Using K-12 STEM education and outreach to inspire student-driven leadership initiatives in Singapore

In 2010, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began a collaboration with the Singapore Ministry of Education to develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), a new engineering-oriented university in Singapore with programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. As a component of this collaboration, MIT staff members sought to "transfuse" MIT's cultural norms of student leadership, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship to the new university in Singapore. To this end, MIT-SUTD Collaboration staff initiated two exchange programs to introduce and promote student leadership within the SUTD community. In conjunction with MIT's efforts, SUTD launched the Design Opportunity Program (DOP) in 2013. Through this program, SUTD students had the opportunity to initiate, design, and execute the first student-run science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach workshop at SUTD, forge relationships with local high school students, and support the Singapore Ministry of Education's broader goals to reform and enhance pre-college STEM education. This paper presents an overview of the theory tying K-12 outreach with student leadership, the design and implementation of the inaugural student-run component of the DOP initiative, and the challenges SUTD students and staff faced in developing and implementing this project.