Lessons from distant shores
Jessica taught Ugandan students through her internship with Japanese NGO Ashinaga
Two NUS students decided to take the road less travelled and venture beyond their comfort zone to make a meaningful difference to the community during the Summer 2015 term break.
Jessica Koh Huey Yee, a Year 2 Global Studies major from the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) was the first intern from NUS to visit Uganda while Year 4 FASS student Tan Hui Zhen was part of the pioneer batch of Environmental Studies students who went to Timor-Leste.
Jessica joined Ashinaga Uganda, a Japan-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) established in 2001. Ashinaga is a movement founded by Mr Yoshiomi Tamai in 1967, which subsequently became an NGO, to provide educational support for orphans in Japan. In 2015, Ashinaga Uganda set up its first Kokoro Juku (The School of Hearts) residential facility to provide educational support to university-aged students. It aims to groom African students to be future leaders in their respective home countries through sponsorships of studies at top universities in the US, UK and Japan.
Jessica helped to tutor students from more than 15 different sub-Saharan African countries on Scholastic Aptitude Test and/or International English Language Testing System topics, which are required for entry to these overseas universities. Taking on the role of a "big sister to the young students, she also worked with her fellow interns to design an intensive six-month curriculum for the study camps held at the Kokoro Juku.
Her eight-week internship moved Jessica deeply. "The scholars' optimism, ambition and astounding confidence, despite their harsh living circumstances, have been utterly moving and inspiring, she recounted. "My humbling experience with Ashinaga Uganda has drastically altered my outlook towards life.
Hui Zhen (second from left) having fun in the family-owned rice paddy fields during the homestay with her Timorese friend
Across the globe, Hui Zhen was working as a Policy Analyst with Conservation International in Timor-Leste over a period of eight weeks.
Conservation International aims to empower societies to care responsibly for nature, global biodiversity and the well-being of humanity through partnership with stakeholders and field work and generate global solutions to the world's most pressing conservation issues. As a relatively new country, the Timor-Leste government was looking to implement conservation and environmental policies that would preserve its pristine biodiversity and ecosystems; and Conservation International hopes to craft these policies with the government.
Hui Zhen was tasked with drafting an Environmental Policy Roadmap to address the current gaps in environmental legislation, based on the identified overlaps in current policies. She analysed reports and policy documents from the government, NGOs and development partners, as well as conducted interviews with stakeholders from civil society and the government to capture challenges in natural resource management. Hui Zhen eventually generated a report with her analysis, with suggestions on how the policy gaps could be addressed. Her work will be continued by her colleagues in Conservation International.
One of the highlights of Hui Zhen's internship was her participation in a species survey on Atauro Island, a little island off the north coast of Timor-Leste, which has never been formally studied. The Conservation International team, who unknowingly discovered three new species of reptiles, aimed to use their survey results to encourage the Timorese government to designate the island as a protected area.
The students had embarked on the i-Intern programme, administered by NUS International Relations Office, which is designed to provide students with greater international exposure and an early induction into the global workplace. These international internships enable students to see the world from a different perspective in the hope that they become more adaptable and culturally sensitive individuals.
By the NUS International Relations Office
