The programme director of MARA Mentoring on why mentoring isn’t a one-way act of altruism

This story was updated on Mar 24, 2025.

“The truth is, most of us can’t remember when we first decided what we wanted to be. It might have been a nudge from a parent, a teacher, or the silent influence of someone we admired on television. More often than not, our ambitions are borrowed — inherited from those who came before us, from those we look up to.

But for young people, especially those from underrepresented communities, this means they risk committing to someone else’s dreams before they’ve even had the chance to find their own. 

At MARA Mentoring, we’re trying to change that narrative.

As programme director, I don’t tell our mentees what they should want, and I certainly don’t promise to show them the perfect career path. My team and I offer a community where, through conversation and shared experiences, young people can start to uncover their ambitions.

We call it “tribe mentoring”: three young Malay-Muslim university students paired with two mentor-professionals embarking on a six-month journey together. It’s not about designing ambitions; it’s about revealing them.

We’ve since concluded the fifth run of the MARA Mentoring Programme, or “Season 5” as we call it, with close to 30 mentees successfully graduating from the six-month programme.

The programme finale, held at An-Nadhah Mosque, featured a panel discussion with senior business and community leaders such as the deputy chief executive of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, Khairul Anwar. The mentees had the opportunity to network with and ask questions directly to these senior leaders.

Still, people often misunderstand what we do. They see MARA Mentoring as a job search clinic — just another programme to help students polish their CVs and land their first internship. And, yes, many of our mentees end up closer to their dream jobs. But that’s not what drives me.

I’m not satisfied with simply helping 30 students get better jobs every year. I want to develop 30 living examples of what happens when you approach your career with intention and openness.

I want our mentees to become ambassadors for a different way of thinking, and I want our mentors — many of whom are young ethnic minority professionals — to see themselves as role models in their own right. Because for me, mentoring isn’t a one-way act of altruism; it’s a two-way exchange that helps both mentor and mentee grow.

A number of MARA Mentoring participants, both mentors and mentees, have also expressed interest in joining the organising team for future runs, and have also suggested potential collaborations with their own companies or non-profit initiatives.

Redefining success

The hardest part of this work, though, is treading the line between inspiring an ambition and forcing one. I’ve had countless conversations with my team about what we should encourage our mentees to do — whether we should push them to be excellent professionals in prestigious companies, trailblazers in niche sectors, or even community leaders. 

Every suggestion we make could be a helpful push for one person and a debilitating pressure for another. We can’t be everything for everyone, but we can do the right thing for a few. That’s why at MARA Mentoring, we trust our mentors to work alongside their mentees to help them uncover their own ambitions.

Because, ultimately, if we empower these young people enough, they’ll eventually help others decide for themselves too.

I see MARA Mentoring as part of a larger story — one in which the Malay-Muslim community in Singapore redefines success on its own terms. We’ve faced stereotypes for decades — of poor educational and economic achievement — and while we’ve made strides to close those gaps, there’s still a perception among some in our community that their identity is something to be discarded if they want to succeed. 

But I believe we have more to contribute than ever before. Our community has so much to offer, Whether through our shared understanding of regional languages or our perspective on issues like climate change.

And to fully realise that potential, we need a pipeline of young, ambitious Malay-Muslim professionals, and that’s where mentoring comes in. By unlocking the intellectual and social resources that already exist within our community, I’m optimistic we can write more success stories — stories that belong to us.

Success, for me, isn’t about what happens during our six-month programme. It’s about what happens after. Do our mentees go on to achieve the career trajectories they’d envisioned? Do they come back to mentor the next batch or join the organising team? Do they share their knowledge spontaneously, without being prompted? 

These are the questions I ask myself, and that’s why we’ve started to take a more structured approach to measuring our impact at MARA Mentoring. Real success isn’t about the number of mentees we have; it’s about the ripple effects they create in the community.

At the end of Season 5, we asked mentees to complete the statement: “I am remarkable because”. The reflection I remember most keenly was this: “I am remarkable because I’m here today.” Oftentimes, we take our small wins for granted, but that response reminded everyone that just trusting the process and continuing the arduous journey is an achievement we should be proud of in itself.

The power of intentional guidance

And if I could go back and give myself advice the night before I took on this role, I’d tell myself three things. First, accept that everyone starts from a different place, and you can’t convince everyone. Second, understand the difference between what mentees want in the short term and what they need in the long term — and find ways to deliver both. 

Third, don’t rush the process of building the right team. After I took over as programme director, it took me a long time to find the right co-lead, and we even had to push back the start of the programme. But that patience paid off. Now, two years later, we’ve grown the team to twice its original size, and the difference it has made is immeasurable. 

Looking ahead, my aspiration is that, 10 years from now, almost all our mentees will have become mentors themselves — or better yet, they’ll be leading MARA Mentoring or their own community initiatives. I want to see more companies encouraging their employees, particularly those from ethnic minorities, to volunteer as mentors. 

Mentoring should be as ubiquitous as internships or co-curricular activities — a crucial part of every student’s journey of self-exploration. As more mentoring programmes take root under the broader Mentoring SG movement, I hope MARA Mentoring will serve as an inspiration — a reminder of the power of community-driven, intentional guidance.

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It’s why seeing the sheer number of people eager to serve as mentors — many more than I ever expected — gives me hope. All we needed to do was ask. This year alone, we were oversubscribed in mentor sign-ups, and we’ve found ourselves creating new opportunities just to meet the demand. The most surprising is that these mentors often don’t need a reason to help — just the opportunity.

It makes me hopeful that, as companies and countries realise the value of diverse young talent, our mentees will no longer be held back by self-doubt or a perceived lack of worth. They’ll know their experiences are valuable and worthy of being listened to. 

And maybe that’s the real power of mentoring: It’s not about telling someone what to do or who to be. It’s about showing them they already have everything to figure it out for themselves.”

To support other changemakers like MARA Mentoring’s Safafisalam, visit SGShare, the national regular giving programme launched in conjunction with SG60, to give to a cause that resonates with you.