Sharing
Diversity on Campus
It is such an honor for me to promote cultural diversity in CUHK. In charge as the Project Leader for 2019 Indonesian Cultural Night, I am more than proud to introduce Indonesian cultures and heritages to both local and international students. As an international student, I could not be more thankful of than being able to step out of my comfort zone by participating in leadership projects in several extra-curricular activities such as being a Student Mentor in Onboarding Program for freshmen and Public Relations Team Leader of Green Life Ambassador in my College.
The phenomenal collegiate system of CUHK has facilitated my adjustment to university life. I belong to a new college that has an intimate, international, intellectual and involved environment. It is a great opportunity for us to meet new friends, thus expanding your social circle. One crucial benefit of this is that it fosters open-mindedness to embrace differences, meet new people and build friendships with them. This is the core value of the cosmopolitan society of which I am a part, which aims to bring together people with different backgrounds and cultures to promote mutual dialogue.
As the only international cabinet member of my college voluntary team, I got the opportunity to make some wonderful local friends, visit old age homes and work closely with local people during our fund-raisers and service engagements. I further got to interact with the ethnic minority communities of Hong Kong under the I-Ambassador and CLOVER programmes organized by the OSA. As the event manager of the Association of Indian students, I got to share my culture, teaching henna art, celebrating holi and had a home-like experience and through many cross-cultural events.
I am from South Korea, but I have spent more than half my life outside of Korea and have lived in Australia, the Philippines, and mainland China since I was 11. I originally enrolled for the Bachelor of Social Science degree of our Centre, but later decided to change to the Bachelor of Arts. The change happened because of a professor who is not with us at the moment, Professor Igor Chabrowski. I took his Modern China class. He thought I fit better in the Arts. My concern at the time was, “Oh, I think social science is more practical than arts.” But he gave me some advice: Do something that you like, something you can enjoy. So I switched, which was a big change in my college life.
Exchange Opportunities
CUHK offers many student exchange programmes, workshops and internships with world class companies, so you not only build professional knowledge of your subject, but also learn practical skills that will help you in your future work. As long as you strive to be outstanding and diligent, you will have many opportunities to benefit from CUHK’s valuable resources.
I went on an exchange to Taiwan organised by my programme and it has proven an invaluable experience. I met students from Taiwan and all over the world who all see cross-straits issues differently from how I do. Whether I am taking lessons with my friends, using a foreign language to travel around Taiwan, or making new friends in a new environment, these are all priceless opportunities. An exchange is a great way to continue studying what you like while embarking on your very own adventure.
Back in the days when I was a student in Biology, I participated in an exchange programme to the US where I had a chance to make friends with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This eye-opening experience reinforced my interest in language learning. After graduating from CUHK, I ventured abroad again and pursued my master’s degree in Linguistics in the US.
I was given the chance to go on exchange to the Netherlands. It literally changed my life. I discovered that in the small, thinly populated country, everyone was treated as an equal and unique individual. They were given every latitude in becoming whoever they wanted to be. Such liberty and openness at once enraptured me.
Academic & Internship
I gained many different experiences during my internship: chances to join meetings with senior managers, to work with agencies in developing new advertisements and to aid the team in developing a new product. I also had the chance to attend a YouTube event where I met many people who work in the industry. Getting to meet new people, taking up challenges and undertaking training outside the classroom was an unforgettable experience that every undergraduate should have during their university life.
I enjoy studying a lot. The programme offers a series of foundational courses ranging from management, marketing, finance and more. Students are equipped with knowledge essential for any business career before they decide to choose their concentration areas. Thai people are more passive and normally shy, but I need to speak a lot and communicate in group projects and tutorials. With this real-life training, I’m driven to be an active, sociable, more confident person, and have learned the know-how of befriending people.
The professors are what make this a really good programme. The teaching staff is fantastic. They’re dedicated to their fields of study, but that’s only part of it. They actually care about their students and care about teaching. They’re not just there to do research and are forced to teach on the side and hate it. Well, maybe they do, but I’ve never felt that about any CCS professor! I’ve improved so much – my writing, my thinking, my knowledge of China. That’s the most important thing about the experience. The reason it has been so good is because of these people. I took a big risk coming to CUHK. It could have been terrible. But it wasn’t, because these people made it a good experience. I will always remember that.
