Self-reflection as a Talent Camp mentor…

Last month I got an opportunity to participate as one of the mentors of the Talent Camp — A Social Innovator project held by the company where I’m working, Sekolah.mu. There were 20 different groups with 19 other mentors. I worked intensively with ten passionate Indonesian youths selected in Beasiswa Indonesia Maju. The mentees came from different parts of Indonesia, such as Bali, Banten, Medan, Bangka Belitung, Central Bengkulu, and others, which made all the discussion sessions fruitful. As a mentor, my goals are to guide, advise, and support my mentees in designing social innovation projects. Later on, the mentees must present their social innovation proposal to the juries.

At the beginning of the mentoring session, there were many problems within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) topics. Therefore, I tried to dig into the issues that caught their interest and guided them to narrow down their focus using the Design Thinking approach. As a result, my mentees and I concluded that equality in education was the most-raised issue. After exchanging ideas, conceptualizing interview guidelines, and conducting interviews, our group decided to answer a question:

How can we help youths aged 12–15 in North Medan who can’t go to school due to financial problems?

We reached the point where we did brainstorm to find a solution. The mentees gave many creative and out-of-the-box ideas. It was an eye-opener for me how they had these ideas at a young age. During ideas selection, I challenged my mentees with two questions: Can this solution be applied to our target group? Can it effectively answer our main problem?. Finally, our group decided to create a project called Pena Bumi Putera with three offered solutions offered:

1. Create a socialization program for the existing educational funding assistance for students and parents in North Medan

2. Call for donations (money and books) to build a library and learning space in the area

3. Organize volunteer teachers who can help the youth to learn the primary subject at school, practicing life skills, and introducing a variety of future jobs.

Preparing the proposal and pitch deck, as well as pitching the ideas were very interesting processes. Firstly, I could see that my mentees were trying to participate in this project in various ways. There were long discussions in tune with the perception of the solution. After that, we broke down each proposal’s step and simplified it into a pitch deck. Finally, the two mentees who decided to present the pitch deck had a practice session where other mentees and I gave feedback and advice on the presentation.

After our long and valuable process, we had gone through, Pena Bumi Putera was chosen as the 1st winner of the Talent Camp — Social Innovator project on the final pitch day. As a result, they received the financial support to implement the project or cooperate with other organizations with the same value that can help them implement the project.

As their mentor, I feel so proud of each of them. It’s not only about winning the project; it’s about the learning process they’ve been through. I appreciate all the ideas and different perspectives they shared, their perseverance in managing their time to study at school and work on this project, and their passion for learning. I am also amazed by all the social innovation ideas other groups presented; it inspires me.

This mentoring program also reminds me that

Innovation doesn’t always have to be related to technology because not everything can be solved with technology. Some problems needs a contextualized approach. The more important is to find the most suitable way to solve the problem of your target group. We always have to focus on our target group.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn as a mentor and met amazing Indonesian Future Leaders.

To end my story, I’m going to share the powerful closing statement by my mentees during their pitch day

“ ‘If a poor child can’t come to education, education must go to them’ That is why we , Pena Bumi Putera, are here providing education equality to the future generation of Indonesia.”