Before 2020, if anyone had suggested to Ms Priyansha Thapa that she would one day become a student mentor, she would have laughed in their faces.

The 19-year-old Nepali, who is studying Precision Engineering at ITE College Central, used to “dislike socialising and communicating with people” and wasn’t enthusiastic about taking part in school activities. Her personality, she says, didn’t go down well with her classmates.

But she soon saw a 180 degree transformation in herself after she joined the FRENZ Programme in 2020 as a mentee.
 
She became more outgoing and willing to open up to others instead of keeping her thoughts to herself. She also became more attentive in school and her grades improved.

Today, she has even become a passionate FRENZ mentor who shares advice to her peers and encourages them in their studies – a journey that she says her parents are very proud of. 

Priyansha’s teacher had nominated her class for the programme at a time when she was going through a tough patch. Due to border closures, her parents and younger sister were stuck in Nepal, leaving her to fend for herself alone at home.

“I found it very hard to cope when my family wasn’t around. I felt overwhelmed and it caused me to lose touch with reality,” she admits.

At first, Priyansha was resistant. “I thought it was a waste of my time, as it clashes with my personal time and I just wanted to go home and sleep away the rest of the day.” 

She felt “awkward” during each session and the only thought that crossed her mind was “When is this going to end?”.

But things took a positive turn very quickly for Priyansha. After only three sessions, she was soon won over by her FRENZ mentors and the engaging, interesting activities they conducted in “a vibrant ambience”.

Encouraging social interaction and empathy among ITE students, as well as helping them to improve their grades, are some goals of the FRENZ programme. It falls under Project bITE (Bestari ITE) by non-profit organisation Malay Youth Literary Association (4PM). The non-profit organisation supports the social and welfare needs of the Malay-Muslim community and invests in youth.

Project bITE was launched in 1999 to reach out to Malay-Muslim ITE students facing issues like irregular attendance, the risk of dropping out, and having a lack of motivation.

Making FRENZ more easily at school

For Priyansha, one of the more memorable FRENZ activities involved being randomly matched with her peers to form teams and build whatever they fancied with Lego blocks. Before this, she had hardly spoken with some of the other participants but as they had to cooperate with one another on the project, she started to interact and even joke with them. During the session, they ended up building a structure that they think best represents how decisions can have long-term consequences.

On the unexpected positive outcome of joining FRENZ, she shares: “I ended up getting along well with them and we had so much fun and laughter!”

FRENZ now has about 200 participants from all walks of life in the Year 1 NITEC classes across all three ITE Colleges. It is also one of the many programmes supported by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) through the fundraising efforts of the Community Chest in the social service sector. Last year, the NCSS helped empower more than 8,000 children and youth.

Priyansha reveals that in class, she can feel “excluded” sometimes. “But at FRENZ, the mentors made sure everyone was participating and I felt I was included in everything and I liked the interaction with the mentors. My mentors had bubbly personalities and made it easy for me to communicate with them. I started opening up to them and also to my classmates who were in the sessions too.”

She adds: “With FRENZ, I feel like I have another family who loves and cares for me now.”

One of her favourite mentors was Ms Syafiqah Zainal Abidin, whom she refers to affectionately as Kak Schya. 

“Priyansha has a bubbly personality and positive energy. She is dependable, likeable and helpful. She was always enthusiastic and would encourage her classmates to share ideas openly,” says Ms Syafiqah.

From reluctant mentee to passionate mentor 

Motivated by her time at FRENZ and her mentors who created a strong family-like bond with the participants, Priyansha signed up as a mentor herself in 2020, the same year when she first became a reluctant mentee.

One of the other reasons why she became a volunteer was because she wanted “to be heard and validated”.

She had to undergo multiple training sessions, which include learning effective mentoring techniques and managing challenging situations with mentees, throughout the year before she became one of FRENZ’s mentors. These include former beneficiaries like Priyansha, ITE students and graduates, and young working adults.

Is it awkward for a 19-year-old to be guiding other young people – and fellow schoolmates at that? The once-disenchanted student says that she can relate better to her mentees since they are of the same age group.

She now takes time off her busy school schedule, spending at least two hours on weekends, to facilitate activities like day camps and dragon boating sessions.

More than the group activities, Priyansha regularly checks on her mentees and reminds them that not everything has to be about their studies but that they can learn lessons from everyday life too.

Read more stories like Ms Priyansha Thapa's in the Stories from the Heart page. NCSS has launched Stories from the Heart in celebration of its 30th anniversary. The page features a series of 30 heartwarming stories featuring the work of SSAs, volunteers and service users.