Allocating Resources to Enhance Community Relationships
Nurturing students with human caring and social responsibility is an important part of the liberal-arts education. HSUHK, with its unique ‘Liberal + Professional’ education model, not only aims at training students to be professional talents, but also emphasises the cultivation of students’ humanistic qualities, including care for the community and well-rounded personalities. The University thus encourages students and staff to proactively engage with and serve the community, which helps widen their horizons and fosters their aspiration and sense of responsibility for the betterment of society.
While the definition of ‘community’ can be broad and even ‘virtual’ nowadays, in the opinion of President Simon S M Ho, it should be relationship-oriented, with a group of people in a region establishing mutual care and trust, sharing a sense of identity and belonging, and feeling like members of a family. “In this sense, HSUHK campus is a community, in which each of us, whether student, teacher or staff, is a member. We are also members of the communities of Siu Lek Yuen and Shatin respectively where our campus is located.”
President Ho further explains that, though the size of a community can be flexible, if it is close to us in terms of physical distance and relationships, we are able to have more opportunities to understand, serve and personally participate in the community affairs. “We always encourage students and staff to devote more to the community. As members, we should care, engage with and contribute more to our community to jointly enhance the interests of its members. It is our responsibility and honour.”
As a university, HSUHK strives to use its expertise in teaching and learning, research, service and innovations to interact with the community and enhance its quality and well-being. To further advance community relationships, the University has set up the Institute for Youth Sustainability Leadership and the Service-Learning Section under the Centre for Teaching and Learning to integrate more resources with the aim of driving students’ community engagement. President Ho says these units will help HSUHK build closer partnerships within the community. “In the future, we hope to develop more creative ideas and have a more influential impact to enhance the community.”
Building Community Partnership to Drive Sustainability
The Institute for Youth Sustainability Leadership (IYSL) has been established to provide a platform for the HSUHK students and staff, together with the community, to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Dr Chi-kit Chan, Director of IYSL, expounds, “We carry out the SDGs through various approaches. Firstly, we integrate the SDGs into our teaching and learning activities through subsidised learning projects. We also provide subsidies to students and help them with the liaison work in support of their participation in international exchange programmes. Furthermore, IYSL focuses on the collaboration with different community units, with the goal of raising more private resources to drive the SDGs.”
Dr Chan says that IYSL primarily promotes community engagement and sustainability activities through partnerships. One recent example is the Ma Lai Hau Hang ecotour and workshop, which included HSUHK students and staff and residents from the Kwong Yuen Estate together with an invited natural-ecological artist. Dr Chan believes that students’ engagement in community activities helps facilitate their understanding of different social issues. “In the beginning, they may think that some of the issues, such as the ecological resources of the community, or the ethnic issues, are irrelevant to them. However, after taking part in the activities in person and through overseas exchange, they will learn that many of these issues are actually closely related to them and that there are other possibilities for sustainability.”
Nature Journaling: Leaf and Vein Frottage Art
IYSL organised an educational eco-art workshop titled ‘Nature Journaling: Leaf and Vein Frottage Art’ on 17 June 2020 to promote sustainability in the community. The participants of the workshop included HSUHK students and staff and residents from the Kwong Yuen Estate, a public housing estate neighbouring HSUHK.
The first part of the activity was an ecotour of the biodiversity in Ma Lai Hau Hang, a river near HSUHK. Led by well-known natural-ecological artist and writer Ms Human Ip and HSUHK student docents, participants explored the ecology and flora in Ma Lai Hau Hang. It was then followed by the Frottage Art Workshop at the hall of the Residential Colleges, where they documented characteristics of the plants and made their unique nature notes through artwork. IYSL hopes the workshop deepens students’ understanding of their community, drives them to better connect with the community and to think more about the initiatives in sustainability.
Service-Learning: Using the Knowledge to Contribute to the Community
The Service-Learning Section of HSUHK was set up in 2018. Dr Felix Tang, Associate Director (Service-Learning) of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, says the objective of service-learning is to combine volunteer work within the curriculum, encouraging students to make practical use of the knowledge they learn in the classroom to help with some social problems. “When you look at the term ‘service-learning’, you can see there is a hyphen connecting the two words. It means that we pay equal attention to both elements. In a university, learning is no doubt an essential part, but we also hope that students can apply what they learn. Their learning would be much more meaningful if they can really apply their knowledge to serve the community and take care of its needs.”
