CUHK Business School Students Practise Corporate Social Responsibility and Receive Excellence Awards in Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Programme
A total of 28 students from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School joined the Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Programme (CIP) organised by Citi and co-organised by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. Two students were awarded in recognition of their outstanding performance.
The Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Programme aims at inspiring university students majoring in business studies to contribute their knowledge and expertise through interning in NPOs and social enterprises. It helps build the networks between future business elites and NPOs and encourages students to put the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into practice after graduation. A total of 28 students from CUHK Business School took part in the programme in 2022. Each of them completed 160 hours of internship and 20 hours of pre-training, which covers CSR, cross-sector partnerships, volunteering and understanding different underprivileged groups.
In the recognition ceremony held in October, James Chui-yuen Lo (IFAA Year 4) and Katy Tsz-yau Choi (BBA Year 2) were awarded the “Grand Awards for Excellence” and “Awards for Excellence” respectively.
James interned at HandsOn Hong Kong Limited, a local charity with a mission to empower Hong Kong people to volunteer. “During the internship, I helped HandsOn Hong Kong to refine their strategies and projects. It challenged me to apply the business concepts I learned at school to contribute to the community. The experience helped me develop in-depth understanding of different social issues and polished my presentation skills to different stakeholders.”
Reflecting on his learning, James added, “We met interns and staffs from other organisations in the training workshops. It was truly inspiring to see how people could work together for common good regardless of their ages, backgrounds and cultures.”
Another awarded student, Katy, interned at Silence Limited, a charitable organisation that serves the deaf and hard of hearing, aiming to inspire and unleash individual talent and harness collective strength. As a sign language learner, Katy was pleased to find her sign language skills came in handy during her internship.
Aspiring to develop a career in philanthropy in the future, Katy regarded her experience reassuring.
“We proposed a new series of events to engage both our members and their families. I was thrilled when the idea was accepted and was touched to see saw how much the participants enjoyed the events with their loved ones while overcoming the physical challenges. It gave me the confidence to pursue my career in the field.”
Dr. Fred Ku, Associate Dean (Undergraduate Studies), attended the award ceremony and was pleased to see more students were engaged in activities that create social impacts.
“I think that it’s important for business students engage in diverse experiential learning opportunities like CIP. On one hand, students receive relevant training and obtain real world experience related to NPOs and the beneficiaries. On the other hand, they can utilise their creativity and business knowledge to help the organisations and become a force for good.”