NUS Teach Singapore (Teach SG) student mentors Giovanna Maria Santoso (Year 3, Biz) and Muhammad Juraimi (Year 1, Computing) muse about the challenges they had to face to organise a learning journey for their underserved young mentees.
“We worked with two constraints – finding a suitable fun activity for a varied age group of 24 participants from the age of seven to 16, and ensuring the activity encourages interaction among the players,” recalls Juraimi, the team lead for Teach SG x Yong-en Care Centre community project who was responsible for curriculum and programme planning. Juraimi adds: “In the end, we decided on laser tag as the activity to allow our mentees to interact with one another from people outside of their age group during the regular mentoring sessions.”
With the “end in mind” concept, Juraimi had envisioned the desired outcome of his mentorship experience is to co-create a conducive and supportive network at Yong-en Care Centre even after he ends his volunteering journey with the community partner. “It’s my hope that even when Teach SG mentors are no longer physically present at the Centre, our mentees will remember the deep connection and supportive relationships they have built with one another during our time here.”
“Through play, children learn about themselves and their surroundings. Play teaches our mentees to talk to their friends, to abide with rules and develop their social-emotional abilities,” says Juraimi. There are so many ways to learn, and by embracing learning through play Juraimi and his team of five were able to plan the 12-week long programme for their mentees.
Preparing for the big day out
Administrative paperwork such as collecting indemnity forms proved to be one of the biggest challenges for Teach SG mentors when organising their learning journey. “Some parents had difficulties signing the form digitally while others did not manage to respond within the given deadline,” says Giovanna. Together with the Centre’s staff, Ms Kamisah Osman and Ms Tammy Lim, Teach SG mentors had to individually contact parents of mentees to explain what the special programme entails and to ensure these forms are signed in order for their children to be able to participate in the activity.
Chicken rice and run
On Saturday 20 April 2024, everyone at Yong-en Care Centre were visibly excited to participate in the learning journey that awaited them in the afternoon. Regular mentoring session were held from 9:30am to 11am, before lunchtime. “It was especially difficult to get our mentees to focus on the academic coaching session as they were more interested in talking about laser tag! What a relief as we knew we picked the right activity!” quips Giovanna.
Meal times are good times. Eating together helps children to unwind and relax!
“Mentees, mentors and volunteers alike wolfed down their chicken rice lunch at 11am,” says Juraimi. “We could feel the excitement in the air, of something thrilling about to happen.”
For many mentees, midday breaks serve as necessary and timely opportunities for mentors to check-in with their mentees. “These one-to-one casual chats give us an insight to how they are managing at school, home, and other aspects in life,” says Giovanna. The Teach SG team mentors could not agree more that fostering lasting friendship with their mentees begins at both work and at play.
Shortly after lunch, a 40-seater chartered bus took the group to FunEmpire HQ where play happens. Says Giovanna: “Some of our mentees were scampering to explore the indoor, neon space-like laser tag arena even before the pre-activity briefing by the facilitators.” She observes: “Our mentees strategise as a team to outmanoeuvre the opponent team. They bonded over the thrill of the game till the final whistle.”
Briefing by game facilitator ensured mentees knew what to expect during the game.
Giovanna recalls an endearing moment when she realised that one of the more introverted mentee broke out of her shell to “shoot and score” and enjoyed the game. The mentees showed great enthusiasm about resilience amid competition and the ability to accept setbacks in gameplay.
A newfound confidence
Being able to eat, play and learn from their mentors have had an emotional and psychological effect among the 24 mentees that day. Giovanna notes: “As mentors, embarking on a learning journey with our mentees is not just about planning and organising activities, but about creating meaningful memories that foster connections.”
With the intention of widening respective mentee’s social circle, Giovanna and her team intentionally formed groups of mentees comprising varying age groups to encourage cross-level interaction and brother-sisterhood.
As subsequent projects are created under the banner of NUS Teach SG, Giovanna reminds mentors to have open dialogues with their mentees to create a ‘brave space’. She explains: “one-to-one check-ins with your mentee bring up reflective moments that are important for their personal growth. You can delve into their thoughts and extract valuable lessons – and over time they learn to process their emotions and become more confident.”
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