then producing stories, photos and videos!

Who let the dogs out? #TeamSatpal were given special access to check out the Auxiliary Police’s K9 Unit at their training centre – which is not something the public usually get to see.