In this Blog, we hear from Vantha Koun, who is both our Scholarship Program Manager and  the Office Manager. Read more about his role managing the learning opportunities for JWOC scholars. 

I started working in JWOC in 2009. My roles are Office Manager and Scholarship Program Manger. Talk about Scholarship Program, I really enjoy to be part of it because it is helping and giving students the great opportunities to extend their knowledge.

The program also helps them to succeed in their future goals, like some of them want to work in a bank as an accountant, teller or loan officer, or a tour company, hotel and NGO etc. A good example is the two of our scholarship students who became JWOC program managers. Somit Mat is our Free Classes Program Manager and Seng Sok is our Clean Water Program Manager. They were both students supported by JWOC, graduating in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

Somit is Free Classes Program Manager and teaches English Language classes.

Seng (in the center) recently facilitated a workshop with his Clean Water team.

Since JWOC started in 2005, we have helped 145 scholarship students and currently we have 69 students studying at Universities in Siem Reap. This year we are going to give out 15 scholarships for students who can fit with our requirements.
To receive a scholarship, each student must agree to work with JWOC to give back to the community. In each week, the students volunteer between 5 and 10 hours with our programs. This may include teaching classes, collecting loan repayments, finding new locations for clean water or community liaison activities.

We don’t just give only scholarships to the students we also provide careers training like how to search for a job, how to apply for a job, how to prepare for an interview. We also have other training that is related to skills training, personal health and safety, first aid training, finances, and induction to the programs. Recently, we created a Personal Budget workshop with a JWOC volunteer, Melissa Montgomery, from USA. Melissa and I worked close together for making the workshop presentation. Melissa also spent around three days to research and select good information for the presentation. After that we both ran the workshop together. There were many scholarship students interested with our training and will try to use it after they leaned.

Melissa and Vantha conducted the personal finance workshop together.


During the workshop, they ran an activity that focused on their career goals. 

Recently I have made the announcement for Scholarship Program for the new academic year of 2013 – 2014 for all high schools in Siem Reap. I also contacted our partners with the information for their beneficiaries, and participated in a skills fair.

Vantha at the skills fair, introducing the JWOC the scholarship application process to high school students.

Nita Hor is one of our current scholarship students, studying Accounting and Finance at Build Bright University. She is in her third year and told us that she is very happy when JWOC gave her a scholarship. The study at the University is very important for her, because she can use her knowledge to get a good, well paid job. Currently she is working as an accountant in a tour company and she volunteers in JWOC Microfinance Program as a Loan Officer in her free time. She really enjoys with her volunteer role, because she can get new experiences from the beneficiaries especially she helps her community.  

Nita works in the tourism industry and studies finance – she is pictured here at work. 

The Scholarship Program not just give opportunities to the students to continue their knowledge but also provide skill training and a way to use their skills through our program. We also help graduated students to succeed their career goals.  

This year in September, I will take a fundraising tour to the USA – look for my blog in October.  Check out our website if you want to donate to the Scholarship Program!

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