New lives, new dreams
contributed by Allan Menagh (vision communication team leader, Kumon Asia Oceania)
A MOTIVATION to learn Japanese had Katherine Ong joining the workforce at a tender age to pay for her Kumon classes.
Katherine was 11 when her family immigrated to Perth.
Her teacher Annie Mayes, from Kumon's Leeming education centre, was impressed by Katherine's determination and deeply touched she was working part-time to put herself and her younger sister through class.
"I knew that she was quietly confident in the sense that she enrolled by herself," Ms Mayes said. "She didn't wait for her mum or dad to enrol her in the classroom, she just rolled up."
One day Katherine told Ms Mayes she "really would like to spend some time in Japan''. Then she won a 10-month scholarship to stay in a Japanese town.
When she got back the first thing she wanted to do was re-enrol in Kumon and gain further understanding of the Japanese language, country and culture.
Then she won a public speaking award: the prize was two air tickets to Japan. Katherine remembers her mum asking, "Are you really that good?", and as if to answer, a week later Katherine won a $20,000 scholarship to Curtin University.
"Kumon changed my life," Katherine said. "It changed my study patterns and it changed what I do in my spare time. I don't just waste it. It opened up a whole lot of opportunities for me.''
Ms Mayes said Katherine's attitude is what Kumon is all about: "Making children believe in themselves."
Meanwhile, Amy Wanklyn went from being a struggling student who could not read in fourth class to receiving a scholarship to study psychology in Canada.
Her mother, Leone, said Amy was a student who "tried her utmost" but didn't achieve what she should have.
Amy found school difficult and frustrating. "I couldn't read in Year Four. It made me feel like an outcast."
Ms Wanklyn said she had tried tutors but "it wasn't systematic enough". "We figured we might give Kumon a go,'' she said.
Keith and Bridget Tattersall, from Kumon's Port Lincoln education centre, put Amy at ease even though she was the oldest child in their class.
Soon after, Mrs Tattersall said Amy's regular school teachers "were amazed she had progressed at such an incredible rate and had come in with such amazing results''.
"It was like switching on a light,'' Amy said.
Now, after winning a scholarship to Carlton University in Ottawa, Amy has a degree in psychology and works as a social worker.
"I help kids with learning disabilities find traineeships,'' she said. "(They are) people having trouble like I did and I help them.''
Mrs Tattersall said: "These lovely young people come into your lives in such a fragile way and dig themselves into your heart. They are not students, they are part of our family.''
