As shared by Bella to the Beyond Editorial Team
Bella still remembers what it felt like to struggle in school. She remembers sitting at the kitchen table, not understanding her homework, and feeling the weight of major exams long before she took them. But she also remembers her older sister Nayla beside her, patiently walking her through each question. Nayla had taken a different path through school, but that never stopped her from being the one Bella could count on.
Now 17, Bella is in her first year at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, studying Early Childhood Development and Education. She’s the fourth of six children and often says she got where she is because of the people around her. “My siblings didn’t have older siblings to help them. I did,” she said.
“They helped me because they know what it was like to not have the support they needed.”
It’s a quiet truth, that sometimes, those who came before us create space we didn’t know we needed. Bella knows this, because she lived it. That’s why becoming a Learning Coach through Beyond’s Early Learning Programme (ELP) felt like a natural step.
Learning Coaches are youth from the community who are paid to provide academic support to younger children in their own neighbourhoods. Since last year, Bella has been one of them.
In ELP, she supports children as they prepare for primary school – building their confidence, strengthening their literacy and numeracy, and helping them find joy in learning. The work can be unpredictable as the children are full of energy and can be easily distracted.
But Bella has learned how to meet them where they are. She asks about their interests, listens when they talk about their families, and lets them choose what they want to learn each day. And when something finally clicks, she feels what her sister must have felt all those years ago.
“They’re very sweet,” Bella says. “Sometimes they offer me food or little things to take home.”
What she’s learned through ELP has also helped her support her younger brother with his homework. That same spirit of care passed between siblings and neighbours, continues in quiet, meaningful ways.
Since her father passed away last year due to health complications, Bella has been working part-time to support her daily expenses, balancing four shifts a week alongside school and her role as a Learning Coach. She hopes to study psychology at university. “I want to understand how people work,” she says. “Especially children.”
Bella doesn’t speak about herself in grand terms. She simply shows up for the children she teaches, for her family, and for her community. She teaches because someone once taught her. She gives, because she knows what it means to receive.
Bella, who once needed help, has become the one offering it. In the space between being held and holding others, she is shaping a path forward. Not just for herself, but for those who will come after her.
Support children in our learning programmes – so there can be more “Bellas” in the community.
When we invest in a child’s learning, we open doors not just for them, but for the ones they’ll go on to guide, teach, and uplift.