SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CO-FOUNDER
SRICHARAN BALASUBRAMANIAN
YEAR 1, RENAISSANCE ENGINEERING PROGRAMME
With 30 people, you might be able to help vulnerable residents in several housing estates. But what if you could galvanise hundreds or even thousands of volunteers instead? First-year NTU student Sricharan Balasubramanian, also known as Sri, is doing just that through a new startup launched last year.
The inspiration for the endeavour dates back to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when an 18-year-old Sri started a youth volunteer group with his friend, Harrison Chong, to deliver meals, clean homes and even tutor vulnerable groups.
They led a core team of 30 to mobilise over 200 volunteers to raise more than $120,000 to support people at a shelter in partnership with a social service agency.
But juggling community work with International Baccalaureate diploma exams and then National Service soon became difficult, which limited the amount of aid they could render.
Sri, who describes himself as a problem-solving engineer, searched for a more sustainable way to create greater community impact with Harrison.
A kinder metaverse
They hit upon the idea of starting an edutech social enterprise that would use fun, gamified worlds to teach young people about social issues. The aim was to mobilise youth to uplift the less fortunate in society. This idea won seed funding of $51,000 from the National Youth Council’s Youth Action Challenge.
Sri and Harrison launched Jalan Journey last year. The startup runs interactive workshops for secondary school students to learn about environmental issues and social inequality. By playing “games” on recycling, food waste and textile waste in the Jalan Journey world, students can see for themselves how their choices, such as buying fast fashion, can turn a lively city into a polluted wasteland.
At the same time, Jalan Journey staff, mostly youth in university, facilitate in-class discussions and the students can choose to volunteer with local charities afterwards.
Just one year in, the social enterprise has reached out to over 2,000 secondary school students here and become profitable. Sri leads a team of 15, including two other NTU students, in product development, operations and more. He plans to expand Jalan Journey into Malaysia and the United States next.
Engineering social good
Growing up, Sri spent many afternoons taking apart old computers with his father, a computer scientist by training.
“Since I liked problem-solving, I was certain engineering was the way to go. But every engineering specialisation seems interesting. I’ve been into electromagnetics and mechanics since secondary school, and my father has nurtured my passion in computing,” he shares.
So he applied for NTU’s Renaissance Engineering Programme (REP), attracted by its unique first-year engineering foundation programme that exposes students to six engineering fields, including civil, environmental and materials engineering. Having explored the different areas in his course, Sri plans to specialise in computer engineering from his second year.
“Besides engineering, I love learning about business and leadership, which is built into REP’s multidisciplinary programme. We come up with engineering solutions to real problems and create a positive impact on society. This really resonates with me,” Sri says.
“Being able to pick the sharp minds of the best faculty in NTU has also been a great source of inspiration and motivation,” Sri adds. He cites how his business management lecturer, Dr Kumaran Rajaram, generously advises him on change management and leadership challenges he encounters in Jalan Journey.
Keen to share what he has learnt, Sri spoke about his entrepreneurial journey at the United Nations Social Forum in Geneva last year with the support of the NTU Entrepreneurship Academy. He is also active in NTU’s business case competition club and other school co-curricular activities.
Being a recipient of the NTU Talent Scholarship is affirmation that he’s on the right track, and he is now exploring how to use the talent grant to take his dream higher.
“Building a grassroots youth community and now a social enterprise has given me the courage to be audaciously ambitious. I believe that everything is possible if we think deeply, plan well and convert our goals into actionable steps,” he says.
Secondary school students learn about social and environmental issues through interactive workshops and virtual games run by Sri’s social enterprise, Jalan Journey.
This story was published in the Mar-Apr 2024 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.
