Thank You, NUS Buddies

Ms Mabel Wee Im Neo, Principal, Geylang Methodist Primary School

It is good for my pupils to have buddies from NUS. As they do not have the chance to associate with high calibre schoolmates, they feel so proud and privileged to have these university students as mentors to coach them in their schoolwork and be their companions. It really helps to boost their self-concept.

The mentors have presented themselves as wonderful positive role models and they fill a void in the mentees who are mostly latchkey kids from EM3. They have lots of time on weekends and mentoring has kept them meaningfully occupied on Saturday afternoons. That�s good! They are also thrilled to be taken out by their mentors to various places, example, watching �Fantasia� at the Singapore Science Centre, and attend courses such as public speaking, lantern making, agar-agar making, social and folk dances etc. Their wonderful and imaginative mentors have certainly opened up new venues of possibilities for purposeful mentoring activities. I want to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to them and to encourage them to keep up the good work.

This is a true story of my BP-NUS mentoring experience over the last two years. Although, it did not make great changes to my mentees, but it left a great impression on me.

Last year, I had a mentee Spencer from Geylang Methodist Primary School and to be honest, I found that I gradually grew attached to him.

Spencer was a mischievous boy and he would not listen to our mentors. He liked to do his own things. We had to switch a couple of mentors to attend to him until I managed to get close and gain his trust.

After being his buddy, at every mentoring session he would approach me and asked me to play with him. Spencer began to share and open up to me, he would tell me what he does outside school (and believe me he is mischievous and he mixes around with bad company).

When Spencer sees me walking into the school, he will run towards me and hug me. Then he will hold hands and we walk to the classroom together.

During one of our mentoring sessions, he brought his Star Wars stickers collection and he gave me some of his stickers. There was one sticker which he liked very much, but he still gave it to me. I was so touched by his sincerity.

There was once when we went for an excursion to the Science Centre. He told me that he wanted to sit with me on the bus and during the bus ride he told me, �I think you are the best Kor Kor around.� My heart felt like melting. I did not know that I made a great impact on him.

There was another occasion when we organised an outing to Pasir Ris Beach, I was supposed to meet the group at the MRT station. According to the other mentors he kept asking them, �Where is Izam? Where is Izam?� � Our mentors were getting tired of answering him. When Spencer saw me at the MRT station, I saw a smile lit on his face.

Unfortunately, just when he was about to tell me about his �external friends� and his activities, his mother pulled him out of the scheme. I felt that he was beginning to open up to me and I could have made a difference. I was disappointed when his mother pulled him out of the scheme.

Mentoring does make a difference to someone�s life and it fosters good relationship between mentors and mentees. Sometimes words are not enough to describe how one feels, however I understand how it feels because I have been there and done mentoring.

The name of the mentee in this story has been changed