Learning from Those Who Are Ahead of Us

On Thursday 1st February, PEPY Empowering Youth organized Kralanh High School for the first Sharing Event of 2018. We invited two guest speakers –SET Hattha and Dr. Gnel Rattha– who kindly donated their time on Thursday morning to share their experiences with more than 250 students and 6 teachers in Kralanh high school. The students are inspired to learn from the speakers about their successes and challenges that they have encountered in their life.
SET Hattha is currently an author, just publishing her first book, “The Test of Life”. She also has lots of experiences related to Web Programing and online marketing. She graduated from Passerelles Numériques Cambodia (PNC). On this occasion, Hattha shared life, study and work experiences. She dropped out of school twice and each time she managed to get back to school with the inspiration that education can change her life and it did change her life. She emphasizes with the students that “Dreams awaken us every morning with great energy! When we have Dreams, it gives us power and self – motivation to turn it into reality and prove that we have changed our lives.”
Dr. Gnel Rattha is our second speaker. He serves as Vice-Rector for Public Relations and International Affair of Angkor University, an advisor to the Kampot, Takeo and Kep Zones of Chamber of Commerce of Cambodia and Representative of Siberian Association for International Cooperation. Dr. Rattha has been working with many universities as an Economic Professor. The topic that he chose to share with the students was “Self – motivation”. Dr. Rattha loves to take risks in life. He invested much of time in education. He worked hard and transformed from farmer’s son to become a professor, and Deputy Director of Angkor University. In his presentation, he is very much emphasis on the theme of 7 Cs and 4 components of self – motivation. He stressed the importance of meeting obstacles in our journey meaning that we are closer to success. He added “in our life there are people criticizing us, but remember that because they sometimes want to be like us.” No matter what happened, keep motivating ourselves, nurture our hope and keep your dreams alive.
Besides, the above guest speakers, a number of students bravely stood up in front of their peers and spoke about a number of important topics such as “My Changes” shared by Miss Moa Sophany, “Goal setting” shared by Mr. Chhernh Sinbou, and “My Education” shared by Miss Chhoun Sreynich. On top of that, one of the current PEPY scholarship students, Hearng Sothearak, also shared his experiences studying and living in Siem Reap. Hearing students shared their experiences and hopes for the future was a vital element for the students to learn and unlearn, build relationship and work harder for their future.
Additionally, a group of students from Dream Management class also performed a piece of song to entertain the event. They sang “We’re Khmer”. The meaning of the song is to call all Cambodians to unite and make our nation proud again. With chronic rhythm blessing the audience’s feelings, the singing has made the atmosphere more enjoyable. They clapped along the Rhythm to cheer brilliant performance.
By promoting this culture of sharing, it creates a positive, healthy and very hopeful environment for young Cambodians who otherwise may not feel confident to talk about their dreams with their friends. The whole event was incredibly enriching for the students from Kralanh High School, teachers, as well as the PEPY Empowering Youth staff. We hope to repeat the success of the Sharing Event in the future and would like to say a massive thank you to Miss. SET Hattha and Dr. Gnel Rattha, the teachers and students, particularly the school Principal for taking time out of their busy schedules to make this event a successful one.