18 MAY - 26 AUG 2017 A three month hard-work to transform the school computer labs into a conducive learning space. Turning an idea into reality!
Update
In January 2018, the Project JomStudy Team was invited by the Global Peace Foundation to speak at an education conference entitled "Moral and Innovative Leadership: Realign the Purpose to Educate."
In October 2018, Project JomStudy was nominated and selected for the HOPE Award 2018 by the myHarapan Youth Trust Foundation in recognition of its beneficial impacts to many students in Sekinchan.
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I was always frustrated by inequality issues in my community. When I entered high school and noticed students from underprivileged background couldn't afford to attend tuition classes. My friends and I decided to help them by setting up a conducive self-learning centre equipped with Internet, computers, reference books, and tutors. That how Project JomStudy started.
We were initially in need of a space for the self-learning centre, so we approach the school Principal to request to use the computer labs in the afternoon as the labs were empty at that time. The Principal were glad with our proposal and gave us his full support.
Immediately, we started doing some makeover to the labs to make them more comfortable and appealing to students. We cleaned the labs, rearranged the tables and chairs, drew some paintings on the tables and wrapped them, set up a snacks station, and borrowed some computers. We even got some free cabinets and office chairs from DHL Express.
As soon as the self-learning centre was set up, we began promoting Project JomStudy to students through a speech, advertisements, and social media. In just the first week, we had received registration from around 10 students. Soon, we grew to having around 35 participants in a few months. As more students were joining the project, we also started to recruit some Form 4 and Form 5 senior volunteers to tutor their juniors with their studies. In the end, we had 8 tutors to help the students out.
Words began to spread out in the community and we received overwhelming responses from the parents and teachers to expand the project. Therefore, we approach a local community centre to make a partnership with the management. We offered our service to help run community events in exchange of setting up another self-learning space in the community centre. Since then, we ran many activities in all centres, including hackathons, reading groups, and maker workshops.
This was indeed a fulfilling experience to me as I was able to help many students who needed support in their studies. As much as I love problem-solving, I also enjoyed teaching students with my knowledge and offered them opportunities to explore more of the world.
Hope you enjoy the blog!
Kok Wei
Gallery
Decorating the tables!
Decorating the tables!
Opening ceremony!
Learning time!
Meet our mentor Mr Giorgio (man in green shirt in the middle) from DHL Express!
Legos!