Alina Amir, David Chak, Daniel Mohanraj, Felicia Yoon

Founding Arus was a collaborative effort by four Teach For Malaysia alumni. Completing the two-year program allowed us to understand the gaps in the education system. Arus’ co-founders are all alumni of the 2013 cohort. Our shared experience in the Teach For Malaysia fellowship, our friendship, and our vision for the students of Malaysia formed Arus’ founding cornerstone.

Alina Amir (CEO):  In 2013, I started my journey as a Teach For Malaysia Fellow and was sent to a secondary school in a small town in Penang, located in the north of Malaysia. At the time I started teaching there, the school was ranked in the bottom 50 schools out of 2300 secondary schools in Malaysia. The number one disciplinary offense was classroom truancy—many students roamed the halls rather than attending class. The majority of the students came from low-income families and spent their time after school working or looking for jobs.

In the classroom, I was teaching 13-year-olds who could barely read or write and could not speak or understand the national language, the medium of instruction. For many reasons, most of my students were unmotivated to learn or achieve academically. To them, nothing they learned in school was applicable in “real life.”

Despite these challenges, my experience with my students has been my biggest motivation and inspiration to start Arus. I taught in the school for four years, launching Arus at the end of the second along with three other Teach For Malaysia Fellows in my 2013 cohort. With our diverse backgrounds and shared challenges, we wanted to create a learning 

Everything that is taught in Arus is paired with a real-life project-based challenge that requires students to apply their knowledge for good. We try to bring relevance into learning to demonstrate to students how gaining knowledge can enrich their lives. At Arus, our students are driven by interest rather than the pursuit of academic achievements.

Since our inception, Arus has increased both the number of students we reach and the size of our staff. Of the nine current team members, seven are Teach For Malaysia alumni. Having a shared understanding the issues on the ground and aligned goals has helped Arus gain the momentum to create positive change within communities and on the systemic level.