To inspire young people to be changemakers of tomorrow, the Lien Centre of Social Innovation(LCSI) works closely with youth in its changemaking programmes and initiatives, such as its annual Summer Associates Programme, which was conducted virtually this year in light of the COVID-19 situation.

The programme, spanning June to August 2020, saw six students from the Singapore Management University and Yale-NUS College joining LCSI as editorial associates, and marketing and communications associates, to create valuable content and boost the visibility and profile of the Centre in the thought leadership space.

This year, the students’ main project was to launch the #GetWideAwake initiative, one of LCSI’s ongoing campaigns to drive social consciousness on Instagram. The objective of the campaign is to challenge apathy and celebrate the power of small ways to make big impact.  This is at the core of the Lien Centre’s mission and vision: to drive social consciousness and enable partnership-driven innovation. 

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A total of six summer associates (three from SMU and Yale-NUS College respectively), alongside a team of three SMU student assistants, worked on the campaign, providing support in terms of background research, and the design of posts and Instagram stories. The social issues raised so far include Domestic Violence, Animal Welfare, Sustainability and Body Image/Mental Health.

To-date, their efforts on social media, which included a #GetWideAwake Facebook contest, have attracted more than 7,500 visits to LCSI’s flagship content platform Social Space, and added more than 230 new followers to the LCSI Facebook page. The number of user-generated #GetWideAwake hashtags is also growing; an encouraging sign of interest and engagement from the public.

The Summer Associates Programme was supplemented by a series of online masterclasses to impart practical skills in copywriting, journalism, videomaking and visual design. Along the way, the summer associates also received regular mentoring and guidance from their supervisor and opportunities to engage with other LCSI team members.

The internship culminated in a final presentation to the LCSI team, during which the summer associates reflected on their learning journey and showcased a highlights video they produced.  

Ginny Hwang,  a second-year Yale-NUS College undergraduate, said, “The Lien Centre offered me a unique opportunity to explore my interests in content creation and marketing, as well as gain more knowledge about the social innovation sector. I was excited to do my part in amplifying the Centre’s work and encouraging meaningful discourse around social issues.”

Andrea Tong, a fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Marketing at the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business, shared that the internship heightened her awareness of various social issues and made her recognise her part in making positive changes.  “For instance, I learned a lot about sustainability in fashion during my course of research, and have become a much more conscious consumer as a result. These days, when I purchase apparel, I will read the product label to see if the garment was made ethically and whether the fibre used is harmful to the environment.”

Isabella Nuñez, a third-year undergraduate majoring in Anthropology at Yale-NUS College, said, “Social impact is about using your position (be it in work, school, or society) to disrupt harmful systems of power, and acting as an agent for equity and inclusion. This internship gave me a safe space to examine these issues and offered a platform to give voice to important causes.”

Coco Dong, a fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Marketing and Finance at SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business shared that the internship allowed her to develop her passion in changemaking. She said, “I’m very interested in various social causes, so I’ve always wanted to support vulnerable and marginalised groups by raising awareness about their struggles.”

Hana Kameike, a third-year undergraduate majoring in Philosophy at Yale-NUS College, said, “Through my work at the Lien Centre, particularly the interviews I conducted to better understand people’s diverse reactions to the COVID-19 circuit breaker, I developed skills that can help me articulate social issues and in turn, help more people in my community become more socially conscious.”

Daphne Toh, a third-year Psychology and Strategic Management major at SMU said,

“Joining LCSI was a good opportunity to put my knowledge to practice, educate myself on social issues and also heighten public awareness through marketing and communications.”