Students
Story and experiences
Students
Story and experiences
SMU Freshmen Orientation Volunteering Project
In Collaboration With Singapore Management University
While university orientations are usually seen as the time for mere fun and games, Singapore Management University’s Centre for Social Responsibility (SMU C4SR) aimed to go above and beyond this typical programme. In 2025, SMU C4SR decided to integrate a half-day volunteering segment in their orientation programme for over 1000 participating freshmen, imbuing them with a heart for the community.
As an experienced leader in the social sector, Bamboo Builders was brought on to help coordinate efforts for the programme. On SMU C4SR’s behalf, Bamboo Builders liaised with over 30 Social Service Agencies (SSAs), creating volunteering activities for students and beneficiaries and ensuring a smooth execution of the overall event.
AT A GLANCE
1163
Student Participants
1811
Beneficiaries Impacted
>80
Social Service Agencies
AT A GLANCE
Why Building Social Enterprises?
Learn Tried-and-Tested Social Entrepreneurship
Methodologies
Develop New ASEAN Friendships
Gain Exclusive Access to Social Entrepreneurs from ASEAN
Gain Career-Relevant Skills and Experience
What Goes On?
Programme Outline
Online Session | Hands-on Project Activity
Conducted in international classroom setting
1
Social Entrepreneurship in ASEAN
Understand how PES factors influence social enterprises differently in different countries.
2
Empathy in Social Entrepreneurship
Understand how empathy impacts the way we view both customers and the social issues we try to tackle.
3
Creative Problem Solving
Understand how to craft business ideas that solve real customer needs in ASEAN.
4
Final Presentation
Learn how others have built on similarities and exploited differences to produce innovations.
Fajris Zahrotun Nihayah
Indonesia
"I urge you to not hesitate because it is actually a very fun program! There are so many things that you could learn from this program and meet people from different countries - you get to know the insights of many social causes or many social problems around the world. So join in, it's very fun!"
Nattanich Lecksiwilai
Thailand
"This program gives me many inspirations to initiate my own social enterprise (to help with) Thai people's livelihood.
I will definitely use Design Thinking and also (my) great experience from this program to start my own social project!"
Yit Kang Yordan
Singapore
"My experience of going through the design thinking stages is going to stay with me for a long time to come. It might even colour the way I approach some of the problems that I face, the way I address or ideate problems nowadays. The process, the framework, and the learning down when it comes to thinking of solutions."
Yew Jun Huo
Malaysia
"I would say that it is meaningful, the experience, even though this exchange was quite short for me. It brings a lot of impact, for example, I got to collaborate with different people from different backgrounds and countries. From here, I got to learn from their perspective of looking at particular issues around the world."
Goh Si Xuan Kymberly
Singapore
"It was an unexpected experience because I signed up for this without much expectations with what I was going to go into or get out of this program at the end of the day. To be quite honest, initially, I thought this program was to learn about the business aspects behind social entrepreneurship. But somehow it became creating my own social entrepreneurship project with a bunch of other teammates from the other ASEAN region. So I thought that was quite interesting that I got to network with other teammates from the ASEAN region so I thought that was quite interesting. Tt was quite fun overall, to meet like-minded people who are passionate about social issues."
Our Approach
Our Testimonials