Service Learning Singapore

Projects

YOUTH SERVICE-LEARNING AWARD (YSLA) 2009

The Youth Service-Learning Award aims to highlight Service-Learning (S-L) projects that meaningfully integrate youth learning with service to the community. It also seeks to profile and reward innovative S-L projects that successfully engage youth in communities, enhance youth learning through service and empower youths for impact.

CATEGORY 1: Primary Level

Gold Award

Yio Chu Kang Primary School : Service Learning Trip to Vietnam

This outstanding overseas expedition project saw 25 Primary 4 & 5 students contributing to three different homes in Vietnam. Age did not deter indeed, as these young students helped set up water purification system and interacted with the local children. Being actively involved in preparations for the trip, the students also took the initiative to write a letter to Singapore Airlines requesting for excess baggage leeway.

Tanjong Katong Primary School : Serve to Lead, Here and Beyond

This exceptional group of 39 Primary 5 students were organised into various teams to refurbish a school in Batam, plan and lead interaction activities with the local students, as well as conduct research and acquire first hand information on local life and culture. The students also actively solicited donations of toys, books and clothes for the Indonesian school.

Bronze Award

Edgefield Primary School : 'Making a Difference' in Cambodia

To prepare for their expedition to Cambodia , 21 Primary 5 students actively researched and learnt about the Cambodian language and history. Apart from donating books, stationery and uniforms to a local school, the students also shared Singapore history with their host.

Merit Award

Edgefield Primary School : 'Going bald boldly' - Hair for Hope 2008

Through the symbolic gesture of shaving their heads, brave Primary 3 to 6 students helped spur their schoolmates who had gone through chemotherapy, letting them know that there was nothing wrong with going bald and that they were not alone in their fight against cancer. Students also raised money for the Children’s Cancer Foundation by collecting old newspapers.

CATEGORY 2: Secondary Level

Gold Award

Raffles Institution: 43 Storeys

Whilst many of their age complained about the generational gap between youths and senior citizens, this group of five students sought to bridge the very gap using new media. Featuring 43 true life stories of 43 senior citizens captured in video clips by 43 youths, the project was completed in 43 days. The number 43 coincided with the 43^rd National Day Celebrations of Singapore.

Silver Award

Pei Hwa Secondary School : The Jalan Kayu Heritage Trail

This interesting and meaningful project aimed to instil a community spirit through an appreciation of the past. Students researched and learnt about the historical, scientific and cultural aspects of Jalan Kayu, documenting information via different mediums, and even developed a guided walk for visitors to experience first hand the heritage trail.

Bronze Award

Hwa Chong Institution (High School Section): Colouring Lives - Colouring Worlds, Touching Lives

Geared at helping autistic children acquire appropriate skills and social awareness, five Secondary 4 students collaborated with Fei Yue Early Intervention Centre to develop resources that were easily accessible, affordable and applicable to the local context. The team also generated public awareness on autism and raised funds for local non-profit autistic organisations.

Merit Award

Raffles Institution: Internet Café@ChaoYang School

This team of five students set up an internet café within Chao Yang Special School , enabling the special needs pupils to operate a café on their own and learn mainstream retail skills within a safe and familiar environment. The team conceptualised the café, designed the layout, and sourced for suppliers to get the café started.

CATEGORY 3: Junior Colleges and Institutes of Higher Learning

Gold Award

Hwa Chong Institution: ProjectWiTHIN

Project WiTHIN sought to raise awareness about anorexia nervosa, and to encourage students to be more comfortable about their own image, looking beyond the physical construct of their bodies, into their hearts, minds and souls. The team initiated a Wri-THIN-g competition, held exhibits to raise public awareness, organised workshops and road shows, altogether reaching out to an estimated 35,000 people.

Silver Award

Singapore Management University / National University of Singapore : Play It by Ear (Pibe)

Yes, the deaf can play and enjoy music too! This was the message from 4 SMU students, who formed a percussion band of deaf youths. The percussion band went through customised training to perform at events and would go on to raise funds for The Singapore Association for the Deaf. The team hoped to correct the misconceptions the general public had about the deaf community.

