I’ll never forget. Even as I’m typing this, I’ll always look back and thank my lucky stars that I did whatever I did that day, that not a single action was out of place which would ultimately lead me exactly where I needed to be.

It all started with an optional networking event organised by Singapore Management University (SMU)’s Social Impact Catalyst, a student club focusing on social entrepreneurship and innovation. I had signed up for the networking event weeks before, but I specifically remember being rather busy at that point of time, so I was highly tempted to forgo the event altogether. It was my close friend whom I had signed up with who persuaded me to go with her and I relented, so I (somewhat begrudgingly) met her at school and we made our way to the venue together.

I vividly remember being separated from my friend and sitting with a small, pre-assigned group of students. Various industry leaders rotated among groups to sit in with us, share a bit about what they did and answer the various, pressing questions we had.

Out of all the amazing sharings by the industry leaders about the incredible work they did, the one which stood out the most to me was by Saturday Kids, represented by Shreya. I was in the midst of looking for an internship at that time, and I remember being so captivated by Saturday Kids that immediately after the event concluded, I approached Shreya and expressed my interest in interning here.

She was more than happy to offer me her name card, so I followed up with her the next day via email and the rest was history!

Why Saturday Kids?

What hooked me on Saturday Kids was hearing about Code in the Community, Saturday Kids’ free coding programme for kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Their mission statement was simple, yet exceedingly powerful — “Inspiring kids to use tech to create a better future for themselves and for others.”

“The cause resonated deeply with me – I loved the fact that they recognised the importance and benefits of digital literacy, and they wanted to bring this gift to children who otherwise would not have access to it. I loved how socio-economic differences would no longer be a factor in children having a chance to learn how to code, and that they could grow their soft skills like intellectual curiosity, creativity, perseverance and confidence, through realising that they had the power and ability to build and create amazing things.”

Additionally, as someone running a candle business that supports the Deaf community, I have (very big but lofty) dreams of one day transforming my business into a social enterprise, and I thought that there was no better way of learning the ropes and the makings of a social enterprise than to join one.

And thus, my journey began!

Day Zero

There were several concerns piling up in my mind and daunting me, especially in the days leading up to my first day:

1. This was essentially a coding school for kids, and I had no coding background whatsoever.
2. The fact that as I’m currently studying Business Management with a major in Human Resources, it made sense for me to apply for the role as a HR intern, yet, as there was no official HR department, my desired role did not exist. Instead, I was offered the role of a Marketing and Special Projects (whatever that meant at that time) intern, and I readily accepted as I was just so excited to intern at this amazing coding company slash social enterprise.
3. My first proper internship! What should I wear and how should I dress in a way which shows I’m stylish, yet professional and capable? (Looking back, this is highly laughable as I can count on both hands the number of times I’ve visited the office over the span of four months.)

A day in my life

I would have loved to share that my daily activities revolved around visiting the various classrooms, helping to prepare and set up for the annual open house, physically interacting with children or running around completing miscellaneous tasks like previous interns had experienced.

Unfortunately, that was not the case for me. COVID-19 ruined any possibility of these things taking place, so I worked from home a good 90% of the time.

But I can’t complain much. I cherished the extra hour of sleep on the time I would’ve spent travelling especially when times were busy. I enjoyed meeting colleagues in smaller groups when I did actually go to the office, and particularly liked being able to know them on a more personal level which a larger group setting would likely not have provided. Finally, even when the entire team was working remotely, I appreciated the conscious effort and activities planned which colleagues took to reach out to each other to stay connected and feel a little less isolated amidst the pandemic.

A typical day in the life of an intern during the pandemic comprised of me waking up at 9am to prepare for my weekly marketing meetings at 9.30am, having occasional check-ins with my mentor Yeehui, laying out my tasks for the day, and deciding how and when I would accomplish them.

It sounds boring, I know, that my routine was basically to wake up, attend meetings, do my work, sleep and repeat. But what helped tremendously was the fact that I could find purpose , joy and great satisfaction in my work.

