From student to staff – Channa

In August, third year scholarship student Channa became PEPY Empowering Youth’s Scholarship Officer. Channa studies Tourism at Build Bright University, so whilst he spends his days working at PEPY Empowering Youth, his evenings and weekends are spent studying towards gaining his degree. Channa is settling into the role well and is really enjoying working more closely with the staff team.
Channa is thoroughly enjoying his roles and responsibilities as Scholarship Officer. Some of the main day to day features of the role include counseling students, teaching them in Youth Empowerment classes and conducting regular Student Meetings. Channa conducts regular counseling and meetings to ensure that students are not only supported in an educational capacity, but also in all aspects of their lives. In counseling sessions, students are provided the opportunity to brace any topics which they may have questions or worries about; these questions cover a range of subjects from health, to emotional issues, to housing situations. The level of interaction with the students is an aspect of the job which Channa thoroughly enjoys, ‘I really do love my roles. Even though this is a new job for me, I am trying my best to complete it. Teaching Youth Empowerment class is the part which I most enjoy’. As a scholarship student himself, Channa is in the perfect position to utilize his knowledge and experience to guide, teach and inspire the next generation of students. Thus far some of Channa’s biggest responsibilities have been organizing and holding a Parents Meeting for both new and existing scholarship students and their parents. Channa is looking forward to working with the new scholarship students and helping them settle into life in Siem Reap and at PEPY Empowering Youth.
Channa says he is grateful for the professional experience he is gaining at PEPY Empowering Youth. To fulfill the role, Channa has found that he has been utilizing and building upon many of the skills which he developed in the Learning Center as a scholarship student. He says that he has relied on his communication, computer literacy, counseling capacity, leadership and English skills heavily, and that the job is aiding him in he in improving these along with his professionalism and teaching ability. As his first full-time job, taking on the role of Scholarship Officer has presented Channa with a few challenges, such as making decisions independently and a busy schedule. However, he recognizes that this is an important part of the learning experience and is grateful for the additional skills and lessons, such as decisiveness and time management, which he can extract as a result.
Channa’s employment is not only an important step in his personal and professional development, but it is an embodiment of PEPY Empowering Youth’s vision, mission and goal, under which young people from Kralanh are empowered to pursue careers and dreams to improve the quality of their lives, and those in their community. Channa is a great source of inspiration for his peers and community, and we hope that they will be encouraged by his achievements to work hard and pursue their dreams. It is fantastic to see students, such as Channa, who have been exposed to PEPY opportunities, come full circle and support their communities through their jobs. We are proud of all of Channa’s successes so far, and have no doubt that they will continue in the future. We are delighted to have welcomed him to the PEPY Empowering Youth staff team!
Keep an eye out for a future blog post on fellow scholarship student, Savoeng, who has also recently joined the PEPY Empowering Youth staffing team.