The #Bangkit challenge was held from 2nd August to 3rd September 2021 where students from tertiary schools across Malaysia could pitch constructive solutions to real-life problems under sector categories: Business, Science, Non-Government Organisations (NGO), Information Technology (IT), and Education in the Future. It was organised by the Sunway Student Ambassadors (SSA) as part of a one-month long event that included forums, workshops, talks and mentorship discussions focusing primarily on improving the education standards in Malaysia.

The Psych Four, an ambitious team comprising of BSc (Hons) in Psychology programme students Cheng Miao Shan, Lai Zhong Xun, Kuan Jie Meng, and Anastasia Lim Ya Nah won the NGO sector #Bangkit challenge. They were given the opportunity to work with the sponsoring partner MyReaders to bring their solution to the real world! The Psych Four was one of the four groups to win and advance to the final round, where they were given 3 weeks to prepare their final pitch and create a 3-minute video about their solution.

With the support of their mentor Dr Hossein Nezakati, The Psych Four presented their final pitch on 4th September 2021 and were ecstatic to find out that they won the whole challenge! Dr Nezakati was very happy and proud of their win. When asked about his thoughts, Dr Nezakati said "Read.Me, a creative, challenging name for a project. That was a fully amazing short academic journey with the Team, The Psych Four. They showed their passion and enthusiastic characteristics during the mentoring sessions. They were keen to learn all the points of improvement to uplift their presentation. They demonstrated the real meaning of multidisciplinary approaches and thinking out-of-the-box. Watch out for Team: The Psych Four!"

The challenge began with a one-week long preliminary round in which NGO sector participants were given the problem statement 'What would be a solution for communities with poor access to the internet and/or devices to gain access to an existing literacy curriculum without relying on a literate adult?' and were asked to create an infographic poster on their solution.

The Psych Four's Solution for improving access to better education is Read.Me, a digital platform that connects all organizations with literacy programmes across Malaysia and serves as a bridge to connect the illiterate communities with those organizations. It is built to be illiterate-friendly and is accessible via platforms such as websites, apps and hotlines to address the issue of poor access to devices and the internet. How? It identifies illiterate individuals or communities through assessments, recommends and connects these individuals to relevant organizations based on their age group, location and literacy proficiency. On a wider scale, Read.Me also informs the public of areas with deficient literacy organizations and guides the development and expansion of new and existing literacy NGOs.

The Department of Psychology is very proud of the Psych Four team for taking the initiative to participate in this competition and to bring such an impactful idea to the fore. Their boldness in sharing their passion to help is laudable and very inspiring. They are a great model to other students in making a mark in society, by thinking up and sharing solutions for a better quality of life. The School wishes the team all the best and success in developing their idea to fruition.

Professor Alvin Ng Lai Oon
School of Medical and Life Sciences
Email: @email

This article was adapted from the SMiLeS Newsletter, Issue 3/2021.