Celebrating 10 Years of Community Engagement

After participating in our volunteer opportunities, some students are eager to do more to give back to the community. To facilitate the growth and learning of these proactive student volunteers, we have developed several programs to turn our students into active service leaders. Not only do participants get the opportunity to plan and run their own service projects, they also benefit from guidance from our professional advisors and training for personal growth.

Connect Ambassador for Community Engagement (Connect ACE)

Connect ACE is a yearlong development program for peer-to-peer advocacy and community engagement. The program aims to bring together civic-minded students to initiate service learning projects that address genuine community needs, at the same time to motivate and lead fellow students to serve the wider community. Throughout the year, ACE will receive training and guidance on service project implementation and work closely with us to advocate the service culture on HKUST campus.

"Overall speaking, being an ACE is one of the most valuable and enjoyable experience for me in the university study. I have worked with a group of like-minded students, gained insights from the experienced advisors, met some energetic elderly as well as gained a chance to learn about the community widely. This life-long lesson is definitely beneficial to my future study and even my career as a number of my soft skills and hard skills have been enhanced. I really learnt a lot from the whole journey and would definitely continue serving the community."

Natasha CHEUNG

BBA in Marketing, Year 3

"Joining Connect ACE was one of the most life changing chain of events that I have ever experienced. The workshops that I joined in the early days of connect helped me grow as a person and increase my hard skills in learning leadership, time management, and self-discipline. Through the learning camp I learned about teamwork and how to work together effectively. But the most amazing experience in all the Connect ACE projects is how we could make our own projects from scratch and with the professional help of the Connect staff executing the project."

Albert E. TJANDRA

BBA, Year 2

Public Service Leadership Program

The Public Service Leadership (PSL) Program Award was launched with support from Mrs Choi Ma Oi Kuen's generous donation. The committed awardees participate in a yearlong Public Service Leadership Program to equip themselves the skills as public service leaders through trainings and diverse exposure in community engagement, such as serving as an intern in an NGO and initiating and leading a local service project with meaningful community impact that engages other HKUST students.

"Joining the PSL program enables me to have a fruitful school year. It has alleviated my financial burden so that I can spend more time to do voluntary services instead of doing part‐time. Although the program ended, my enthusiasm to do service will not stop here. I hope that I can continue to serve as a PSL in my school and even in the society. Again, I believe doing services is an “attitude” matter: everyone can be a PSL as long as you have the passion!"

Eunice LEUNG

BBA in Professional Accounting, Year 2

"To me, the most fruitful part of the PSL program is self-discovery. The practical leadership experience has provided very clear direction for self-improvement. It seems old school but true that the end of a journey symbolizing a new embarkation. Perhaps one suitable way to thank for the donor, my advisors and my teammates would be carrying all I have learnt to the next stage of life."

YEUNG King Yiu

BSc in Risk Management and Business Intelligence, Year 2