My studies at CUHK equipped me well with the analytical, legal research, teamwork and problem-solving skills I needed to be successful during my traineeship. With unfailing guidance from my professors and mentors, various opportunities in local, regional and international mooting competitions, internship programmes and business plan competitions, and abundant student resources, the law became easy to digest.
The methodological training in sociology requires students to analyse social incidents from multiple perspectives. What seem like disparate incidents could be organized systematically to reveal a coherent pattern.
Having won in our first competition, our team found our way into the CUHK Pre-incubation Centre (Pi Centre), where we enjoyed free workspace, facilities and mentorship within a one-year period. Under the guidance of the Centre staff and with their nomination, our team had won in several competitions in a year. One of the competition awards was a Fast Track pass for the Hong Kong Science Park, giving me access to a rental-free office at the Park, taking my startup business on a new journey.
Whole-person Development
Anna Ni
Hospitality and Real Estate (Year 5)
Darkhan Dildakhan
Computer Science (2020)
Camilla Sadyrova
Anna Ni, Darkhan Dildakhan, and Camilla Sadyrova came to CUHK in 2016 as the first batch of Kazakh students at the University. All three of them were born and raised in Almaty, a city that flourishes at the foot of the snow-capped, majestic Ile Alatau in Inner Asia. They each took a different course of life with a different vision in mind, but four years ago, their paths converged in Hong Kong, right here above Tolo Harbour.
In high school, I came across a lot of contests and activities that I took an interest in, but I was too timid to speak in front of people and give them a try. As I got into CUHK, I realized the continuing of this trend would be detrimental. If I am to get out of the shell, I need to learn to speak in public. I attributed my good result in the public speaking contest to the immense help and support I received from my coaches, the three teachers at the English Language Teaching Unit.
I received several offers from different universities, and I visited them all to decide which would be the best to attend. Eventually, I chose to pursue further education at CUHK. The main reason for my decision was that when I visited CUHK, I perceived strong bonds among the students, professors and even the school officials, and that really surprised me! These bonds between CUHK people make this school not just a place for learning but more like a home for all the people here.
CUHK provides rigorous academic training and fruitful campus experience. Studying at CUHK was one of the best decisions of my life.
I joined the College’s Drama Club and CUHK Drama Society. After trying my hand at all the different roles, ranging from lighting, make-up, costume, screenwriting to acting, I came to realize the diversified nature of the theatre as an art form. It requires combining the passion and wisdom of dozens of people on stage and backstage to give the audience a two-hour extravaganza. This is right up my alley. Throughout my four-year campus life, drama was virtually my second major.
During my early years at the University, I was chairman of the Rotaract Club of New Asia College and the CUHK Social Service Team, organizing on an annual basis 12 events including visits to elderly homes. In just one to two hours, the elderly residents shared with us their wisdom and experience, which was profoundly enlightening for me.
In the past few years, CUHK has organized various events to enable its students to realize their entrepreneurial dreams. I have also noticed an increase in CUHK-graduates-turned-entrepreneurs. This goes to show the University’s initiatives are heading in the right direction. What I like best about CUHK is its idyllic campus that gives free rein to students’ thoughts and imagination.
If I had not studied at CUHK, I would have at most become an engineer in a sizable corporation, much less starting my own business. I enjoyed the rich learning atmosphere at CUHK and embraced horizon-broadening opportunities such as competitions and exchange programmes. In my undergraduate years, I won numerous championships in local technology competitions and eventually went to Fudan University for the 7th National Challenge Cup.
As long as I am in Hong Kong I jumped at every chance to be engaged in extracurricular activities. In the English Debating Team I got to know friends from various disciplines who inspired me to reflect on the role of university students in society. I realized that business is not just about making money, and that business majors do not necessarily have to pursue a career in finance. To study business is to become strategic thinkers who can tackle social problems effectively.
Many values I held had been shaped by CUHK’s humanistic campus environment. I took many journalism courses and was the deputy head (external affairs) of the campus’s radio channel. When I was shooting documentaries under my tutor’s guidance, I came across numerous deep-seated contradictions in Hong Kong society. It made me realize that apart from earning a living, one could choose to go to the forefront and lead a social movement or an enterprise, relieve the world of a problem or even fix it.
