In 2009, high school student Soo Jin Yun, was selected to participate in a unique regional version of the Sprout E-course sponsored by Microsoft Innovative Students Asia-Pacific. Through the e-course and the forum she attended, she began to appreciate that she had an important role to play as a young change maker in Brunei. “I observed how different leaders have different styles of leadership. [L]eadership is not just about taking charge, but taking responsibility to play a particular role (whether to voice out or to listen, to learn or to share, to lead or to be a team player) at a given time.”

It was through this realization that she and a stalwart group of youth established Green Brunei – an organization and online community dedicated to helping residents of Brunei take small yet important actions to learn about and protect their environment.

In October 2012, Green Brunei with the support of Heart of Borneo, Ministry of Industry & Primary Resources and Life List Chase, delivered a Photography Talk to 200 young nature enthusiasts, environmentalists and aspiring photographers.

The talk featured international award-winning wildlife photographers, C.S.Ling and Ethan Lim from Singapore sharing their amazing photographic adventures documenting some of the world's most magnificent and endangered wildlife in Asia. Their photographs speak in profound ways, highlighting the beauty of the natural world and raising awareness for the endangered animals, inspiring all to make a positive difference. Collectively, with a string of awards, exhibitions and publications notably in National Geographic Explorer magazine and BBC Wildlife (online), they are determined to make the world a better place, one photo at a time. The ultimate goal of this event was to instil a fundamental belief that photography can be a creative and powerful tool to raise urgent awareness of vanishing landscapes and endangered wildlife.

To leverage this learning and engagement opportunity, Soo Jin and her team then launched the Green Brunei Photography Competition to inspire young people to capture and submit photos of wildlife and nature. Over 130 submissions were received through email and uploaded to the Green Brunei Facebook album to encourage discussion, comments and suggested captions by the community at large.

Building networks with other youth, environment, and photography-related groups was critical to the success of Green Brunei’s inaugural contest. Many of these partnerships and contacts worked to spread information about the project through social media, community events and schools.

During the Pearson Fellowship, Soo Jin was further exposed to the building blocks of social ventures and learned the importance of measuring the outcomes of each engagement opportunity created for the Green Brunei community. Through the use of an online survey, Soo Jin learned that through the contest 62% of the over 100 respondents had increased their awareness and interest in the environment, nature and wildlife and now felt compelled to carry out environmentally-friendly actions on a daily basis. Only about 20% of those who participated in the contest also attended the Green Brunei Photography Talk which meant that Soo Jin had been successful in reaching out to young people outside of their immediate network. When asked if those individuals felt that the photo contest had given them an opportunity to be more connected to the Green Brunei community, 93% answered yes.

As part of the original project design, a book would be published featuring photos from the Green Brunei Photography Competition. Soo Jin and her team are still very committed to this deliverable and hope to distribute an e-book that spreads the word about conservation along with equipping people with important facts about nature, wildlife and biodiversity in Brunei.

The most important take away from the Fellowship for Soo Jin has been: “…the valuable suggestions from my mentor. From a wide scope of ideas, my team eventually managed to find a focus.”