Service Learning
Ten teams comprising 20 staff and about 160 students embarked on overseas service learning projects to Thailand and India this year. In honour of their work in mapping and documenting a popular tourist trail through hilltribe villages and scenic vistas, one of the teams, EcoTrail, won a Merit Award during the National Youth Service Learning Awards 2006.
Locally, as a year-long project with Sunlove-Marsiling Neighbourhood Link, RP students adopted two blocks of one-room flats, looking into the basic and social needs of over 800 families. With the support of students from the Gaming Interest Group, a computer laboratory was set up in the void deck and children and the elderly were taught how to use the computers.
Students from the Service Learning Club collected old books to build a mini-library for children at Woodlands Care Corner. Pre-school kids from low-income families were also taught to read by our students under the regular KidsRead programme run by Marsiling Community Centre.
To encourage even greater engagement of students with the community, a Local Community Service-Learning Fund (LCSLF) was launched this year, providing S$500 in seed funding for student-initiated projects. Six projects have begun or are in the pipeline.