Neumind’s founder EeBee Gan was raised around thousands of young international travelers where her parents ran a Singapore hostel. She learned to enjoy and embrace the best ideas from different cultures and to see the learning experience in a way not so traditional.

Having had a colourful and memorable childhood, Ms Gan Ee Bee knew authentic education involved more than rote learning. Children needed an education that was effective, multi-faceted and would prepare them for the changing world. She set out to expand on some of the best practices in early childhood and elementary education, and participated in programs under Dr Kurt W. Fischer and Howard Gardner, Bigelow Professors at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was mentored as a Mind Brain Education researcher, with majors in educational leadership and brain science research methodology.

Neumind offers areas for unstructured play, exploration, activity and reflection. Meeting spaces abound, used for both planned and chance interactions that typify the collaborative Neumind experience. Learning spaces reflect an international educational and aesthetic standard, and are flexible to accommodate the different activities at Neumind. The environment promotes engagement and learning in small group instruction, formal lectures, large group read-alouds or multimedia presentations.

EeBee Gan and the program are looking to expand with non-profit initiatives and open source online education platforms to connect with. Please contact EeBee on Facebook for collaborations.

Listen and read our discussion with EeBee about Neumind on podcast.  

Transcript follows:

Suzanne Bowen: I’m your host Suzanne Bowen, and today we have with us EeBee Gan. She’s in Singapore. I met her in 2009 at the Women’s Entrepeneur Launch, the Women’s Entrepenuer Power Conference, put on by Andrew Wong and others. We met when we were sharing a table during the lunch buffet. I had a really great time talking with her. She was very out going and excited about her entrepreneurial activities. I’m happy to share with you a new friend, EeeBee Gan. EeeBee would you tell us a little more about yourself?

EeBee Gan: Yeah, sure. Basically when I was young, much younger, my parents ran a YMCA Youth Hostel in a seaside bungalow. So I was  exposed to various cultures and languages from all over the world. I keep myself busy meeting new friends, and get to know many friends and I started doing some self study myself. I learned English from tourists and built my confidence and learned about positive thinking skills. So I learned new ways by working on my strengths. So I guess these are the experiences I have been through when I was much younger.

Suzanne Bowen: So even from a young age you’re… what would you call it? … a self starter. Internally, intrinsically motivated, that’s great! So, EeBee, what happened from there? You were telling me a little bit about your career. Love to hear about it.

EeBee Gan: Ok, sure. Back in 1998 after my graduation, I started my career, an auditing and accounting job. It lasted about three years. And I start exploring the things that I would really like to do. So I found myself reflecting on how to best prepare children for changing the future. And building on the research of many educational pioneers and leading thinkers in Harvard University. I set out to spend some of the impressive and proven practices from early childhood and elementary education research.

Suzanne Bowen: That’s a big change from accounting to education but it sounds pretty exciting what you’re involved in. I would love to hear more.

Eebee Gan: I tried to build the educational vision and it emerged quickly beyond the boundaries of my own career and developed into what is now Neumind. So basically I run courses, short term courses or even enrichment classes. We would like to incorporate multiple disciplines and lessons of nurturing creativity and leadership in each child. So I try to work together with some researchers and actively engage in learning and help to motivate the younger kids in local context.

Now, the parents are very much having high expectations of the kids and are very much results-oriented. So we would like to bring new values with combined wisdom from our mentors for the families and the larger community.

Suzanne Bowen: So speaking of mentors, would you share with us some of the people in your life who have been great influence/inspiration for you, who have been your mentors.

Eebee Gan: I’ve been meeting many friends and some of them successful entrepreneurs and I think the most important values I’ve learned from them are to keep trying and never give up. This is what I’ve been doing for 27 years. So it’s like a struggle and I think entrepreneurship is a way of life. It is how I want to live my life to take the lead and to create something new and better.

Previously Neumind was known as BHR (Brain Hemisphere Research. Basically we have gone through a re-branding exercises. This is a project funded by Spring Singapore. We spent about 9 months coming up with a new corporate communication design and even for a new brand name, and it represents increased neuron activities in our brain. Something different.

I would like to say more about Neumind, how we derived this concept. I would say parents are looking forward to providing the kids with the best quality education activities for the children. We try to build a brand name that helps parents to meet their ends and of course Neumind teaching methods are formed by My Brain Education. I’ve been attending the summer institute at Harvard University developed by Dr. Kirk Fisher and Holgeiner from Harvard.

