Community Outreach
Project Flare
Project Flare aims to provide disadvantaged students with public speaking education through accessible courses, and curated resources. Project Flare partners with Grace Orchard School serves students aged 7 to 18 who have been diagnosed with Mild Intellectual Disability (MID), some of whom also have Mild Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Beyond learning the power of speech, learners will be equipped with essential 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, effective communication, and collaboration to prepare them for the future workplace. As the founder of the project, I am greatly involved in the strategic planning, and oversight of the project as a whole. I have taken much pride and effort to curate a strong Founding Team (3 Founding Members), a competent Executive Committee (6 EXCO Members), and a dedicated team of volunteers (21 Volunteers).
(ii) Weekly Lessons with Grace Orchard School (GOS)
Through these 8 sessions, students were taught how to deliver and be confident in their declamation speech. Students were also taught how to analyse the speeches of their peers to give feedback. In the process, this allowed them to understand the importance of rhetorical devices, and become more familiar with the various elements of a speech. By the end of the sessions, students were more confident in delivering a speech independently, and were able to deliver a one minute presentation using the various rhetorical techniques learnt over the year.
(i) Public Speaking Workshops with Grace Orchard School (GOS)
Through the 4 sessions, GOS students were taught the importance of effective communication, learning how to identify and make use of key speaking techniques such as ethos, pathos, logos, in order to improve their ability to communicate with others. The format of the lesson was especially curated to the needs of the GOS students - minimal frontal learning, with more emphasis on hands-on practices and real-life examples. At the same time, after each session, we also took into account feedback from both the ACSI and GOS teachers in order to improve their lesson, and make the lessons even more effective for the students.
Project Reperio
Project Reperio conducts lessons and fun activities for Rohingya refugee teens aged 14-18 in Malaysia. Project Reperio partners with Cahaya Surya Bakti, a non-profit organisation in Johor Bahru. The academics section focuses on providing beneficiaries with free tuition to support their education, while the non-academics section focuses on teaching our beneficiaries a range of skills from drawing to sewing to video-editing. This dualistic approach seeks to provide beneficiaries with a holistic education and impart skills that will be useful to them. As part of the EXCO in charge of the publicity department, I am greatly involved in curating Project Reperio’s branding. From creating Instagram posts to organising fundraising events, my work within Project Reperio is extremely critical. Moreover, I also take the extra step to be involved in other departments, such as through teaching non-academic lessons, or helping out with the Reperio Roses initiative. This helps me to better appreciate the inner workings of the project, aiding my ability to effectively publicise the project, while allowing me to personally grow through these acts of service.
(i) Reperio Roses Fundraiser
Reperio EXCO rolled out Reperio Roses fundraiser initiative, which focused on selling roses to students on Valentine's Day, with all proceeds going to funding mobile data for the students in Cahaya Surya Bakti to be able to Zoom call for lessons. Altogether, the initiative had a profit of $900, all of which have been sent over to the students in Cahaya Surya Bakti.
(ii) Academic Lessons
Conducted weekly sessions teaching students basic mathematics. For instance, a lesson on mathematical operations focussed on place values, negative numbers, and number ordering. This lesson was extremely useful as it allowed students to identify if one number is larger than the other, especially when it comes to negative numbers and numbers with decimal places. Relatable real life examples were also added (such as explaining negative numbers using the concept of money and debt)