NGO Partners for 2012 Program

We are privileged to have Grameen Foundation, Dialogue in the Dark, and Diamond Cab be part of our program next year.  Info on last year’s NGO projects. 

Experiences from the Program: helping students discover their potential

“I have learnt that while I manage to make quality comments, I should be assertive in taking charge of situations.” – Exeter graduate going to Princeton

“I also appreciated the fact that we weren’t assigned homework; if we wanted to get work done outside of the program, we had to sort it out ourselves. I found that this made our group more independent (the members as individuals, and the group as a whole).” – student from United States

“I had never imagined that they [the facilitators] would treat this so seriously. From the comments and words they had for us, I had a feeling that they could almost look straight into our hearts. They didn’t just give us random, general reflections, but gave us advice based on who we are deep inside.” – Heep Yunn student, grade 10

“I learn how to speak more confidently and express my views without prompting. My English speaking skills has also improved in these two weeks.” – Heep Yunn student, grade 10

“The leadership skills I learnt are practical. I came out of it thinking how I could apply them on my daily life.” – Heep Yunn student, grade 10

“This is the place where I can get honest and practical feedback” – Heep Yunn student, grade 10

“It made me see leadership from different perspectives than just telling people what to do” – student

“I found out my tendency in decision-making, which is to rely a lot on my feelings. This enabled me to have more integrated considerations in the future.” – student

“I’ve learnt that we/being a leader need to care about all of our teamates, try to understand their weakness and strengths and do the best to support them. ALSO, taking initiative is really important!!!” – student

“I learned that i lack confidence and this program made me realize that i should value my talents and i also came to the realization that i should try and suspend more + connect all the information before i speak (suspending).” – student

“Many thanks for your terrific program this summer.  I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard [child’s name] mention how much he got out of your program.  I understand that his team may continue their efforts for Diamond Cab, which would be great.” – Parent of CIS student

“Thank you for everything.  [child’s name] find your program inspiring and exciting so far. He talks about his experience every day during dinner.” – Parent of HKIS student

“Leap Studio has created a dynamic and thoughtful space for young adults to stretch the bounds of their thinking, to challenge their pre-conceived notions and within that context, to lead.” – Jennifer Meehan, CEO, Asia Region and Co-Head of Programs and Regions, Grameen Foundation

“I really love the Chillies team.  They show such initiative to contribute for DiS [Dialogue In Silence].” – Anthony Pang, GM of Dialogue in the Dark, affiliate of Dialogue in Silence

“The proposal prepared by Chillies team …we can’t imagine it were came from a group of young people, is awesome and professional.” – Fiona Wat, Dialogue in Silence (social enterprise serving the deaf)

“Their real actions did make social changes of barrier-free lives with Diamond Cab!” – Doris Leung, CEO Diamond Cab (social enterprise for wheelchair users)

“We were impressed with the pricing research, online approach and consignment strategy that they came up with all by themselves.” – Judith Tse, Founder of Bits to Bloc

“The thought that a simple idea can excite and inspire students to work to better the world, inspired me.” – Aamir, Junior Facilitator from Boston University

“Many students displayed an intelligent maturity toward one another, which was very rewarding for the facilitators to see.” – Joanne, Junior Facilitator from Harvard University

“I learned the importance of being able to connect with complete strangers at a more rapid pace as well as the value of being able to “let go” of the situation and let the pieces fall where they may.” – Unsoi, Junior Facilitator from Cornell University

First Program a Success!

Our inaugural “Young Leaders of Tomorrow” summer program was successfully completed in Hong Kong this July.  We had 33 students from local, international and overseas high schools such as Heep Yunn, CIS, HKIS, DBS, DGS, Exeter, St. Pauls.  Three outcomes worth highlighting

1. Every student was engaged throughout the program.
2. Our students’ work on their project with NGOs far exceeded ours and the NGO Leaders’ expectations, for example, producing a touching stop-motion video to promote the concept of “up-cycling”

3. Students learned about themselves and working with others.

In our world of rapidly increasing complexity and uncertainty, we need to equip young hearts and minds with courage, creativity, and diverse abilities, so they have a better chance of becoming leaders who can address our world’s fundamental issues.  This program is one of our contributions towards that societal need.

The program helps high school students cultivate leadership skills, service mindset and inner awareness, working with each other and local NGOs, with the guidance of facilitators from Ivy League schools.  We had faith that a program focusing on Leading in the Real World using cutting-edge experiential learning methods would be highly effective, relevant, and complementary to existing school & ECA offerings.  Our experience from the program supports that belief.

We received excellent feedback – 100% of students would recommend the program, several students “can’t stop talking about the program” at home (from parent’s feedback), and NGO Leaders are continuing to work with our students directly.  For more info, check out our Testimonial page.

Our First Program – in Video