My brand education findings provide us with understanding that when it came to best performance, there is a record jump in performance at about 4 years, 7 years, 11 years, in 15 years and 20 years under the optimal learning conditions. In the market you would find many programs that emphasize a lot on age 0 to age 3. The new upcoming research findings would tell us more that we can actually achieve rapid jumps in performance at other ages.

Suzanne Bowen: Wow Eebee, something you just said made me think back to my own childhood. I told my husband the other day, when I think back on my years of formal schooling, from age 6 to about age 22, the 2 years I remember learning the most, when I loved school the most I were during ages 8 to 9 years old.

After that I feel I didn’t learn much in school. You’re making some good points. Sounds like a really exciting, revolutionary approach. I understand parents do have high expectations.

So you are definitely looking for the best research, developing the coursework from there at the same time. For example. you mentioned awhile ago multiple intelligences. Tell me a little bit about that, how you’re integrating that into the program.

Eebee Gan: Basically, it’s a learning approach or I would say it’s a teaching approach, that the parents can implement at home, and we try to communicate very frequently with the parents. And of course with good teachers, teaching, training, sessions, the teachers get to know about multiple intelligences and how to help the parents to identify the kids’ strengths. We can actually, incorporate multiple intelligences of framework into many diverse disciplines. You could be in language arts program and be better able to enhance the brain growth cycle ability.

We can integrate some interactive activities in the classroom setting so we may find the keys. They’re not solely learning a language arts, but they are exposed to many diverse disciplines. It could be implementing or even getting the parents and teachers to understand the importance of cognitive science or informational neural science into the classroom practice. So I would say it helps the parents to provide students superior learning in compliance with brain’s dominating areas.

Suzanne Bowen: Okay, again I’m going to go back to my own experience because really good speakers make that happen. You’re doing a great job. You made me think of when I was a teacher. I was really intrigued with the multiple intelligence theory. Multiple intelligences, because for example even though I know I am an auditory learner, I like to listen and then I learn a lot by listening…

But I realize that not everyone is like that. And the way school is traditionally, the student in order to succeed has to be an auditory learner. Tey have to be willing to sit there and listen and take notes, that kind of thing right? But they could learn so much more.

I remember teaching an international foriegn language class and the way I exposed them to like Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, German, different languages was we danced and sang our way through them.

I found children’s songs that they were all ready familiar with that were English songs that were translated into different languages. So we would learn to sing the songs in other languages. So it was easy for them to do and they were having fun. It felt natural, it appealed to an intelligence area they were very comfortable with.

Even now I meet those kids, they’re now adults. One kid was in the Marines. He went to Japan and he said, “Wow, I actually met a lot of, made a lot of great friends. especially the girls. Because I sang to them in Japanese and I made them laugh”.

I just love to hear this creative approach to education. It’s life changing and it’s lasting and it will get more results that the parents are looking for than the traditional… “you will listen to mel you will take notes and you will take the tests.”

It’s been so wonderful to get back in touch with you. I was wondering if we might close this interview with maybe you could share with us any particular success you’ve had, that you feel you’ve had within this Neumind or maybe a challenge that you’ve overcome during the process and then also how can the listeners get in touch with you?

EeBee Gan: Basically, you can visit our website www.neumind.org and you can actually log into Facebook and find Neumind.

I would like to share more. We try to educate the parents, getting them to understand that they can actually set long term targets for their kids. And we try to implement or incorporate leadership skills by creating individuals who significantly affect the thoughts, feelings, behaviors of others and would like to motivate the students to learn and grow in achieving peak performance, but it would be in the long term basis.

Suzanne Bowen: Ok, EeBee, one of the things that we as entrepreneurs (female entrepreneurs) are obligated to is to share a little advice to the younger ladies who are listening. So I was wondering if you have any advice for those female entrepreneurial thinkers out there.

EeBee Gan: I would say keep trying and never give up. And of course they can actually seek some guidance or even mentorship from currently successful entrepreneurs and they can actually kick start ideas or simple ideas by setting up small businesses. They need not have many experiences. They can actually gain experiences through the project they are going to create.

Suzanne Bowen: Thank you Eebee, and as Eebee mentioned you can look up NEUMIND by searching on the net. The program is available on Facebook and on their website. So I just want to thank you EeBee and until we meet again, I wish you the best in life and just keep on being that great influence on the children and the parents and like you said, you’re affecting the future in a very positive way.

EeBee Gan: Thank you, and you are welcome.