Because I had indicated very high interest for any HR-related task, I remember the type of work I received being very diverse or chapalang, as I like to put it. Even though my stated role was a Marketing and Special Projects intern, I feel like I managed to dabble in a bit of everything, which was a huge plus as I got to experience the best of not just both, but ALL worlds. I was able to try out different tasks which spread across the various fields such as marketing, operations, research, communications, customer service and HR.

“In the working world, there’s hardly any opportunity to able to try out so many roles and see what suits one best, so I really appreciated being given the chance to help out in whichever department I was interested in so I could discover for myself what I liked and disliked about each field, and see what suited my character best.”

At Saturday Kids, you’re never confined or restricted to just one role or job, so you can prepare to try tons of new things and grow your skillsets.”

Barely two weeks into my internship, I remember finding myself helping Ryan who managed Customer Service to call up a list of parents and inform them about our decision to shift the upcoming June holiday camps online following the government’s sudden change in COVID-19 restrictions for enrichment classes. I remember being so terrified to dial each number – what if they got angry and yelled at me??? Fortunately, my worries were unfounded as the parents whom I spoke to were understanding and cooperative. An added plus was that having parents ask me other questions related to curriculum and such, I was forced to find the answers which simultaneously allowed me to learn a lot more about Saturday Kids. Forget employee handbooks, handling customer service is the most effective crash course on any company!

Some highlights:

Looking back, there are so, so, so many fond memories which I amassed over the course of my internship. I could ramble on for another paragraph about how much I love Saturday Kids’ company culture which is nurturing, collaborative, rewarding and fun, and indeed perfect for anyone looking to acquire many new hard and soft skills, and sharpen their existing skills. Unfortunately, I’m running out of words here, so you can enjoy reading about my favourite moments in bullet points.

• Meeting Yeehui, my lovely mentor for the first time and getting to know her better over lunch where she treated me to a bagel at Two Men Bagel house!
• Having a mini photoshoot in office with Amelia as I helped to model for the company’s new shirts.

  That was my first time meeting Amelia in person, and I got to make such a cool, new friend that day.

• Collaborating with Imagilabs, where I worked with international partners from Sweden, Japan and the US to produce some amazing and inspiring Tiktok videos! (Links to come – finally, my hours spent scrolling through Tiktok at night put to good use.)
• Leading my first Happy Hour where I planned Skribbl.io as our team-bonding activity and I received really positive feedback from my colleagues that they had a lot of fun!
• Having calls with my fellow intern Carmen that lasted over three hours because we were tasked to find out everything there is to know about Zoom functions, which later proved to be extremely valuable information for our special project. Don’t get me wrong, the calls were tedious and anything but fun, but Carmen and I bonded over the pain and I’m forever thankful for that.
• Heading down to the office with four others – Amelia, Carmen, Josh and Yeehui – on a Saturday to carry out our special project Ayo!, a virtual edu-tech festival which spanned eight hours. The five of us in office became true Saturday Kids that day, and I fondly remember us having heart-felt conversations as we worked to piece together a jigsaw puzzle during our lunch break.
• The one week that the team got to rest following Ayo! because they felt that we all deserved it. Bliss. Honestly, it really reflects how highly the company values its employees and the work everyone puts in, and that they recognise and appreciate everyone’s efforts, even the “lowly” interns. :”)
• The online farewell party for three teammates where we put together a video montage of their photo highlights and co-workers sending them their well wishes.

  We also had snacks and drinks delivered to our doorsteps (thank you John!)  so that everyone could celebrate their contributions to the company, and then move on to accomplishing even greater things.

• Finally, the sharing sessions during every Friday’s Happy Hour where we got to learn something interesting, be it a story or a skill from a random co-worker each week. I wasn’t there when Ryan conducted a dance class for everyone virtually, but I’m glad that I was there to hear about Shreya’s passion for Indian dance, and Clarice’s resin art business, just to name a few.

