Bettering Education through Social Entrepreneurship
“The 10-month experience taught me to work harder, serve better and learn faster. It made me better as a person, I’ve learned my weaknesses, shortcomings and flaws.The exposure I gained in mentorship and event organization made me discover my ultimate vision in education. In the future, I hope to further empower underprivileged students and nurture talented individuals through entrepreneurship.”
During the Fellowship year, Sonam (Fellow 20-21) have witnessed a lot of struggles and difficulties many underprivileged students face in the process of learning, like the lack of resources or an underdeveloped ability to learn. In addition to academic struggles, he has also observed a lot of non-academic challenges ranging from family issues, financial difficulties to special education needs (SEN). Being more empathetic and understanding is one thing that he has learned throughout this Fellowship. Sonam’s start-up project, Stargazers, was inspired by his university experiences in case competitions, consulting and entrepreneurship. The Fellowship made him wonder if providing practical skills training and opportunities to students who lack exposure would be beneficial to their growth. For instance, being able to consult and work with a real company or social enterprise to solve their problems is one direction he is exploring.
Throughout the Fellowship experience, Sonam has also gained a lot of exposure from mentorships provided by TFHK from Grosvenor to The D. H. Chen. More importantly, he has also co-organised LCE activities with EY, FactSet, and Grosvenor to provide students with business exposure, CV writing skills and office visits. This made him realize the importance of exposure and non-academic learning. It inspired me to launch his third social enterprise, TimeTutor, to focus on providing students with exposure and learning opportunities.
Sonam’s future plan is to work as an entrepreneur focusing on the education and fintech. The Fellowship pushed him to work harder and be more resilient and brave to take an unconventional path --- entrepreneurship. He has been working at my training consultancy company, Stargazers Consulting for a year prior to the commencement of my Fellowship. Additionally, his other fintech start-up, Parentvestment, has been admitted to the Cyberport CCMF program which will be launched in 2021 Q4.
Sonam’s ultimate goal in education is to empower underprivileged students to do more and not be limited by resources or upbringing, and at the same time nurture talented individuals who can do better and influence the world. Having these students in mind, he envision a society where everyone’s talents are developed and nurtured so they can have their talents honed when they reach adulthood. Sonam also aspire to change the norm that students have to fit in certain roles in our society rather than spending the time and effort to discover their innate ability and talents prior to university or entering the workforce.