Celebrating 10 Years of Community Engagement
Service Learning Went Global
Service learning trips extend HKUST's reach to communities around the world to develop students with an international outlook. In June 2009, a concerned group of HKUST students went to Sichuan to help and support the earthquake survivors in the region. They volunteered to teach science in elementary schools and comforted some families. Having been deeply moved by their experience, our students inspired their peers to carry on the tradition and redouble the efforts by making two more trips to the area and revisiting their friends in need in January and June 2010. The team was composed of more than 40 students, faculty, and staff, who taught basic science skills to schoolchildren in the disaster zone. Not only did the volunteers share their knowledge with the children, they also brought them joy by serving with compassion.
"The school children were not the only ones who benefited from this camp. Our very own HKUST students also gained a lot. Only first-hand experience can this project sustain through time, because the impact on our students is real and deep."
Yuheng HE
BSc in Mathematics, Year 4
International Impacts
In 2011, we were connected to the Sakka Foundation which provides assistance to children from impoverished communities in Cambodia. Partnering with Sakka, we started our engagement with local NGOs Who Will Village, Wat Opot Children's Community and Cambodia Children's Fund (CCF), to serve the children in need. As of 2019, we are going to organize our 21st trip to Cambodia this summer, testament to our commitment to long-term service. Students looking for more intensive, extended experiences make a 2 to 6-month full-time commitment as Student Civic Fellows, for example working in various CCF centers in Phnom Penh to support center operations and administration, to teach English and other skills to children, and are involved with other CCF activities as assigned.
Our students have visited 35 destinations in more than 100 trips in the past decade covering Conghua, Guangxi, Guizhou, Huangshan, Jiangxi, Sichuan in mainland China, Macau, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Australia, Switzerland, San Francisco in the US, etc.
"It never occurred to me that we were so important to them and they treasure every moment we spent with them and every single word we taught to them. The kids told me that of course they felt sad after we leave them, but they will think that the joy and knowledge we brought to them is very valuable and that they are always looking forward to our next service trip. I now know that I must continue with doing service trip, because the sadness is just temporary, but the joy and knowledge we brought to them is more long lasting to them because it broadened their horizon."
LUK Hiu Yan
BEng in Industrial Engineering, Year 2
Serving Mainland China
HKUST students have returned to Huangshan, a rural location in Mainland China, four times since 2011 to support primary education in village schools. We provided basic science workshops to pique the primary school students interest in STEM subjects and opened their minds to new educational experiences. HKUST students that volunteered with us earned an invaluable experience of understanding populations of rural China.
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HUANG Tianwei
BEng in Computer Science and Engineering, Year 2
Our students have visited Jiangxi 15 times from 2012 till now. Interest in the province started when the founder of eco-Cultivation Organic Farm Limited came to HKUST to share his company's journey as a social enterprise in the Mainland. The farm hires village seniors who take care of left-behind children and uses its profits to support local schools and the village in Ruijin, Jiangxi. Not only do the seniors get a means of sustenance, but the left-behind children also benefit from access to improved education.
In the Jiangxi Service Learning Trips, students teach the left-behind children and understand the operations of the organic farm. When the student volunteers returned to Hong Kong, they were so touched by their experience that they decided to support the children through "Take a Step Further" – a student-initiated post-trip project. They organized a scarf-knitting and stationary collection campaign to collect supplies for the children in Jiangxi. In addition to that, volunteers sold handcrafted souvenirs to raise funds for the left-behind children and printed a yearbook to give to them. Trip returnees engaged other students to learn more about the situation of migrant worker families in the Mainland.
"I was touched by how grateful the kids are for us just being here. They didn't ask for materialistic items but simply asked me to listen to their story. Most of the kids just wanted someone to talk to and play with. One of the kids told me that he didn’t mind even if we were not teaching them anything .They were grateful that there were people who would travel all the way and care about them. The most important thing that I had learned on this trip was to be grateful for what you have right now because a lot of the things that most of us have, many others don’t have at all."
LIM Wei Song
BEng in Civil and Structural Engineering, Year 3
A Life-Changing Experience
Since 2010, HKUST students participated in intensive summer program organized by VIA in San Francisco, USA every year to learn about some of the world’s most pressing social issues and innovative solutions evolving from service learning, social entrepreneurship to social innovation. Together with a contingent of top scholars from Japan and Greater China, they shared approaches used to address those issues in their home countries. They meet with experts, visit organizations, and discover new insights thought experiential workshops and sharing with other participants.
"For young people like me who have dreams to contribute to the greater good, but still hesitate to take the first step in pursuing these dreams, (the program) makes it happen by enriching us with fruitful knowledge, inspiring mentors, and supportive companions."
Herman CHAN
BBA in Marketing and Management, Year 4
Participant of Exchange for Social Entrepreneurs and Leaders (XSEL) Program 2012 by VIA
Founder of Eldpathy
Awardee of Hong Kong Youth Service Award 2017
Working Alongside the Local Community
Community Outreach Program (COP) is an interdisciplinary service learning experience for university students by living in the villages in Indonesia to give respond to the actual social life and help the community development problems. Every year, will join hands to solve community problems.
During the intensive 2-4 weeks' time, students from various countries in Asia and Europe including Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Netherlands handle multiple service projects while living in homestays with local families. The projects embed elements of their academic learning into practice in services such as installing pipes in the village, paving roads, and designing sanitation systems for the communities they are living with. The long-term service learning model of the program is conductive in nurturing students to serve with their skills.
Indeed it has passed from year to year, starting from the first trip to Sichuan in the 2010, our network of global partners have grown to provide more outreach opportunities to students. Every service learning trip is coupled with pre-trip training and preparation workshops and reflection sessions to give students a comprehensive learning experience. There are destinations that we serve multiple times to show our commitment to building a benevolent world. Over the years, many students have returned as organizing committee members to serve destinations they have previously visited – testament to our success in nurturing passionate service leaders.