Shirleen, Dawn, Jeannie and Brian while on a recce hike for a One Uni recruitment event
As the Team Lead for Cru's Singapore Management University (SMU) Campus Ministry (at the time of the interview), part of Li Min’s job is to befriend and regularly meet up with students, to get to know them better as well as to journey with them through the ups and downs of student life. Campus ministry work is no stranger to her; ever since joining Cru as a full-time staff back in 2011, she’s been working in National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and now SMU.
One initiative that Li Min started in her ministry was an internship programme with Cru Singapore. As part of their academic degree requirements, all undergraduate students at SMU have to complete a mandatory 10-week internship in order to graduate. Naturally, this can be a stressful affair for some—this struggle to secure an internship is one of the many common concerns of SMU students that Li Min hears about.
SMU Cru interns having lunch together with our Country Leader (3rd from the Right)
Interns during a morning devotion and worship session
Li Min and her son
The idea of an internship programme first came about when she was having a casual chat with a student. “I was just catching up with her and finding out how she was, and the question of whether she had secured an internship just came up,” says Li Min. “She told me that she had yet to find one, and lamented how difficult it was to secure one. I then asked her: ‘What if you did your internship at Cru?’
“Funnily enough, there was no formal internship programme then, but I decided to just advertise it in one of our group chats anyway, to see who else would be interested!” says Li Min with a laugh. “To be honest, I didn’t think too much of it. But suddenly, when people started expressing their interest, I thought to myself: ‘Wah jialat, I better get something going!”
And so, this marked the start of Cru’s Summer Student Internship programme, which is primarily open to SMU students so that they can fulfil their internship requirements. It has since expanded to take in those from other tertiary institutes, or those who want a taste of full-time ministry work as well as exposure to skills such as events planning and management.
Li Min's personal spiritual walk has also been greatly blessed from her ministry work. "When I was a student in NUS, I was a lukewarm Christian," she says. "But when I joined Cru, I was challenged to do more. I also resonated with the challenges that second-generation Christians faced. We have also seen growth in our ministry in the past 2 years, and I want to be used by God to be part of this revival."
Find out more about internship opportunities or email internship@cru.org.sg
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