Bridging youth with ideas

WITH its tagline 'Bridging People With Ideas', InteresThink 3: Causes And Ideas seemed like just another networking event.

The day-long event on Dec 12 at the National Library sought to encourage organisations and individuals to generate ideas and events for causes to benefit society - social entrepreneurship and radical, cross-disciplinary collaborations, among other things.

InteresThink did not target any specific age group. Yet it attracted youth aged 25 and below, who formed the majority of its 100 or so participants.

That was a pleasant surprise for its organisers - entrepreneur Kelvin Quee, 24; teacher Lisa Lee, 28; industry relations officer Malcolm Chen, 24; and Nanyang Technological University students Naveen Srivatsav and Satkunarajah Pratheepan, both 22.

Said Mr Quee: 'It's encouraging to see so many young people turn up. It shows that they care enough about society and desire to make a difference in others' lives.'

The organisers have good reason to be optimistic: The number of participants has grown steadily since Interes- Think's first started in May last year. About 50 attended then; in February this year, the number grew to 80.

Many of the youthful participants were either keenly interested or already dedicated to social and political causes outside of school or work.

One of them was Kishan Kumar Singh, a 22-year-old life science student at the National University of Singapore. An avid follower of education-related issues, he jumped at the chance to volunteer to be trained to teach male sex education in secondary schools.

His reason? 'I think there is insufficient proper sex education for males in schools.'

Another, Natalie Tai, 17, a student at Raffles Junior College, is already a veteran of online network groups dedicated to raising public awareness about poverty in Singapore, and also ethical consumption trends, a topic she wanted to find out more about at InteresThink.

'It was refreshing to see people spontaneously speaking their minds,' she said. 'It's also encouraging to know that there are others who believe in the same things I do.'

Some were sceptical though. Singapore Polytechnic mechanical engineering student Ng Chew Yee, 20, expressed doubt as to how much action could be spurred after one event.

But Mr Srivatsav said the event still gave youth a chance to act on good intentions. 'We don't want all talk and no action. So after firing people up, we give them the means to act.'

Perhaps all society needs is for just one person to act upon a cause. That could pave the way for others to join in.

The writer, 22, is an honours student in history at the National University of Singapore.