That’s why the Service-Learning Section endeavours to integrate service-learning into the curriculum. There are so far 10 modules with service-learning elements at HSUHK, ranging from Human-Computer Interaction offered by the Department of Computing, Advanced English from the Department of English, Advanced Leadership from the Department of Management, Individual and Society from the Department of Social Science, Quality Management and Process Analysis from the Department of Supply Chain and Information Management, Computer and Business Translation 1 from the School of Translation, and others. At the same time, the Service-Learning Section proactively collaborates with community institutions. “We contact the teachers and institutions to set up appropriate matches. For instance, our previously launched credit-bearing service-learning modules had cooperation with a Caritas Elderly Centre, helping them with resource allocation and other problems. Under the guidance of teachers, students in the Marketing Research and Consumer Behaviour modules of the Department of Marketing were asked to design questionnaires, learn consumer behaviour to formulate marketing strategies, and have in-depth interviews with users to collect and consolidate their opinions and preference. This was a valuable learning opportunity for marketing students, as they could study and practice in a NGO context, thinking about how to enhance the service of the Elderly Centre. During the process, they not only needed to apply the corresponding marketing knowledge and skills, but also had the opportunity to gain exposure to social issues and reflect on them.”
Dr Tang points out that, the key point of service-learning is to give students a real problem, and ask them to practically solve it under the guidance of teachers while applying the theories and knowledge they have learnt. It is a mutually beneficial practice – students gain satisfaction and sense of authenticity; at the same time, the community institutions are able to get professional advice from teachers and voluntary help from students. Thanks to the concerted efforts of a group of HSUHK’s passionate colleagues driving the initiative, there was a lot of positive feedback towards the service-learning projects with nearly 400 students participating in them so far. The Service-Learning Section is now planning to launch more projects, one of which is a collaboration with The Lutheran Church Hong Kong Synod to revitalise Luen Wo Hui Market at Fanling. “The project, still under preparation, will invite various departments of HSUHK to join and collaborate in different areas and stages. In fact, our students have many creative ideas. Through service-learning, they will be able to transform their ideas and put them in practice.”
HSUHK Volunteer Works
Beyond the regular community engagement projects, HSUHK organises a number of volunteer services to provide assistance for those with urgent or temporary needs, and express our care for the community.
HSUHK Care Packs
As face masks and pandemic preventive supplies have become daily necessities due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Student Affairs Office, the HSUHK Students’ Union and the HSUSU Art Society co-organised the ‘Cloth Mask & Mask Cover DIY Workshop + Sharing Scheme’ from April to June 2020, in which over 250 HSUHK students participated in the production of the cloth masks and mask covers. The hand-made cloth masks and mask covers, together with preventive supplies such as surgical masks and hand sanitisers, were then packaged into HSUHK Care Packs with the drinks donated by the HSUHK Students’ Union. Over 300 Care Packs were produced and presented to the HSUHK housekeeping staff and security guards, as well as community members in need through various charitable organisations.
Students are conducting the quality control practices for the hand-made face masks
Sentimental Grandparent Scheme
The Sentimental Grandparent Scheme, organised by The Hong Kong Society for the Aged (SAGE) and sponsored by The S H Ho Foundation, was implemented in an unconventional way as a result of the pandemic this year. Student residents of HSUHK Residential Colleges (RCs) produced video clips of 3 to 5 minutes each sharing their daily lives in RCs, extending their care to the elderly at the SAGE Madam Ho Sin Hang Home for the Elderly. Having received overwhelming responses from students, the first video clip produced by the S H Ho Wellness College in May 2020 was passed to SAGE social workers and screened at the Elderly Home. The second video, produced by the Patrick S C Poon Amity College, was also sent to SAGE in June 2020.
HSUHK students show their care to the elderly through video sharing
Residential Colleges Move-out Freecycling Campaign
Although the number of residents in RCs has decreased under the impact of COVID-19, this has led to the formation of closer ties within the RC community with new and creative initiatives being implemented by the RCs to connect everyone despite social distancing.
With the support of the Evergreen College’s Student Residents’ Association, the Move-out Freecycling Campaign was carried out during the mass move-out period from 27 to 31 May 2020 to encourage students to make good use of everything and treasure resources. The organising committee of the campaign collected and sorted the donated items from the RC residents, before inviting HSUHK students to pick any reusable items for free on the Pick-up Day on 8 June 2020. After the activity, the remaining items were collected by the Shatin Community Green Station for recycling.
Other Volunteer Works
