Last year a young Cambodian graduate from Sovannaphumi School named Thy Chouly won a full scholarship to pursue her studies at the IPU Tertiary Institute in New Zealand after being chosen as one of just 100 Rise Global 2020 winners.

The scholarship isn’t all she’s getting, however. Chouly will now receive all kinds of support in addition to her scholarship while she works on her degree and beyond – it’s a lifetime award – from residential assistance to technology help and educational opportunities along with access to other funding sources.

Global Rise is a programme funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt through his charitable foundation. The programme looks for brilliant students who are in need of opportunities to succeed and then supports them throughout their lives as they do work that serves others in their community.

The programme starts at ages 15-17 and offers access to benefits that last a lifetime including scholarships, mentorship, career development opportunities, access to funding and more as Global Winners work toward solving humanity’s most pressing problems.

Each year, Rise invites 15-17 year olds from around the world to participate in the Rise Challenge. It does not matter what country they live in, what background they come from or what academic experience they already have.

Whether the student is interested in science, innovation, technology, art, government policy, community organising or any other discipline – Rise wants to hear from them.

Their journey started last year but not many students from Cambodia applied because few people in Cambodia had ever heard of the programme until now with Chouly’s win.

In fact, her selection got the attention of Rise’s administrators and they began to look closely at Cambodia, reaching out to the Liger Leadership Academy School after a chance meeting with a former student in the US.

“This is only the second year of the Rise programme and there was a winner last year from Cambodia in its first year. However, we hadn’t heard of Rise last year, so our students didn’t participate. Rise reached out to us in part because one of their representatives happened to meet one of our alumnae who is studying at Dartmouth in the US on a scholarship and was impressed,” says Keith Simpson, the learning facilitator at Liger Leadership Academy.

Simpson says that this year they are encouraging all of their students to join the Rise challenge because it fits within their school’s mission to have students making a positive impact on Cambodia. It is also an unbelievably good opportunity that will probably be life changing for anyone who wins.

Simpson says Cambodians should join in the competition because as the Kingdom continues to develop it will need young people who are skilled at problem-solving and are comfortable experimenting, troubleshooting and implementing their own ideas.

The competition helps students to come up with ideas to make the world a better place by giving them a potentially huge reward for doing so. During this process, students get a better understanding of not just their communities and country and the challenges they face, but an understanding of themselves as well and what they are good at or where they need to improve.

“Rise is the perfect opportunity to do that. It gives young people valuable experience at improving these important abilities and gives them confidence to do the same in the future. Of course, it is a great added-bonus that there is a scholarship and other benefits for those who win the competition,” says Simpson.

The benefits for Rise Global Winners that Simpson mentions may take many shapes. The programme is personalised and flexible and meant to be tailored to the Global Winners’ needs as they evolve over time. It aims to provide Global Winners with individualised support to empower them to achieve their goals while they work to serve others throughout their lives.

All Rise Global Winners will have the opportunity to apply for benefits over their lifetime such as access to partner networks, opportunities to be matched to programmes, graduate school scholarships, internships and other benefits from partners who contribute to the Rise network.

Rise winners will be able to apply for funding to experiment with innovative ideas to address major problems in local communities and around the world. That can range from seed money for a business to start-up capital for a social enterprise to grants for non-profits. Funds will be designated for these purposes that total a pooled amount of at least $5 million per year for the programme.

“Many students might worry a lot about what happens after they graduate high school. Some have a dream to study at a prestigious university on the other side of the world but they just don’t know how to get there or they could never afford it. By taking part in the Rise Challenge they are giving themselves a chance at opportunities that might change their life forever,” Simpson says.

Given the obvious benefits to students offered by the Rise Challenge programme, Liger Academy has been trying to spread the word to all Cambodian schools and students to get more of them involved.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport is also helping to publicise the Rise Challenge with posts to their Facebook page that has over three million followers.

“We have been reaching out to other schools and organisations, meeting administrators, teachers and most importantly their students, both in-person and online. We have also used social media to spread the word.

“We’ve also set up a Facebook page – Rise Challenge 2021 Cambodia – where we have posted information about Rise and tips on how to fill out the application. There is also a Telegram channel where students can ask questions about Rise. We have hosted workshops on how to problem-solve and we even had one with Thy Chouly, last year’s Cambodian finalist,” Simpson tells The Post.

Liger Leadership Academy’s efforts with Simpson as coordinator have gotten an enthusiastic response and Cambodia has now become one of the top ten countries in the world for engagement with the programme.

“When we go to schools we are excited by the energy that young students have when they talk about their ideas and there have been several messages a day on our Facebook chat from students completing their application. We have had a few hundred people join the Rise community and we are looking for more,” he says.

Participants need to follow and complete the Rise Challenge’s three stages. Applicants introduce themselves through videos, create an individual project that demonstrates their talents and benefits their communities and takes part in the peer review of other applicants’ projects, among other activities.

After applicants complete the Rise Challenge application process, Rise then selects up to 500 finalists who advance to “Finalist Days,” where they explain their motivations, demonstrate problem-solving abilities and teamwork skills and answer questions in an innovative interview format.

Out of those 500 Finalists, Rise then selects their 100 Global Winners who will receive the lifetime access to the programme’s benefits as long as they are using them to do work that serves others and helps their communities.

“It is our dream to have more Cambodian students taking part in this community and we would love to have more Cambodians reach the semi-finals and finals and hopefully even have some who join Chouly as one of the global winners,” Simpson says.

This year’s deadline to apply is December 22 – which may not be enough time left to put together a winning application for 2021 without some extraordinary luck or brilliant ideas – but students who are interested and eligible should start planning for the 2022 contest now to give themselves the best shot.

Download the app used to apply at this link: https://gethelloorg.page.link/qRT8

Follow the Rise Challenge 2021 Cambodia Facebook page: @risechallenge2021kh

And join Rise’s Telegram group for helpful instructions: https://t.me/joinchat/XHyGNnvV38UwZjZl.