Valuable takeaways

1. The importance of networking. I understood this for myself even before I began my internship, and I really can’t fathom how different my life would have been had I not attended the networking event and mustered the courage to shamelessly approach Shreya about internship opportunities. Networking can do wonders for your career and personal relationships, and it is WORTH every ounce of fear it takes to pull yourself together to make the first move to approach someone and strike up a conversation with them.
2. Ask and you shall receive. Be it clarifications for the work you’re going to do, feedback on your tasks or performance, or even for help, ask and you shall receive. It’s a simple enough course of action, yet many don’t actually practice it, and I was guilty of it too. Initially when I was first given some projects to work on, I asked few to no questions about I was supposed to do. I did the tasks according to my own interpretation thinking I could get away with my creativity, but my lack of experience shone through as I ended up having to redo my tasks because they simply didn’t follow certain guidelines or frameworks. Asking questions can be intimidating because you’re afraid of seeming incompetent or hinting that you weren’t paying attention, but it will do wonders because it saves so much time on doing tasks the right way when there’s no miscommunication.
3. Tough times don’t last, tough people with an amazing support system do. There’s no point in sugarcoating the fact that there will often be times at Saturday Kids when work is more than hectic and tasks are piling sky-high. When I look back on those times, I don’t exactly remember each painstaking moment of suffering over a given assignment, drawling over what my next step would be. Instead, I remember texting my intern friends and asking them for advice or help, and even having random calls with them throughout the day just to do our work together and keep each others’ morales boosted.

   Sure, I could have finished my work on my own, but the restlessness and fatigue that we sometimes all shared served to foster camaraderie among us, and I am so thankful that I had friends to lean on for support every step of the way (special shoutout to my intern friends, you guys know who you are!).

4. If you’re looking for an internship here, be ready to grow. Like it or not, Saturday Kids is going to stretch you, and then stretch you even more, so take the time to breathe and appreciate the process. You’re going to learn so many new skills, see your work come to fruition, and also be part of such an amazing social cause. Trust me, you’re going come out of this internship feeling super accomplished and proud of how much you’ve grown. I know I have.

Somewhat new beginnings

All good things have to come to an end …. right? Except not quite.

Even though I didn’t manage to pick up coding during my time interning here, I have decided to come back as a volunteer for Code in the Community. I’m excited to pick up Scratch and Python, but even more so to pass on my newfound skills and knowledge to children who otherwise would not have had a chance at obtaining digital literacy. I can’t wait to meet children with so much ability, creativity and potential waiting to be shown to the world. There’s so many amazing possibilities in-store for them, and I can’t wait to return in October to directly be a part of this movement!

Finally, John mentioned during one particular Happy Hour that Saturday Kids is like family — no one ever really leaves even though they may graduate from it.

And for that, I’m ever thankful that I got to be a part of the alumni club.

The post Interning at a coding school for kids with zero coding background, and a role irrelevant to my major. appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

When we first interviewed Joshua (introduced by way of former gap year intern Sandra) back in February, we knew that he was a hungry, self-motivated learner. But what we didn’t expect was the curveballs that COVID-19 would throw at us, and what he would take upon himself to learn in the process. Here, he shares what it’s like to intern during a global crisis, and his takeaways from from working and learning in a time like this.

Unexpected lessons from interning during a global crisis

My first priority in university was completing a meaningful internship. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I was excited about the opportunity to dive into actual campaigns and understanding how marketeers’ minds work. And so, as a young and curious university student, eager for a taste of the real world, I took my first step with Saturday Kids.

Since I began my internship in March, it’s been eye-opening – not least because recent escalations have placed an interesting twist on work at Saturday Kids.

“Our consumers’ needs and preferences are evolving almost completely, and so is the business landscape.”

There’s no shortage of news discussing the implications of an economic downturn. And though I’ve learned about what that means in school, experiencing it at the workplace is a whole other ballgame. Along with the uncertainty of how things will unfold, the curious side of me is excited to see how companies will navigate this situation.

