The Best Reason to Get An Education Is to Give It Away:
What Teach SG Taught Two NUS Computing Students

Zyon Aaronel Wee and Xavier Lee Yiheng joined Teach Singapore (Teach SG) through the same NUS Communities and Engagement module. Beyond that, their paths to mentoring look nothing alike. Zyon, a Year 3 Computer Science student, came with lived experience that made the work feel urgent and personal. Xavier, a Year 2 Information Systems student, came expecting to fulfil a graduation requirement and left having rethought quite a bit more than that.

Both spoke at the Teach SG 5th Anniversary Showcase in April 2026. Here are their stories.

Zyon Aaronel Wee Zhun Wei – Year 3, Computer Science 

Growing up, Zyon watched his parents run a hawker stall. When his mother suffered an injury and the stall had to close, the financial pressure fell quietly over the family. Zyon was in secondary school at the time, old enough to understand what was happening, young enough that it reshaped how he thought about the future.

He carried that with him through school and eventually to NUS School of Computing. Teach SG placed him at Yishun Primary School, where he mentored students who reminded him of himself at that age. 

“I became the mentor I once wished for.”

His mentees at Yishun Primary carry a posture he recognises: careful, self-contained, reluctant to ask for help. The quiet fear that struggling academically means something is fundamentally wrong with you.

His computing training gives him a problem-solver’s instinct: find the root cause before reaching for a solution. With his mentees, that means asking whether a gap is academic or emotional, whether a student needs help with a subject or needs someone to tell them they’re worth the effort.

Most of the time, it’s both.

Xavier Lee Yiheng – Year 2, Information Systems 

Xavier came to Teach SG with no particular expectation. The Communities and Engagement module was, in his own words, “just another graduation requirement.”

Then he went back to Radin Mas Primary School, his alma mater, as a mentor. Something shifted.

“It was an opportunity to finally give back,” he said. But giving back turned out to mean something more complicated than he’d anticipated. Xavier had moved through school with relative ease, and in doing so had been largely unaware of what school felt like for students who found it harder. Mentoring made that visible.

“I had been oblivious to the fear many students carry, the fear that struggling means they are not good enough.”

At Radin Mas, he focused on helping students build a quiet sense of pride in what they could do. Small wins, accumulated carefully. The kind of confidence that doesn’t evaporate after a bad test.

By the end of the module, it had become one of the more formative experiences of his time at NUS.

What they took away

Teach SG is built on a straightforward premise: that NUS students have something meaningful to offer, and that sustained, relationship-based mentoring changes outcomes for children who lack access to private tuition and enrichment. Since its pilot in January 2021, the programme has deployed more than 4,000 mentors and reached around 9,000 beneficiaries across more than 120 community partners.

What’s less often talked about is what the mentors themselves take away. Zyon found a way to channel his own history into something useful, while Xavier discovered a gap in his own understanding that he hadn’t known was there.

Guest-of-Honour Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi put it plainly at the anniversary showcase: “The value of your education is only realised when you contribute it to others. If you keep it to yourself, then it just stops at your door.”

For Zyon and Xavier, it went all the way to Yishun and Radin Mas. And it’s still going.

Teach SG is part of NUS’s Communities and Engagement Pillar under General Education. Find out more at osa.nus.edu.sg.