{"id":8224,"date":"2025-07-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=8224"},"modified":"2025-07-22T07:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T23:52:14","slug":"opening-doors-lifting-hearts-and-strengthening-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2025\/07\/22\/opening-doors-lifting-hearts-and-strengthening-minds\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Doors, Lifting Hearts and Strengthening Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, which offered many people a life pause for re-direction, Ms Nur Hafishah Marsden (Arts & Social Sciences ’05) spotted a problem which led her down the path of social entrepreneurship. Then based in Indonesia, she said, \u201cI noticed that many children, especially those from families who could only afford a single mobile phone, were left behind in their learning. With limited access to online classes, they were often found running around outside, disconnected from any form of structured education.\u201d She started small learning groups and that laid the foundation for the Arden Project.<\/p>

Launched in mid-2020, the Arden Project \u2014 so named because Ms Marsden aims for students to embody the strength, vision and resilience of the eagle, which is called \u2018arden\u2019 in Old English \u2014 is a community-building social enterprise committed to educating and empowering youths from underprivileged backgrounds. Run by a team of six full-timers and two part-timers, the two centres in Jakarta offer low-cost, affordable English courses for students from low-income families. Ms Marsden estimates that about 90 per cent of her students are from such households, whose per capita income averages about S$100-150 per month.<\/p>

In Indonesia, the rate for English courses in the market is about S$30-50 a month, a sum which is out of reach for these families. \u201cIn the families that we serve, parents have low-income earning jobs and many also work in the informal sector as house helpers, security guards, contractors and Gojek drivers,\u201d she explained. \u201cMany of them go to state schools and do not have access to an English-speaking environment.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ms Nur Hafishah Marsden <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u00a0<\/p>

BRIDGING THE ENGLISH GAP
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Ms Marsden\u2019s work plugs a critical gap. According to the 2023 EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), which ranks countries and regions by English\u00a0skills, Indonesia ranked 79th<\/sup> out of 113 countries, with a score of 473 out of 700. This places the country in the \u2018Low Proficiency\u2019 category, the second-lowest among the five proficiency levels.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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For many low-income families in Indonesia, the attainment of English proficiency is a dream, often out of reach due to prohibitively high course fees. The Arden Project puts such dreams within reach. Students who range from primary school to university level come to the Arden Project centres four times a week for lessons which, while rigorous, are delivered in a simple and fun manner that has proven popular with the community.<\/p>

In just five years, more than 700 students have benefitted from these programmes. Nearly all have reported improvements in their English exam results, with about half scoring more than 90 per cent. Students\u2019 mothers cited on the group\u2019s Instagram account<\/a> are grateful that since going to Arden, the children have been able to learn independently without needing parental supervision.<\/p>

Ms Marsden soon saw the need to go beyond teaching English. \u201cWe quickly realised that teaching English alone wasn\u2019t enough to truly uplift our students,\u201d she said, \u201cMany of them needed a renewed sense of purpose and confidence. So, we introduced empowerment programmes that help students reflect on their goals, explore their potential, understand the value of education and navigate challenges like bullying, social judgement and self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Arden Project team<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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EDUCATOR AND INNOVATOR
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As the former President of the NUS Entrepreneurship Society, Ms Marsden was exposed to the fast-moving and exciting world of startups. It was a valuable experience that taught her how principles like efficiency, productivity, and innovation drive success. But over time, she realised that chasing material success alone wasn\u2019t enough. What really stood out to her was how those same business tools could be used to make a positive difference in people\u2019s lives. That idea stayed with her\u2014and shaped the direction she wanted to take in her career.<\/p>

She shared that Professor Wong Poh Kam, then Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, played a big role in her journey to becoming a social entrepreneur. He gave her the opportunity to attend and help organise numerous seminars, international conferences and start-up competitions where she met a global community of social entrepreneurs.<\/p>

For the rest of 2025, Ms Marsden will be busy opening up three new education centres and implementing a teacher training programme, so that even more students can benefit. She is looking forward to the challenge. Her journey in social entrepreneurship has taken her to remote villages and post-conflict areas\u2014experiences that tested her resilience and shaped her outlook. Now focused on expanding opportunities and empowering more students, she always bears one thing in mind: \u201cTo truly mobilise a community, I\u2019ve learned it takes empathy, compassion, intelligence, and a massive amount of grit.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Indonesia, where English proficiency remains a challenge, the low-cost enrichment classes of social entrepreneur Ms Nur Hafishah Marsden (Arts & Social Sciences \u201905) have been a blessing for hundreds of underprivileged students who have found joy in learning the language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-impact"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8224"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8241,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224\/revisions\/8241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}