Being an intern at such a time as this teaches me so much more about business; there’s always something new to learn everyday, or a new angle of looking at things.

While these times are challenging for everyone, this evolving climate presents an opportunity for learning and insights, like these:

1. Growing to be more self-reliant and dependable
   

   As someone who’s most productive working in offices or cafes, working from home was something I had to learn to adapt to. Distractions are plenty at home, but what kept me grounded was the will to learn and improve as much as I can so that I can give back and offer valuable contributions to the team.

2. Managing independence and communication
   

   Working apart from my colleagues was a little intimidating in the beginning. Having your peers around in the office gives you a sense of security – you can always conveniently check with them for direction and gather feedback promptly.

   

   While online communication tools like Slack still allow that, this new (for me) working dynamic encourages me to be extra independent and resourceful with work.

3. Getting comfortable with ambiguity
   

   At a startup like Saturday Kids, there’s not much hand-holding, and often, a part of me feels unsure of how to begin going about my work when given a new task. Yet, a larger part of me feels it is this setting that will build me up to better contribute to the workplace and the world in the future. Great personal development only comes outside of your comfort zone after all.

To anyone who interning at this time or about to embark on their first internship, here’s my advice:

Take this time as an opportunity to build yourself up. There is so much you can takeaway from virtual meetings or casual discussions with your colleagues. 

Most companies are switching things up in some aspect or another to adapt to the situation so there’s always something new to learn every day. 

Moreover, remember that every hurdle you face on your internship is an opportunity to not only become better and stronger at your craft, but to cultivate your outlook in life too. It more than just completing tasks, it’s about building character.

. . .

Joshua Simon is currently a digital marketing intern at Saturday Kids, a student at the University of Birmingham, a fitness junkie and aspiring entrepreneur!

Do you have feedback on this post or insights from your own experience to share? We’d love to hear from you.

The post Unexpected lessons from interning during a global crisis appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

Here are just some of the perks of working flexibly…

1. Designing work to our team’s strengths.

   Everyone has different working styles, and our team is a motley crew of independent workers with their own distinct quirks. Working flexibly means that everyone gets to work to their strengths without feeling constrained. Perhaps you prefer getting deep work done in a park, or in a windowless room, or in our beautiful co-working space Found8. It’s all right by us as long as the job gets done and your team is supported.

2. To spend your time on things that matter.

   No one on their death bed wishes they’d spent more time at the office. Time saved from daily commutes opens up possibilities for your team to pursue passion projects, spend time learning something new, or just doing whatever they want. We like to think that this has enabled us to explore a wider range of interests and experiences outside of, and as a team, we’re much better off for it.

3. It opens the door for more talent.

   Because we work flexibly, we benefit from having talented and experienced parents on the team who might otherwise have chosen to stay away from the workforce in favour of staying home with their young kids. While it’s not at all easy to juggle raising kids and work – even when you work from home – this makes it a little bit easier for parents to pursue the various things that matter to them.

We think that these 3 benefits make flexible work worth pursuing. And yet, implementing flexible work arrangements really isn’t as simple as signing off on a memo – it’s got to be designed into the way a team works, and on an even deeper level, integrated into a company’s culture.

Here’s what’s helped us make this possible:

1. Technology and more specifically, software as a service.

   Perhaps it goes without saying but a flexible working arrangement like what we have now could not have been possible before the days of the internet and the tools we use today that enable us to communicate, plan, design and collaborate wherever we are. As a team, we’re fuelled by online workplace Notion, messaging tool Slack, spreadsheet app Airtable, digital collaborative canvas Padlet, and of course the Google suite. That, and lots of passion, hard work, and resourcefulness. But more on that later.

