When visiting underprivileged middle schools in poor areas of Bangkok, U-Lacha Laochai (Prae) identified the need for an alternative curriculum, focusing on project-based learning in order to strengthen problem solving skills. Prae also found that students struggled to achieve their goals because schools lack the resources to offer guidance to students. In order to address this need for mentorship, Prae started Little Builders which aims to help underprivileged school districts meet the needs of their students by providing mentors and ongoing workshops to prepare students and help them achieve their goals.

Five-Year Project Goals:

• Create a leadership training program to fund Little Builders
• Measure the success of Little Builders by looking at high school retention rates and the number of students who pursue higher education

Organization Information: Little Builders

Little Builders creates a community of enthusiastic, open-minded students interested in self-development, human development and a Thai education. The organization recruits and trains volunteers to become project coaches and leadership mentors for promising young adults. Little Builders conducts pre-program interview with students to assess their self-perception, attitudes and goals. The two-month long program challenges students to build problem solving skills by helping to address an issue in their communities. Prae used the UConn grant funding to train coaches to become mentors and to market Little Builders throughout underprivileged areas in Bangkok.