Bronze Award

School of Humanities Ngee Ann Polytechnic: A.M.az.E (Accepting Migrants Az(as) Equals)

The project team sought to raise awareness and acceptance of the marginalised migrant community in Singapore . Working with HealthServe, the team documented "Grass Day Out", an event that allowed foreign workers to express themselves through art, produced a video and showcased it at various functions to raise awareness of this community.

CATEGORY 4: Open Category

Gold Award

SPLAT! : SPLAT! In 2008

SPLAT! In 2008 is a public education and fundraising arts extravaganza to encourage the public to accept and offer second chances to youths-at-risk and ex-youth-offenders. The team organized a slew of activities including sharing sessions, musical performances, door-to-door fundraising, public education, dance, drama and visual arts competitions, to inspire community action to support ex-offenders reintegration into society.

Merit Award

Hwa Chong Institution: Inspire '08

Inspire '08 is a student-initiated project which aimed to raise awareness and funds for The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. The creative team launched a Pixel webpage where donors were given pixel blocks to advertise their personal website. The team also organised the Inspire’08 Concert, Inspire’08 Charity Run and fundraising sessions, which involved an estimated total of 4000 volunteers, raising a cumulative amount of $37,000.

YOUTH SERVICE-LEARNING AWARD (YSLA) 2007

The YSLA 2007 recognises and rewards exemplary Service-Learning projects initiated and implemented by youths aged 13-30 years old. Applications were opened for projects implemented between May 2006 to April 2007. 11 project teams received the Award this year and the award ceremony was held in conjunction with the National Youth Sector Conference (NYSC) 2007.

Category 1

Organisation	Project
Gold Award Victoria School	ViSIT - Victoria Science Integrated Tutorial The team created an e-learning portal to help Primary Six pupils overcome their apprehension and difficulties in learning PSLE Science. This interactive online solution took to schools, allowing pupils, usually unable to afford private tuition to have access.
Silver Award Hwa Chong Institution (High School Section)	HIPS UnLTD - A Bloom's Approach The team created a pre- and post-program analysis as well as lesson packages on English Language for Holy Innocent's Primary School pupils. They also compiled a Bloom's taxonomy guide to indoor and outdoor learning for educators.
Bronze Award Nanyang Girls' High School	ChilliCrab - An Authentic Taste of Community Involvement The team promoted the awareness of dementia through a play and made a difference in the lives of the Lions Home residents through interaction. Performances were also put up at more than five schools.
Merit Award Tanjong Katong Primary School	Project Starfish: Prefects' CIP Trip to Batam (Service-Learning) A donation drive was organised to raise funds and collect books to build and upgrade the library in a Batam school. The team also spent some time with the Indonesian children while in Batam.
Merit Award Bedok South Secondary School	Educational Games Galore Four Secondary Three students decided to do something when they realised pupils from the Learning Support Programme (LSP) in Temasek Primary School have difficulties grasping the concepts of English and Mathematics. The team created colourful 3D games to entice them to learn, and in the process, they themselves learnt that small efforts count too, in contributing back to society.

Category 2

Organisation	Project
Gold Award Hwa Chong Institution (College Section)	COLOURFUL MINDS: Service-Learning @ Autism Association Singapore The misconception of Autism can prevent autistic youths from fully integrating into society. The team spent months conducting research and working with the Autistic Youth Centre (AYC). Focusing on the strengths of autistic youths, the team worked with the youths to create and illustrate their short-picture-stories (using a theme of acceptance) which were then compiled and sold to the public.
Silver Award Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Interdisciplinary Studies	"Life for Rent" Conference Polytechnic students organised a conference to raise awareness about the difficulties faced by Filipino foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore after a research trip to the Philippines and conducting interviews with FDWs.
Bronze Award Hwa Chong Institution (College Section)	Bubble with Love The team aimed to raise awareness of hospice care in their school population by developing and analysing surveys on youths' understanding on the subject. They also raised funds for visits to terminally-ill patients.
Merit Award Anderson Junior College	Melodies from the Heart @ Anderson Junior College The team brought together Singaporean and Indonesian youths with disabilities for an inaugural cultural exchange and musical talent showcase. Three performances were put up for both the general public and college students.
Merit Award Service-Learning Club @ National Institute of Education	Project Asha, Sikkim 2006 A team of trainee teachers set up a media corner at the English Language Learning Centre for the underprivileged and destitute children to learn English through music and movies.