2. Daily stand ups.

   At any time, our team of 14 big kids could be working out of 14 different places. Stand ups are brief ‘meetings’ involving all team members where they share their progress, constraints, and what help they need for the day. Doing daily stand ups online (via Geekbot!) helps us check in with each other wherever we are, manage our team’s workload, and provides a snapshot at any time of what we’re committing our energy to. In short, stand ups help keep us all in sync.

3. That said, the real secret sauce is our team.

   Just as our mission is to transform every child into a curious, self-motivated learner, we look for the same qualities in our team members as we hire and grow. All the tech and productivity hacks in the world wouldn’t make a difference if our team members were bent on gaming our flexible work privileges to settle for the bare minimum. And thankfully, we’ve found enough big kids driven by the same big mission.

Not all businesses or organisations are in a position to work flexibly or remotely, and we’re fortunate at this time to be in a position to do so. Shout out and much gratitude to the people running critical services that keep the world turning at this time – the janitors, medical teams, transport officers, postal workers and more. Not all heroes wear capes, and often many of us even make the mistake of taking them for granted.

What’s your experience working flexibly been like? What’s helped your team thrive on flexible work arrangements? We’d love to know!

The post Why and how we’ve worked flexibly since 2012 appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

There are 2 things about me you should know.

Firstly, being a kinesthetic learner and a maker by heart, I have always believed in hands-on learning and was never a big fan of an education system that forces you to memorize.

Secondly, I love kids! 

So when I was scrolling through job listings on my university’s portal, it wasn’t hard to decide what to do for my summer break the moment I landed on the Saturday Kids website. The idea of hands-on coding and building stuff with kids really called out to me, as it would give me an opportunity to teach kids the way I believed teaching should be done.

My main role at Saturday Kids was as a rocket launcher – developing curricula and assisting classes.

To do this, I regularly put myself in the shoes of a child to experience the curriculum we built. This could be challenging given the newness of the type of learning we were trying to pilot. For example, working on the project-based drop-in curriculum for Explorer Pass, I helped to design self-directed courses that were highly intuitive; this made me more empathetic and understanding of kids abilities.

The first night before I assisted my first class, I repeatedly went through the lesson material, trying to figure out all the ways I might screw up during a lesson. What if a kid cried? How if parents asked me tough questions? But once the lesson actually began, the kids were so cute, I threw away all my worries and started enjoying myself.

Teaching is a tiring process, but at the end of the day, when kids presented their projects, knowing that they created what they did as a result of what we taught them was the most rewarding feeling in the world.

Happy faces after wrapping a holiday camp!

I’ve come to believe that teaching is one of the most important jobs in the world because of our proximity to kids, and the privilege to provide guidance as a role model. What we do during those hours of class is really important – as an educator, what we teach is an incredibly powerful tool to equip students with the knowledge, skills and wisdom they need for life.

Interning at Saturday Kids has been nothing short of an amazing journey, and I don’t think I could have made a better choice for my first internship. Special thanks to Shawn for taking care of all of us, to my fellow interns who I were amazingly in sync with, and last but not least – to my mentor Huda, who was always there to lend me a helping hand!

Summer interns and the rocket launchers from Saturday Kids.

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At Saturday Kids we’re always on the lookout for interns and rocket launchers to be a part of our weird and wonderful team. If you’re excited about tech, passionate about education and love working with kids, let’s connect here!

The post Launching rockets fresh outta school – Stephen Alvin on his summer interning at Saturday Kids appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

“I like being a kid because I don’t need to go to work.” several kids answered.

How do we feel about children already recognising work as a non-attractive activity?

I used to have the same thoughts as these children. I thought working was like being in a cage where birds cannot fly. Not only because of the lack of space, but also because they’d lost their wings.

A shot from a community which Momo spent time in, in Thailand.

So I went my way. I led a simple life in a community in Thailand for a while and explored my own world, until one day, I realised that my heart was drawn to a small group of orphaned children who were excluded from local schools. That was the first time I recognised inequality in education first hand.

The teenagers believed that they only had one choice for their lives – collecting trash and selling it to a recycling centre to make a living.

