SYC Alumni (Cambodia) on Newspaper

SYC Alumnus in Japan

"I participated in Sun Burst Youth Camp in 2004. Recalling about SYC, I remember that at that time I was just only inactive girl, very shy, n keeping quiet most of the time. My expectation from SYC was only fun n traveling experience as I had never traveled abroad. More than I could say, throughout the whole program, experience I gained was greater than my expectation. Remarkably, I could make a change on myself, particularly, from inactive girl to proactive girl. All activities of the program unconsciously inspired me to be a leader of a team work, how to deal with upcoming challenges, especially cooperation of teamwork. After SYC, I found myself more active n sociable especially in intercultural communication. In additional, what was memorable moment of the program was cultural night when I could learn about culture of other participating countries through their dancing performance. Surprisingly, I could dig out my talent in performance, n my creativity which is hidden potential I have never recognized before. From my point of view, SYC has been significantly influent on youth life; not only did I gain friendship from other friends, but also the lesson learnt from team work. Since then, I am more inspired, enthusiastic, and interested in youth activities and intercultural communication.

Until 2006, I applied another Youth Program called Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program. After this program, I become more mature mentally and spiritually in term of leadership skill and youth role for social contribution. After SSEAYP, I become more interested and involved in youth volunteer activities actively. For instance, Sun Burst Youth Camping program in Shihanok Vill, organized by SYC Alumn, is one of the most memorable experiences. What I really like about the program is the activeness of youth, their creativities, mutual understanding and helpfulness.

From all experience I earn from participating in youth activities build up and broaden my perspective on youth roles for social development. Though my contribution I involved are all at low level and do not have great impact on social development, I felt positively that if youth are aware of their role and start to help society from small thing, sooner or later, a big change will happened for our society. From now on, I plan to be involved at higher level. To make this happen, I think the only way is to build my capacity at first. That is the reason why I apply for scholarship. It is my dream since I were at high school. I admit that for me, applying scholarship is time consuming process as I wait and try a few times to make myself ready. A lot of challenges come to me especially between my job and study. I find myself hard to get scholarship, but later, I build a strong commitment to myself that I must get scholarship. Since then, I put all my effort to prepare my study plan, and collect all information related to different kinds of scholarship that suit my ability. Eventually, my commitment and hard work provide a great achievement, which is my current scholarship. I believe everyone can achieve their dream too if they work hard and build enough commitment for it, like one proverb I always appreciate is “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” I hope this proverb can inspire youth to work hard for their future and country."