Sokchea SAING conducted training to select the best student

ACE conducted training to select the best student for a one-year scholarship

During three years of the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodian people faced big hardships. Most of the people in country lost everything in their life—not only their property, but even more vital things, including their children, parents, relatives and education. There were more than 2 million people killed by the Khmer Rouge. This event has an effect on the new generation in Cambodia. Most of it happened 30 years ago, but in that time, people only wished to survive and have food in their stomachs.
Anyway, now many things have changed in Cambodian society. People have started to pursue their education again. Education is a key to open people’s mind to thinking and learning something new to improve their life and develop the country. There are many universities in Phnom Penh. At the same time, there are students who love studying and study hard, but they don’t have a chance to attend those universities because of their family situation. This is especially true for students who live in the countryside and want to continue their studies but lack sufficient funds to support their stay at schools in Phnom Penh.
Thus, the Attitude Centre for Education wants to help them to achieve their dream and their wish. ACE has created the Attitude Dormitory. The Attitude Dormitory will provide some students a place to stay, so they can afford to save some money to pay for school. Students who will live in the Attitude Dormitory will also get a year scholarship for leadership training, called the Attitude Forum. The forum has four sessions; one session lasts three months.

There were 30 candidates participating in the Attitude Forum on June 20, 2009. There will be 10 students living in the dorm in the future, 4 girls and 6 boys. This was the first time the forum was so serious because we conducted it to see the behaviour and attitude of the candidates. We really want to help students to do everything. This is a foundational objective for all students, so we plan be strict in the process. The following article will provide details about what happened in the Attitude Forum.


There were 30 candidates. They come from different universities and provinces. Two of them were NGO staffs from Sustainable International School, the Kompong Speu province. First of all, Synoeun did a presentation and announced the rules of participation. The Attitude Forum started at 8:30 a.m. They had two hours for lunch break and finished at 5:00 p.m. Sokchea gave a speech to the forum and did a presentation about the Attitude Center for Education. Attendees asked questions about the Attitude Forum or whatever they wanted to know. It seemed like they were really interested in knowing for what major purpose ACE provides the Attitude Forum.

An open mind was the first thing that we talked about. To start our forum, that was a good way to show how to open their minds, and it made the attendees understand the process more easily. Participants did comparisons to themselves.

Participants paid close attention when we talked about family situations. Many attendees have had problems with their family. Many of them live in a poor family. After some of them shared their own problem that had happened in their family, Sokchea recommended, “Put your effort into your work. Don’t always carry it with you.”

“I don’t know who I am. This is a very important part of my life. Who will I be? How far can I go? What am I going to do to achieve my dream?” said Channak.
“If interviewers from one magazine talk to me, I will tell them that I am now building the future leaders of Cambodia. This is a strategy to improve Cambodian society,” said Sokchea.
In addition, attendees also get a chance to practice what they have learned by writing a letter and putting their entire problem on paper. They can also take this chance to show their compassion or apologize to parents or family. All of them wrote down their conflicts. It was very hard to remind about the mistakes and bad events that had happened in their life. They read their letters to the forum. They made promises to the trainer and everyone in the forum. “I am appreciative after having shared my entire problem to the class. Starting from this minute, I’ll change myself and family,” said Mony.
We can see that after attendees shared and got some comments, they will bring new things back to their life and family.
Many people have difficulty improving their life because they are doing something that they don’t realize. The Attitude Forum’s intention is to change people’s attitude. Most participants accept what they have done. Many of them made many mistakes because they are at a young age. After completing the forum, everyone saw the value of the course. They know exactly what they are going do to be a potential young leader in Cambodia.
Date: July 18, 2009