How will kids have dreams without role models showing them the possibilities for their futures?

When I stayed in a different village in the southern mountains of Thailand, I asked the children from this village to draw their dream houses. All of them drew solar panels and home-biogas digesters in their pictures. Their village doesn’t have electricity, so the leaders of the village invented off-grid ecosystems for the inhabitants of the community.

These two experiences gave me clarity about the importance of nourishing the future generation.

I then saw from two perspectives: one without adults mentoring children; the other with a community educating children. It was quite obvious how different kids’ visions for their future then were.

In my opinion, Saturday Kids creates communities that are similar to the one in the mountains, which gives innovative ideas and positive impact for future generations.

At the wrap of the first ever Saturday Kids Japan summer camp!

For almost one year now, I’ve been involved with launching Saturday Kids Japan. When I met the Saturday Kids Singapore team for the first time, my first impression was “relaxed but professional”.

I used to think professionalism was about people who used posh words, sent messages without emojis, and wore formal clothes, but the Saturday Kids team proved to me that professionalism doesn’t come from any of that. My impression was that Saturday Kids values, attitudes and beliefs are so vivid that people naturally try their very best to make things happen in the organisation. That organically brings professionalism into the culture.

After several months of “working” with SK team, there was a moment when something lit up the path to my dream. Until then, I believed that my values and the business world could never come together. The Saturday Kids spirit made me realise there is beauty in both worlds, and that they can co-exist to create a greater impact in the world. That’s how I found my role in ameliorating inequality in education.

Kids in class at a refugee camp in Greece, via Happy Caravan.

There is an organisation called Happy Caravan that serves children living in refugee camps in Greece – starting this October, I will be involved with Happy Caravan as an executive director.

The children who come to Happy Caravan are survivors who have faced many life challenges. When I imagine the children who made or will make their way to European schools, my heart aches and starts to feel nervous.

Are they ready for that challenge? What can Happy Caravan do to prepare children for these challenges? One of the responsibilities of Happy Caravan is to be a light amidst the challenges faced by the children, their families, and their community. Happy Caravan has a vision to start more schools all over the world, and to one day give access to education to children like those in the orphanage in Thailand as well.

Kids taking part in an experiential exercise at a refugee camp in Greece, via Happy Caravan.

Messages from the Saturday Kids manifesto stayed with me and gave me confidence when I struggled throughout this journey of launching SK Japan. Those values are essential to becoming compassionate leaders.

My life could be a bridge between the worlds. I believe that the spirit of Saturday Kids will stay with me wherever I go. I will keep having fun, being relaxed but always having professional performance. “Work” can no longer be boring because we make it fun.

One day, I would like to see children who learned at Saturday Kids and Happy Caravan become compassionate leaders who create a positive impact on society.

No children deserve to be left behind. We are the example for the next generation.

Let’s build communities that are curious, inventive, and resourceful wherever we are.

Momo was part of the (very small) team that launched Saturday Kids Japan earlier this year. As lead instructor and project manager, she designed robotics and programming classes for non-native English speakers to learn soft skills, trained new instructors, and helped to bring our dream of enabling Japanese kids to stay curious and have fun learning a step closer to a reality. And earlier this year, she volunteered with Happy Caravan to teach classes based on the Saturday Kids curriculum to kids in refugee camps in Greece.

While her departure leaves a “Momo-shaped hole” in our organisation, we couldn’t be prouder of the work she’s done and the work she’s about to do for kids in challenging circumstances. We’re excited to support her on the next phase of her journey at Happy Caravan, and hope the Saturday Kids community will too!

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Learn more about Happy Caravan, a Dutch-registered non-profit organisation founded by Dutch and Syrian volunteers, here. You can support Happy Caravan’s work to provide kids with a safe environment, education, creativity and fun through a donation or volunteering your skills too! Connect with Momo via email at [email protected] to find out how you can help. 

The post “I am a Saturday Kid. Not a worker.” – Momo on education, community and impact appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.