Coming Together As One Family - 01 Jun 08

While most of the youths on this island were still under their blankets on Sunday 1 June, we were already up and enthusiastic about the day that laid ahead of us- our Chapter Induction Session with our parent and siblings of the SIP family.

It was the first time we came together at The Lab at *scape Youth Centre and we were both eager and excited to discover more about SIP, what we can do as a student chapter, and get to know new friends from the other student chapters- all these in the hope of achieving something for our society together.

Evelyn, Lifiah, and Yenni with their materials after registration

After an ice-breaking game was played to warm us up with each other, SIP Project Manager, Ms Sarina Koh, took over with an informative and enriching presentation of what SIP and being social entrepreneurs are all about.

As social entrepreneurs, we are powered by business minds, just like entrepreneurs. But we differ from entrepreneurs in that we create business plans and strategies with the needs of society in mind.

We derive our ideas from, and set our goals at helping people in the society that requires our help. We want to change their lives with our business minds.

SIP, then, is our platform to accomplish that mission. It is the objective of SIP to educate, empower, and enhance us. It is at SIP where we receive guidance and opportunity to take our first steps as a social entrepreneur and discover our own potentials to help others.

Project Manager Sarina's energy was so infectious we loved her it.

After the presentations, we spilt up into groups and brainstormed for ideas to help the vendors at PaTH. With the rule that "no idea is a stupid idea," we extended our antennas and suggestions came flooding in..!

Yenni and EuJean taking a smile break =)

Shh..Pearl's busy writing her ideas!

Final Product =)

Edmund's group presenting their ideas

Following the presentations was an informal chatterbox session with SIM Directors Ms Elim Chew and Mr Khong. They provided us with insights from their experiences and inspiring stories in which we can learn from.

It was motivating and reassuring to know that we are not alone trying to accomplish something impossible. We can always start from something small, learn, and press on. Even Elim's godson is doing something, he's playing his violin at PaTH! =)

The enriching session rounded off with a tour of PaTH market at Vivocity (for a quick recall of what PaTH is all about, go to our entry titled Art with a heART under the February entries). The tour gave us a clearer picture of the products our vendors are selling, which will help us to materialize our ideas for their businesses in time to come, when we officially adopt them.

The last Sunday was undoubtedly one that was special and well-spent. We are now driven with a new purpose, and we know we are not alone.

Some post-event thoughts of our members:

Lifiah:

I now get a better understanding about what SIP is all about:
The idea of Social Entrepreneurship is to help the society and make profit at the same time.
Take the micro-credit example in Bangladesh, it helped people by improving their living standard and getting them out of poverty.
I hope to receive more information about Social Entrepreneurship and grow stronger with SIP together.

Pearl:

I learnt that Social Entreprenuership is different from Entrepreneurship essentially because the intention is different. Social Entrepreneurship is about helping a group of people (for example: starting a dance school in order to teach youths-at-risk dance skills) whereas Entrepreneurship is about making money (for example: starting sinema to earn more money for local film makers who are perfectly abled-people).

Edumund:

I learnt that Social Entrepreneurship has no difference from Entrepreneurship, but extra responsibility- a responsibility towards society that is subjected to the decision maker. Common indicators would be contributed to the beneficiaries

EuJean:

The workshop was a session that members were awaiting, to be educated and exposed to experiences that founders and board members of SIP had.The session enriched our understanding on Social Entrepreneurship, it's intentions, the unconfined methods and the extent of it's influence, e.g. contribution to England's GDP by 8Billion Pounds!

On top of these, we should remember to:

Teach to fish and more importantly, Sell the fish!

"Ideas come upon Ideas", don't underestimate the little ideas!

- It will be enriching if we have overseas trips to learn more about Social Entrepreneurship and the movements around the world.

Poniman:

I’m very happy with the event where I can meet up with the other chapters but I really hope that there could more interactions between the chapters.

Ann:

I learnt that Social Entrepreneurship is unlike charity. Social Entrepreneurs should not feel embarrassed to be financially successful and it can be a career path for all of us. We shouldn't think what we are doing now to be just a student chapter. We should consider this interest to one of long term.

Yenni:

The meeting was wonderful. I learnt a lot of things. such as working in groups, networking. etc. Above all, I now understand what Social Entrepreneurship is all about. The most impactful part was the chatterbox session with Mr. Khong and Ms. Chew. It was very bonding for SIP members. It will be good to have more bonding activities (to increase our sense of belonging to SIP) and talks to enrich our knowledge about Social Entrepreneurship and networking.

Till the next time SIP meets!

We are not alone,

We are, the Global Movement.