The PEPY Team Journal

Spreading the Lessons We Learn through Teaching Teachers

25.08.10

By Daniela Papi

We are learning so much here—through our mistakes, our successes, and the people and programs we meet along this PEPY path. The first on our list of goals for PEPY Tours is to "Offer educational tours that inspire people to be more responsible donors, travelers, and global citizens," but spreading that impact without growing our tours too much is a difficult task. As such, we partnered up with Where There Be Dragons, an organization we respect immensely that has set the bar for educational travel for youth, to design the first "Cambodia Educators Course on Development." This course for teachers was designed to model the experiential education approach of both Dragons and PEPY to teachers through the framework of development in Cambodia, and inspire them to then go out into the world and share these ideas with their students.  

File under: Tour Related News

A Morning in Chanleas Dai

25.08.10

By Sopheak Chheng

Sopheak Chheng is a rising senior at Middlebury College majoring in philosophy. He was the first Cambodian to be awarded a United World College scholarship after graduating from high school in Cambodia and spent two years living in Norway.

When he graduated from Red Cross Nordic United World College in 2007 he received a full-scholarship to Middlebury while at the same time becoming very active in Khmer IT development work. He was connected to PEPY via a common friend from PC4Peace and has volunteered with PEPY's IT team this summer. This is Sopheak's first time back in Cambodia in five years, but he plans to come back and work in his home country either after he graduates from Middlebury College or upon completion of a masters program!

File under: Friends, Partners & Participants

Graduating 9th Grade Class

25.08.10

By Sarakk Rith

In 2010, all students who studied in Grade 9 of Chanleas Dai Junior High School felt very nervous because they needed to take a national examination to start grade 10. Many Grade 9 students approached both government teachers and PEPY teachers about what they were worried about. We asked them what subjects they were not sure about, and they told us Math, Physics, Chemistry and Khmer. They told us that they needed our help to review the material in these subjects, so we thought about what we could do for the students.

To help them prepare, PEPY provided a pilot training and review day. The first training that we did was led by PEPY staff. The students’ feedback was all positive. They told us that they really loved the training. After that we decided to provide them with review classes every Sunday leading up to the big test. These training days were organized by PEPY but led by Chanleas Dai’s government teachers. We did this every week, and the students had enough confidence to take the big test.

File under: PEPY News & Updates

CLC art workshop and graduation ceremony- making art, developing ideas

25.08.10

By Maria Hach

When I was in high school, my school holidays were a time for sleeping in, watching television, and playing computer games. Needless to say, my time away from school was neither exciting nor productive! For the 49 students at Chanleas Dai Junior High School who chose to participate in PEPY’s art workshop, however, their month off consisted of all sorts of creative, fun, and interesting endeavors.

File under: PEPY News & Updates

PSDP Team Gets a New Name and Selects a Third Partner School

25.08.10

By Adam Kronk

One thing I noticed when I first started sitting in on meetings with our Primary School Development Program team several months ago was that in the midst of conducting conversations in Khmer, they would have to throw in the English letters "PSDP" on a regular basis. Since this is a program wherein our Cambodian staff engages local communities in taking ownership of and improving their own schools, it hardly made sense to continue using a foreign acronym to identify it. The team kicked around several ideas and in the end decided on Sahakoom Apeewaht Sala—literally, "Communities Developing Schools"—as its new name. In speaking, we have taken to abbreviating it "Saw Aw Saw," the Khmer letters that begin each of the three words. Since not everyone is equipped with software to type and read the beautiful Khmer language, in writing we use SAS. We challenge you to think "Saw Aw Saw" when you read these letters in this and future correspondence from PEPY.

File under: PEPY News & Updates