Using K-12 STEM education and outreach to inspire student-driven leadership initiatives in Singapore

In 2010, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began a collaboration with the Singapore Ministry of Education to develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), a new engineering-oriented university in Singapore with programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. As a component of this collaboration, MIT staff members sought to "transfuse" MIT\´s cultural norms of student leadership, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship to the new university in Singapore. To this end, MIT-SUTD Collaboration staff initiated two exchange programs to introduce and promote student leadership within the SUTD community. In conjunction with MIT\´s efforts, SUTD launched the Design Opportunity Program (DOP) in 2013. Through this program, SUTD students had the opportunity to initiate, design, and execute the first student-run science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach workshop at SUTD, forge relationships with local high school students, and support the Singapore Ministry of Education\´s broader goals to reform and enhance pre-college STEM education. This paper presents an overview of the theory tying K-12 outreach with student leadership, the design and implementation of the inaugural student-run component of the DOP initiative, and the challenges SUTD students and staff faced in developing and implementing this project.