NUS nurtures future-ready students by providing a broad-based curriculum, interdisciplinary courses and lifelong learning opportunities. With an emphasis on service learning, an educational approach that combined classroom learning with community service, students can choose to work on existing community projects or design their own projects.
Teach Singapore (Teach SG) is one of the community projects currently available to NUS students. The programme is a university-wide initiative that kicked off in 2021 with the aim of involving NUS students to provide academic coaching and mentoring to children and youth from lower-income families.
From August 2022, the university will introduce the Communities and Engagement pillar, as part of its General Education curriculum that will provide students with a more holistic education and encourage students to think beyond themselves and serve the community better.
NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye said: “We thought that our undergraduates can be a role model, big brother or big sister, to students from lower income families. And our hope is that by giving them exposure to what could follow after they have completed their secondary school, their junior college, could inspire them to work much harder towards getting a university education.”
During Nathaniel’s weekly sessions with his mentee, Lewis Lim, he makes sure to set aside time for both study and play. Fiona Tng, the Deputy Director of Brighton Connection where Lewis attends its youth mentoring programme said: “During the first few meet ups, Nathaniel was very intentional in building rapport with Lewis. We observed that Lewis has gotten more eager to participate in social activities.”
Witnessing changes in Lewis’ behaviour, she added that he is more outgoing as compared to before.
Reflecting back on his volunteering experience, Nathaniel said that the activities have helped him grow as an individual and taught him how to show care and concern for others.
“I wanted to volunteer as a mentor as a way of giving back, to do whatever I can to help the younger individuals out there. There’s really more to life than just myself,” said Nathaniel.
For over a century, we at NUS have proudly nurtured generations of leaders across multiple professions and sectors in Singapore and beyond, who have taken on many of the world’s challenges in service to society.
Watch the full CNA series 'Innovating for the Future' to learn about our thriving community of academics, researchers, students and alumni from different fields and disciplines who are working to catalyse change and uplift lives in areas ranging from medicine to entrepreneurship, environment to finance, food to public health, innovation and research to ageing and education.
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Images: CNA Innovating for the Future, Ep 9: Education
