YOUTH IGNITE | Empowering Taiwan's Next Generation

The Mustard Seed Mission's "Walk an Extra Mile" training program is designed to recruit university students to provide companionship to MSM sponsored children and students. This will help to equip them with the necessary skill set during their 4-year university life. The tasks they are given in the second semester of their first year would be to encourage the children to brainstorm as a team, to collectively come up with an action plan to realize their dreams and to implement such plan.

"Playing" is like a dessert for young people to learn and no one doesn't like it! Through the game of "Social Issues In Ten Seconds", each group write the social issues they observed on post-it so they can share the topics observed by other groups and allows them to actively participate in discussions. The "Social Observation" game allows them to focus on the formulation of an action plan to realize their dreams. During the discussion, it is apparent that every young person is unique. Some are good at thinking, some are good at integrating different opinions, while some are good at expressing themselves who are the types suited to be leaders. They showed diversity and work collectively to achieve the goal of "strengthening ability" of the course. Everyone's potential is fully utilized, and passion ignited. There is a sense of hopefulness!

Through the game, students learn to share and discuss the social issues observed by each group, they then select from the whiteboard the topics that the team wants to change and discuss an action plan to implement it. When students realize that the society is full of issues which they can make a difference, through the guidance of the youth trainer, the group leader lead the discussion and reach consensus so they can discuss the effectiveness and significance of the action plan with more focus. "What are we going to do to realize the dream?" "What can we do?" "Can someone help us?" We saw how the students evolved from directionless to what they want to do at the beginning, to gradually focus and started an action plan and the energy spread within the group. We saw the unlimited potential of these children!

Through numerous team discussions, it started bringing changes to these silent young men. Some began to provide their own ideas, some exercise their talents of arts. They learned to communicate with each other, teamwork, collaboration, management and how to pitch their dream-realization action plan to other team members, to respond to the questions raised by teachers and students about their proposal, the ability to write a proposal, to think and react on their own, to communication, etc., these are the soft power important not only in their university coursework but also in their future career!

"To change the world, start with me", small dreams can change the world, whether it is "I want to reduce plastics and garbage in the ocean to protect the environment", or "Start with your own community to raise the awareness of environment protection of the general public." Through the actions of young people, we hope that they will influence the community and the society alike, to connect and interact with the outer circle, to change society from where they are. We also hope that this will help young people to see their own advantages and value.

Amid life transitions, walk one more mile with the young people! The Mustard Seed Mission (MSM) launches "Walk One More Mile!" initiative, a 4-year empowerment program for college students. MSM has long devoted to poverty issues of underprivileged children and served more than 4,000 disadvantaged Taiwan children via child sponsorship program. For those underprivileged teens graduated from high school and pursuing for higher education, "Student Leadership Camp" was held to develop their capacities and self-efficacies, aiming to equip future leader through a positive interaction environment and empowerment courses.

Chang Hong-En, Director of MSM Youth Development Department said, " When Bill Gates shared about wealth gap, he mentioned environment has huge impact to personal interaction." That is the reason why the "Student Leadership Camp" brings in the concept of critical thinking of John Dewey, an American educator and philosopher, guiding students to practice thinking, perceive problems, and bring out the possibility of problem-solving and innovation.

Chen, a freshman in a university, has received MSM's help for 6 years, said he got a breakthrough by the critical thinking training through listening, nonviolent communication, teamwork and cooperation during the camp. He hopes he could apply what he learned to make changes and is willing to share with others. Kevin, another freshman, receiving MSM's help since 13 years-old, is also impressed by the critical thinking training. He was a team leader in the program and he is thankful that he could experience how to handle the pressure, face the problems, and overcome the difficulties in a safe environment even though he didn't lead the team to reach the goal.

The four days "Student Leadership Camp" guides students to create positive connections through a video "Homeless reversed her life - a miracle in Brooklyn, New York" and then leads students to organize a charity action for the community which builds the student's capacities during the implementation, such as making a plan and raising fund. By serving people in need in the community, students are transformed into givers from takers, and becoming influencers with social impact and are able to walk forward in life.