STEM + SEL

From the very beginning, Kidspire’s program in Vietnam has been focused on helping students to develop their self-esteem and self-confidence. STEM and digital and internet literacy have been the tool or the platform that we have used to help us engage these students in their learning. But over the 15 years of program facilitation, we have observed that the needs of many of these youth - most of whom are growing up in orphanages - extend beyond simply developing a feeling of self-confidence about their skills in technology. Or a positive outlook about their prospective careers after they leave the orphanage to begin their young adult lives. The often traumatic events that led to their placement in the orphanage, as well as the stressful requirements of navigating the social environment within the orphanage, have created a collection drivers of mental health challenges including: adverse family circumstances, strict caretakers, lack of family connection, academic overwhelm, and bullying and stigmatization.

We are not mental health professionals. And while we could choose to use our financial resources to hire the relevant professionals, the reality has been that our core competency is STEM education and adapting STEM to make it engaging to our student population who has often decided that education (at least in the format they’ve experienced it) is not interesting to them. So we decided to research how we could integrate STEM with elements of mental health - and how we might be able to address at least a small part of the drivers of mental health challenges that were facing our students.

And we found a lot of relevant material. Schools across the world are integrating elements of social emotional learning into their everyday classes and classrooms. Self-awareness. Self-management. Relationship skills. Responsible decision-making. Social Awareness. These were the 5 core competencies of social emotional learning (SEL) and our teaching team all agreed we could begin to introduce these elements into our curriculum.

There is still a lot of work to do. But the photos posted here demonstrate real examples of activities where Kidspire is engaging our participating youth in important elements of SEL. And it’s making a difference making impact. Our students are showing measurable improvements in self and social awareness - and how to translate that awareness into improved relationship skills and decision-making.

And as we look ahead to the 2025-2026 school year, we have plans for a significant integration of STEM+SEL into a 30-hour, 10-week course, where we use coding, and examples of if/then statements and sequences to demonstrate examples of de-escalation techniques in interpersonal conflict.

As we imagine the next 15 years, it is our hope that we can become known for the way we utilized the intersection of STEM+SEL to support our students to be better prepared for their young adult lives beyond the orphanage.

Note: Some of the ideas included within this story were reinforced from third party research, including “Mapping Youth Mental Health Landscapes” conducted by the Delphi Survey in collaboration with the Institute of Sociology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.