When I was on my way to interview Junior Explorers’ Akshaat Singh at their Singapore office, I was very curious to know more about the venture. I had heard about it from a few friends whose kids were loving the adventures Junior Explorers offer.
When I reached their office, I was expecting to meet one elderly corporate boss who will talk about some financial jargon, numbers and so on. But when I saw a young, smiling and friendly young man in his 20s [my-guess-am-sure-must-be-correct], I was pleasantly surprised.
Akshaat is one of the founder members of Junior Explorers and now heads its Asia operations.
Here are the excerpts from the interview –
RainbowDiaries: Tell us more about Junior Explorers. How and where it all began?
Akshaat: When I was in USA for my education, Junior Explorers was born in end of 2013. It got officially launched in 2014.
The whole concept of Junior Explorers is based on one simple principle – you only protect something that you love and you can only love things you are connected to.
Junior Explorers was developed as a program to develop kids’ understanding of our planet. The program makes the kids familiar about the world through fun and interactive missions. Junior Explorers wants kids to be the Green Citizens and Environmental Stewards.
Junior Explorers combines awesome physical content with digital resources, collectibles and other materials to ensure holistic enrichment for kids. Programs are available in English and Portuguese as of now.
Along with kids, Junior Explorers open up a great opportunity for family bonding where parents can work with kids to complete the missions. It is like sending kids to Amazon, Arctic and other places every month.
RainbowDiaries: How Junior Explorers landed in Singapore?
Akshaat: After my studies, I decided to move back to Asia and that is how Junior Explorers expanded its boundaries to Asia as well. Its Asia headquarter is in Singapore and we are present in India as well. Other Asian countries are on our wishlist and we will soon take our missions to these countries.
Subscription Box concept is quite popular in USA. In Singapore, Junior Explorers is one of the firsts to introduce this concept.
Since end of 2014, we started working on our Singapore launch and in the month of Aug-Sept 2015, Junior Explorers started its formal mission.
RainbowDiaries: What are the subscription plans available?
Akshaat: Parents can choose from various options – monthly, three-months, six-months or annual. A new mission to a new ecosystem with new animals is delivered each month.
RaibowDiaries: Wow, I think parents can gift these subscriptions instead of usual routine birthday presents. I am sure kids would be more than happy!
RainbowDiaries: How Junior Explorers program can benefit the kids in their academics?
Akshaat: Though Junior Explorers is not a formal academic program, its contents are all about our world, our planet, our ecosystems and our animals. This will surely help kids some or the other way in their academics too. Overall understanding of Geography, Sociology and development of cognitive skills is expected in kids when they explore these missions.
We can term Junior Explorers missions as Edutainment – combining Education and Entertainment where learning is fun for kids.
RainbowDiaries: How Junior Explorers develop the contents?
Akshaat: We believe that content is King and ensure that our content is relevant and current. Our content team consists of Scientists, Teachers and other experts from the respective field.
Our program introduces new ecosystems, new missions every month that have various story-lines, mysteries and clues to solve them. We have Kia and Kyle who take the kids to explore the world with them.
RainbowDiaries: What is the feedback from Singapore parents?Akshaat: So far the feedback is great. We can see the subscriptions for three / six / yearly basis being taken up. Re-signups are happening too.
RainbowDiaries: What are the other initiatives that we can see in near future from Junior Explorers?Akshaat: We will continue to develop exciting contents and will keep taking kids to various ecosystems and continents. You can also see our booths in various events to increase our reach.We are also checking if something can be worked out with schools in terms of CCA and so on.I would like to specially mention our Mission Giveback – an initiative where kids learn the importance of donation. They can donate points earned from their missions and Junior Explorers in turn will donate equivalent monetary amount to environment conversation projects.
RainbowDiaries: Thanks so much, Akshaat for talking to RainbowDiaries and giving us so much information about Junior Explorers. We cannot wait to start the missions already.
Akshaat: Thanks to you as well. You will get welcome kit first and then the first mission will begin. Happy exploring!!
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Watch this space for our missions to different parts of the world with Kia and Kyle
Very inspiration interview, didn’t know about Junior Explorers until I read your post 🙂
hah it’s so funny that you expected some old man, Junior explorers sounds like a cool new venture, love it when education it taught in an entertaining format
Thanks for the information, its my first time get to know about the junior explorers also. It’s very informative and interactive way of learning for the kids.
