University Education for Young Women in Cambodia

CATALYST was not able to organize any in-person workshops for the past two years due to covid. Finally, in-person events are back! A full day Leadership Training Workshop was organized on May 20th 2022 in Phnom Penh for 72 CATALYST scholars. 

The 31 CATALYST scholars from Siem Reap Province travelled 6 hours to Phnom Penh on May 19^th and it was the first time to Phnom Penh for most of them. Everyone was excited to travel to a new place, although some of them got motion sickness along the way. Upon reaching Phnom Penh, all the scholars stayed at the two residential houses, where they received a warm welcome from the other 41 scholars living there. 

The next day, scholars gathered in a hotel banquet room rented out for the occasion. The workshop was led by speaker Miss Nara Sokhema. Sokhema is dedicated to helping build a young generation of highly committed, capable, and ethical leaders for Cambodia. She has over nine years of professional experience towards this cause. The workshop was designed to encourage scholars to consider how to be leaders, how to communicate effectively and consider what good leadership is to them. Through conversation, activities and lectures, the workshop also asked scholars to reflect on what they want to achieve and who they want to be.

Ms. Sokhema began by asking the students to write down their expectations from this workshop and share it with the room. She then asked the students to go around the room and introduce themselves to others they hadn’t met. Sokhema organized several games and activities where scholars practiced communication, leading and following, and collaboration to achieve the best results. It brought them together and scholars were engaged and excited about the content of the workshop. Here are some of their reflections: 

“For me, the trainer did such a good job at explaining everything concisely. She tried her best to make the workshop engaging by giving us fun activities for us to improve our team building skills. Throughout this workshop, I got to learn so many new things related to self-discovery, how to be a good leader, how to communicate efficiently, our role models, and how to work well in teams. At the end of the workshop, I had a sense of self-development and I discovered so much about myself. With this experience, I will use it to further improve myself while working in teams. I will try my best to apply what I learned to my daily life and become a leader with responsibility and good attitude. In my opinion, the hall for the workshop was very nice because it was very spacious. The garden was also very nice as it was filled with so much greenery with a stunning view of the river which fueled me with so much motivation and a willingness to learn.”

-Savy

“The trainer did a very good job in explaining everything clearly. She also showed that she really paid so much attention to every single detail and tried so hard to make the workshop fun and engaging by giving us different fun activities to do. From what I learned from this workshop, leadership refers to someone who has the ability to step up and manage their teams to reach their full potential. The major difference between a boss and a leader is that a boss only cares about their power and their benefit whereas a leader tried their best to step up so that everyone will achieve one main goal. After this workshop, I will try my best to be a more responsible person while leading a small team and be more aware of my surroundings. The orientation hall was very nice. It was very fresh, comfortable, and spacious which gave me so much motivation to absorb the knowledge. The food was very delicious and the decoration was also very nice.”

-Kong 

We are so excited to be back to in-person events. Through workshops and lectures like these, CATALYST scholars gain access to thought provoking and inspiring ideas beyond what they learn in the classroom. Thank you for supporting CATALYST scholars in reaching for their dreams.