Category 3

Award

Project

Gold Award

Inspire '06

20 student coordinators from various institutions garnered the support of more than 2,500 student volunteers from all over Singapore to raise funds for The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. They raised $100,000 for the project with seed funding of only $3,000. The project also reached out to 1.27 million members of the public over 16 weekends, through the sale of uniquely designed soft toys.

YOUTH SERVICE-LEARNING AWARD 2006

Applications were opened for projects implemented between May 2005 to April 2006. 11 project teams received the Award in 2006 and the award ceremony was held during the Beyond Oneself: Convention for Youth Leaders in Community.

Category 1

Organisation	Project
Gold Award Hwa Chong Institution (High School Section)	Leadership Training Roadmap at Eunos Primary School This project was conceived to fill in the need for a comprehensive leadership training roadmap in primary schools. The roadmap developed by the team not only imparts the necessary and relevant leadership skills to the primary school student leaders, but also creates opportunities for them to put the skills they learned into use. In addition, the roadmap covers a wide spectrum of skills that would enable the student leaders to acquire more challenging skills in future.
Silver Award Victoria Junior College	The Milk Project This group of students aimed to raise awareness for the MILK (Mainly I Love Kids) organisation and the Compassion Fund. The project team created a website (www.compassionfund.sg) and a tagline "Compassion Fund: make the heart smile, go the extra mile". They designed a Compassion Fund blog banner for posting on wholesome blogs to increase awareness among youths who read blogs. They also took photographs and edited them for usage in MILK brochures and other publicity materials. A team member wrote an article about their project experiences and the need for donations in the Bao Mi Hua (Lian He Zao Bao) column for youths.
Bronze Award Nanyang Primary School	CARE The primary 5 Gifted Education Program students served a minority group in their school - to make a difference in the lives of foreign students (4% of the school population) studying in the school and visiting students from abroad, by setting up a CARE Buddy System. This is a database capturing the profiles of foreign students and their buddies. The team also designed posters to actively recruit their schoolmates as potential buddies. They organised a bonding session to orientate new buddies and new foreign students, and to provide a platform for cultural exchanges.
Merit Award Zhonghua Secondary School	Serving With A Mission The aims of this project were to raise awareness of MINDS Yio Chu Kang Gardens School programs, organise and conduct an art education workshop for the MINDS students, and exhibit the resulting artworks. In addition, the team raised funds for the beneficiaries through numerous efforts, including seeking sponsorships and selling handcrafts. Throughout the project, the team showed perseverance to overcome challenges.
Merit Award Holy Innocents' High School	Outreach to One-Room Flat Elderly This project was a collaboration with Lion Befrienders. The main objective was to make a difference in the lives of lonely, neglected elderly people living in one-room flats. At the same time, the project provided an opportunity for the youths to gain a better understanding of the needs and problems faced by the beneficiaries and challenged them to interact with them despite the generation gap and language barrier.

Category 2

Organisation	Project
Gold Award Ngee Ann Polytechnic	Be The Light Of Someone's Life The aim of this Work-Integrated-Learning (WIL) project was to impart basic IT skills to the reformative trainees, which would be useful in their future employment. The team conceptualised and conducted weekly IT sessions using programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. At the same time, the team managed to raise funds to set up an IT room at the Prisons Aftercare Supervision Section (PASS). The three-month long project ended with a graduation cum Yellow Ribbon ceremony, where the trainers and trainees shared their experiences, as well as raise awareness of the Yellow Ribbon campaign.
Silver Award Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	Project Deuteronomy This project took a novel approach to reach out to young patients in primary school level who have missed lessons due to their long term illness. The team created videos of Science lessons with themes such as "States of Matter" and "Photosynthesis". These lessons were produced in VCDs and given to the young patients so that they can learn while away from school. The team also posted their video production on the internet to gather feedback from other youths, so that they could improve on it.
Bronze Award