Super-learner lunch with Renee, Founder of Baker & Bloom

Walking into Baker & Bloom, you first feel a sense of warmth and find yourself surrounded with books and famous quotes. It is an atmosphere that naturally leads you to the sea of knowledge and ignites your boundless imagination.

The meeting with Renee did not start off with self-introduction or polite talk, but a series of sincere recommendations of great books and podcasts which reflected the passion in teaching and sharing of knowledge, including:

Podcasts — Slate, Tim Ferris, How to Start a Startup

Books — Business Model Generation, Ten Types of Innovation, The Opposite of Loneliness, Building Social Business

In the realm of education, it does not matter who you are or what you have, as long as you are willing, the door is always open for you to explore and grow continuously.

During our meeting, Renee shared with us her experience in running the education center, introduced us many sources of useful information and asked about our stories. Renee had taught for ten years before she founded Baker & Bloom and implemented her unique “Four-Leaf Approach” in teaching. Throughout the discussion, we can feel that she has a genuine love for students and believes in preparing them for the future. As a teacher, it is necessary to understand and keep up-to-date of other fields so as to provide adequate guidance to students. I think this applies to not only teachers but those of us who want to be all-rounded.

Thank you Renee for meeting with us and we wish that more students can be benefited from your new way of teaching! The meeting has raised over 31 volunteer hours to Hands On Hong Kong, Kids4Kids, PathFinders, Principal Chan Free Tutorial World, CUHK ICare Programme and more.

Baker & Bloom will soon launch courses for adults as well, stay tuned here if you wish to learn more.

For more auctions, visit Time Auction Hong Kong, which features the most inspiring people in Hong Kong while encouraging volunteerism.

By Karen Chiu, HKUST Time Auction Ambassador

Volunteers’ testimonials:

Rita Li:

“The meeting with Renee was truly inspiring and delightful! I am impressed by Renee’s passion for education, her global mindset and everyday action of making the world a better place.

Over lunch, Renee shared with us the story of establishing Baker & Bloom Education Centre and her rewarding yet challenging journey of being an educator and entrepreneur. Renee is definitely a role model of life-long learner. She always “stays hungry” and keeps absorbing knowledge across fields. Just look at how much many books she has read and how frequently she listen to podcasts to learn the happenings around the world. Renee told us that sometimes we need jump out of our professionalism and fresh our minds by looking at other industry. One example Renee shared is that by studying the development of the health care sector, she actually got inspired and come up with some new ideas for improving education.

Renee has a kind heart to help people to connect with people. She responded to each of our questions with enthusiasm and gave great recommendations on how we could reach out and pursue our dreams in education. I wish I could become a highly intelligent, resourceful and well-connected leader like Renee.

Wish her a happy delivery of her baby!”

Suet Yee Yong:

“I am very grateful to be given a chance to meet Renee. Before meeting Renee, I was still quite lost and unsure of my field of interest. However, after meeting Renee, I was very inspired by her. I got to learn more about the education field and understand how it can empower people. Seeing how capable Renee is at handling her own company, I am motivated to further improve myself and to enhance my knowledge. Renee’s passion and enthusiasm in her work has also sparked my interest in this field. As Renee has recommended many good books to us, this provides a good start for me. She has also given us many great and helpful advices.

I am thankful that Time Auction has provided this valuable opportunity to me. Besides being able to contribute back to the society, I can also meet experienced mentors. I would also like to thank Renee for her time and for sharing her experiences with us.”

Janet Mack:

“My takeaways:

‘We believe that education is the cultivation of mind and spirit, intelligence and character. We find new ways for learning and self-discovery so that learners flourish and give their best to the world.’

Having an enlightening afternoon with Renee Boey, Founder and Educational Director of Baker and Bloom Educational Centre, Renee ignited us the concept of meaningful education. She thought that young generation need incentive, direction and attentive to unlock their future and possibility. By offering an appreciative and enthusiastic atmosphere, Renee provided a well-rounded networking and models in Baker and Bloom. This is a stimulating perspective when to educational filed, while most people just consider as a profit-making business.

‘Under no circumstances, should flexibility be eliminated.’

Renee also emphasized the gravity of Character Education, such as social-emotional learning, service learning, whole child learning and civic education, by the idea of Four-Leaf Approach.

Four-Leaf Approach directs and targets four pivotal areas: Communication and Language Arts, Learning to learn, Creativity, and Leadership and Service. Focusing on character education and development, Renee believed that youth can establish self-understanding through having critical thinking and new ideas generation about global affairs, and can becoming a global citizen step by step.

‘Our teachers use the Four-Leaf Approach in every course and integrate crucial skills from each area to ensure all-round and life-long growth as well as academic fulfilment.’

To Renee: Hi, nice to meet you Renee. Thank you for meeting with us. I have learnt a lot from your story, such as your mission and vision in running an educational centre. Your innovative ideas of having Character Education definitely outstanding many competitors, I hope I can learn more and gain more insights from you later since I am planning to establish an educational centre that helping the poor students who cannot receive good tutorial services because I believe that education is a must to change their life and bring them a brighter future.”