Knowledge 4 Students (K4S)– A Student Initiative that Aims to Connect people
Written by: Sarah Campbell
This article was written as part of a collaboration between K4S and the SMU Journal.
Photos by @knowledge4students
You might have heard about Knowledge 4 Students around Saint Mary’s campus or on Instagram. K4S is a student-run platform that connects students with practical knowledge, university-based tips and tricks, and events on and off campus. K4S has a bi-weekly podcast in which they chat with different SMU students each episode. K4S also runs several student- targeted events, such as K4S Tasty World, K4S Sports, and much more.
Maybe you’ve listened to or even participated in their podcast before. Or maybe you have participated in the K4S Tasty World events and won free tacos and sushi. Maybe you have even attended K4S Sports and spent an afternoon chasing a ball across the field with some new friends. However, even if you’ve never heard of K4S or any of their events at SMU, this is your chance to be a part of this new initiative that aims to connect students on campus.
Hold up (here’s where the record scratch sound effect comes in…)! Some of you may be asking, where in the world did K4S come from?
It was late December 2019, around the time finals were just about to end. Andrea Ondo, who founded K4S, was roaming through the halls of Saint Mary’s campus, looking back at the first semester she had at Saint Mary’s as a transfer student. “I [felt] as if I was unable to make new friends for the past 4 months due to time [inconvenience] and/or [no] venues to do so,” said Andrea, as she believes that students often lack the opportunity or knowledge to connect with other students. That was the core problem she wanted to solve, which led her to the idea of creating a platform that allows students to connect easily. Andrea brought this platform idea to the SMU Entrepreneur Center that December day, together with her friends and now her business partners in K4S, Isaac Ndungu and Solana Purdy, they laid out this student pilot project in January 2020, and released the first podcast in February.
That’s how K4S was created in January 2020. It continues to blossom, with over 400+ followers on Instagram and a team of four executives—Andrea Ondo, Solana Purdy, Isaac Ndungu and Sarah Campbell. K4S is now a platform that aims to connect SMU students through their bi-weekly podcast show and collaboration of various social events.
Knowledge 4 Students has many avenues including a podcast show, Tasty World, Sports events, and the latest, K4S Amazing Summer Race. Overall, K4S aims to put on events for students to meet others and have fun all while learning practical knowledge. Below we will briefly review each of the events currently running.
The K4S project started with a bi-weekly podcast interviewing SMU students who have had a diverse range of experiences. Topics include: what SMU students wish they knew in their first year, being a Husky athlete, mental and psychological wellness during quarantine, exclusive interviews with some SMU students, shooting your shot with a crush, being a travel bug, and more! The unique part about each episode is that students vote on the topics they want to listen to on K4S’s Instagram stories and the guests are always well-selected by the K4S team, each with their distinctive personal experiences, tackling topics that are relatable for SMU students. There is always a playful contest to round off each episode, with a prize being given to the guests at the end (e.g., 10 dollar UberEats gift card or 1 month of free Netflix). With wit and lots of energy in each episode, it is the perfect podcast for students to tune into for a quick 10 minutes while cooking supper or organizing your room. So tune in, relax, and enjoy a good laugh.
K4S Tasty World and K4S Sports are two separate events from the podcast that launched one after the other in the past few months. While these events happened in the heat of the pandemic, all events have taken consideration of the COVID-19 regulations.
K4S Tasty World is an in-person social event that provides a way to learn a new language while having fun at the same time. Winners of the event get a meal from an authentic restaurant related to the culture and language they are trying to learn! Here’s how it works: K4S will have an Uno game at the restaurant, and the players have to learn to say the numbers between 1 to 9 and the four colors in Uno in that new language. Each time the players place down a card, they have to voice out what they played in that new language. The game rules for Uno apply here as well; the winner is the one who gets rid of their cards first. The winner of the round gets a free dish paid by K4S. They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. K4S allowed this idiom to work when it comes to learning new languages, too! The K4S Tasty World has put on two events so far: Taco Tuesday from Antojo’s and Sushi from Ko-Doraku. Both events were a great success; some participants could still remember the words a week after the event! These events are ongoing and spontaneous. To participate, you have to keep an eye on K4S’s Instagram stories for the next event or DM them directly to show your interest! Currently, they are looking for SMU students who are fluent in their native language and are willing to join their next event. If you know how to speak Bengali, Hindi, Chinese, Swahili, Shona, Arabic, Russian, you name it! Then reach out to the Knowledge 4 Students team on Instagram! Maybe in the next event, you could be the one devouring the dumplings.
K4S Sports is another social event that gathers sports lovers for a fun afternoon of sports games. It also has had two events this far — soccer and basketball. All levels of sports players are welcome, so there is no need to worry if you’re not a pro. The goal is to spend an afternoon having fun and making new friends while playing sports and games. They have since connected with Bloxo, an app that allows people to join and arrange sports gatherings easily, so the next time you want to join a game, search K4S Sports on Bloxo. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Last but not least, K4S just launched an Amazing Summer Race Bucket List to wrap up the summer months. This is a bucket-list challenge designed to guide students to explore Halifax with friends. The challenges included riding the E-scooter around the Waterfront, watching the sunset at the beach, painting a picture at Citadel Hill and getting a bite of the famous Waterfront Lobster Roll. Students complete one of the four items, DM or post a picture doing the activity, and are entered to win a free wine tour at the Lightfoot & Wolfville Winery. Since the pandemic has changed our summer plans, K4S wanted to give students an inventive way to enjoy some summer hangouts with friends before school starts. The challenge ends (September 6th)! You still got a few days to be in the race, why not gather your friends and have some fun? But fear not, if you didn’t pull up your sneakers quick enough to participate, follow them on Instagram to keep on top of their upcoming events!
Are you pumped about K4S? There is more to swamp your mind over in the coming months! With the new online semester starting, they are planning a ‘Study Meet’ (a live video chat study-meeting for SMU students to join and study together in online groups), ‘1st Year Q&A’ (video chat meetings that invite students of all levels to a Q&A session, answering key first-year students’ questions on university), and K4S face masks are in the designing process and will be for sale in the near future! Most exciting of all, K4S is looking forward to releasing their website later this month (September 2020), which will allow students to share and sign up for these amazing events and many more. Join the conversation and fun! Knowledge 4 Students is an excellent platform for you to meet like-minded people!
You can find their eight podcast episodes on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play. To stay up-to-date with all that’s going on, follow them on Instagram @knowledge4students. Lastly, help K4S become more accessible by completing the survey in their Instagram bio. Cheers to engaging with more people!