Sounds a fun education for kids. If I was a kid, I will register myself to join this explore. xD
Sounds interesting. Gonna check out the website to learn more. Thanks for sharing Shubs!
lovely project. especially good for the kids.
This is actually a good activity and exposure for the kids. they need to understand how important the world is and learn how to preserve it as well
Subscription boxes are getting popular in Singapore! Great way for young kids to learn about our world, our planet, our ecosystems and our animals 🙂
Wow this looks great. I wonder if they have a similar program in KL.
good project for the kids to explore… in future i will expose my kids to this 😀
What a fantastic initiative. Such a great activity. Their principle is so true, you can only protect something you love.
Thanks sharing this interview. I would have loved to have been involved with something like this when I was younger
I didn’t know about junior explorers until you share with me and I’m from Singapore. I guess it’s more for mums and kids? Definitely something different~
This is so cute and it has a very interesting concept. I think kids will really enjoy doing these neat activities while learning something new. Being a part time teacher myself it is such a great achievement when I know my students are learning something while having fun. Great Job Junior explorer!
It is a good platform for kids to learn . This kind of learning style will be more easier to absorb ~
Junior explorer is indeed a great subscription box for kids to learn and explore various stuff, a perfect edutainment solution.
So cool! It’s true, subscription boxes were not popular back in 2014 but now in 2016, it has very quickly caught up with trend, with subscription boxes for cosmetics, skincare and now even children’s learning materials!
So cool I like their concept of giving this monthly subscription box for kids to explore themselves! Kids gonna be excited as they will receiving different box each month =D
I agree the gifts would be great to give. Unexpecteds make me happy. This sounds great!
Sounds like a great educational kit with exciting fun and value learning. Cool interview.
This is amazing! Kids need to learn about the importance of our environment and how to preserve it an early age. Such a great cause to launch!
I’m sure my children will benefit with the plan. I might sign up for 3 mths to test it out first and if they are ok with it, then only longer period. Thanks for the infor.
Looks like something my children would enjoy. My elder one wants to be an explorer.
i’ve never heard of them till this review/interview and it sounds really enriching and interesting.
Up you go all the kids here. =)
Sounds like a great way for kids to explore the world without having to travel!
Sounds like a good subscription program that educate kids on general knowledge, which is quite lacking in schools these days.
Looks like a really fun program for kids to enrol in!
A good initiative for instilling good collaborative teachings into this young lads. Definitely, it will broaden their mind and knowledge gained will forever be valuable to their advancement in life.
I have not heard of Junior Explorers before. It is an excellent advocacy. Our young people need to love the planet more than ever. Kudos to their CEO.
I’ve heard so much about the Junior Explorers’ subscription box. I know that my 5yo will enjoy this… shall look more into this, thanks for sharing.
This is cool and it educates children and empowers them to help protect our environment. I hope that this wonderful cause will soon be available in the Philippines as well. And even though I do not have a kid, I’d still be interested on this project.
You can rely on the kids today to come up with awesome concepts such as this to help raise awareness and improve the planet’s well-being. I am glad you met one of them too. This is an awesome subscription box for kids and it’s a great way to educate them about our planet and how to take care of it.
Junior explorers has a good advocacy. Kids could really learn a lot of concept on protection and preservation of our environment.
Great interview. Learning is just a process many see as difficult but at the end it is a powerful too.
It’s great to hear about a program aiming to develop kids’ understanding of our planet. I’m happy to discover more about this project:)
Junior Explorer sounds like an amazing project! I hope they are as successful as they want to and get to expand to other countries in the future. Loved the interview 🙂
Nice subscription box! It is like Reader digest’s upgraded version. 🙂
This sounds like a subscription that we have here in the US as well. My son would love this and I’m sure that kids of all ages will love to subscribe as well.
This is such an interesting project. If I had a kid, I would encourage them to participate, children nowadays do not have enough general knowledge on the world.
It is really a good program for kids to join! I bet their will grow and learn a lot from the offered programs! 🙂
This is my first time to know about junior explorer
I love this project! I would have begged my parents to join something like this when I was a child!
That’s a great initiative. Glad to see the youngsters being adventurous!!!
This sounds great, such a good activity for young children to be involved with. Exploring is the best way for children to learn. Thankyou for sharing.
This is a great project, being a teacher I like the term edutainment, that’s the key word.
Learning becomes easier if entertaining and collaborative!
Well done Junior explorer!