Fellowship Initiatives (2/6) - YouthEX

Hi! I am very excited to share about YouthEX because this is still an on-going initiative. We are having our national conference next month! And you can be part of us! Please continue reading to find out more.

WHAT is YouthEX?

The theme of this year’s conference is “What I Want For Malaysia”. During the half-day event, students will listen to great TED-style speeches delivered by their peers and guest speakers*. On top of that, the students can participate in interactive activities to express their opinions and contribute to the topic.

*List of Guest Speakers TBC. Currently, we are trying our very best to make the guest speakers list as awesome as possible.


WHO is behind YouthEX National Conference?

YouthEX National Conference is organized by a group of Form 3 students from SMK Taman Nusa Damai, Pasir Gudang, Johor, who are passionate about driving changes in Malaysia.

This group of students attended a 4D3N YouthEX Bootcamp in July 2018 and learned essential 3Cs - Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity and project management skills from the alumni of the Axiata Young Talent Programme. They had their booth during the TFM National Conference 2018 and were also one of the breakout sessions’ student speakers too.

I can go on and on about how amazing they are but I think it's best for you to get to know them through their perspectives. So, do check out the YouthEx Instagram account and the YouthEx blog. The students manage the accounts and write all the blog posts. You can get all the latest information from there.

YouthEX is the brainchild of Janet Khoo, a 2017 fellow who is currently teaching in SMK Taman Nusa Damai, Pasir Gudang, Johor. Along with her two collabs, Arsyad Azrai and me, we are aiming to create a safe platform for the students to express their opinions and exchange ideas with youth from all over Malaysia.


HOW can you be part of YouthEX National Conference?

Since both the teachers and students are new, we do not have enough money. Therefore, we are asking for your help to fund us for our conference. We only have less than a month to raise RM2,000.

We do not ask this easily, but without your help it is unlikely that this conference would not be what it could.

It doesn’t matter how much you are willing to give us, we will be extremely grateful. By funding us, you will also contribute towards making our dream conference come true. 

If you fund us, you will get a free pass to our conference and you will also receive some goodies sincerely from us. Most importantly, you will make an impact and create a better future for the students, the younger generation of Malaysia. 

The details of the conference are as below: 

📍Date: 10 November 2018
📍Venue: Educity , Iskandar Puteri, Johor
📍Time: 9.00 am - 2.00 pm

If you wish to fund us for our conference, please bank in any amount to the bank account below:

Bank: thank you to all who have supported us
Account name: thank you to all who have supported us
Account number: thank you to all who have supported us

Please write ‘YOUTHEX Conference’ as a reference for us to keep track.

You can also support us by attending our conference too ✌

Concluding thoughts

To be honest, as an adult and a teacher, the 3Cs or the project management skill are old news for me. It's great that I can use this opportunity to hone my skills, but my biggest takeaway from YouthEX remains to overcome my fear of asking for help. Be it partnership or sponsorship, I have always felt shy to approach people and ask for help. 

However, throughout these few months of working with Janet, Arsyad, and the kids (yes, even the kids!), I am truly amazed by how bold they are in approaching stakeholders and working out a win-win plan with the stakeholders to each get the resources that they want. 

I don't think I can rise up to their standards overnight, but I think I will do my part and take baby steps towards seizing opportunities and making differences. If you decide to support my students and I financially, we will be very grateful of your help. If not, please still keep us in your prayers. We can plan and ask all we want, but God is the ultimate provider and He governs all. 

Thank you for reading. Hope you have a nice day. 

Fellowship Initiatives (1/6) - Introduction

Memory is the residue of thoughts.

This statement is proposed by Daniel Willingham in his book, "Why Don't Students Like School?" As the statement suggests, we only remember the things we actually put our effort in thinking and processing.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. And to help me better remember some of the beautiful moments I experienced during my two years fellowship (January 2017 - December 2018) with Teach For Malaysia, I have decided to create this series of posts. 

I cordially invite you to join me in this reflective journey.

For the past one and a half year, I had been a full time teacher and a part time student. (As most of you know through FB or IG, I graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Education in August.)

On top of that, a TFM fellow is also required to run initiatives for the students and the local community to address their needs or to develop their potentials. That being said, I have yet to see any TFM fellows who run projects solely because they are required to. Most of us see an issue in the school and we want to work with the community to tackle it. Or we have something that we are passionate about so we want to share it with the students.

I have been fortunate enough to involve in both types of initiatives - need-based initiatives and passion-driven initiatives. Some of it which I played bigger roles as planning and executing committee, while some I joined as an accompanying teacher.

This series of posts consist of six entries in total. You can access to these entries through the links attached as follow: (I will update the links as I upload the entries.)

Part 1/6: Introduction (this post which you are reading)

Part 2/6: YouthEX

Part 3/6: Accenture Kickstart 

Part 4/6: Local Focal 

Part 5/6: TFM Annual Conference

Part 6/6: Chinese Class

The TFM supporting staff introduced us to the concept of writing redemptive stories, stories which show how struggles and challenges resolved in growth. Redemptive stories are the opposite of contamination stories, which are happy stories tainted with pessimistic ending.

I am not too sure how my stories will be. But be it redemptive or contamination, know that I am still trying to process some of these happenings as I pen down my thoughts. As I am doing so, I shall try my best to be honest with myself, and with you.

With that being said, I hope you will partake in my joy and sorrow as you spend your precious time to read through these entries. Thank you. And welcome aboard!