Bulletin No. 1, 2011

14   Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2011 Internships in Non-Government Organizations The University’s Global Internship Programme was launched in the 1990s to raise students’ competitiveness in the job market by familiarizing them with work environments in major cities around the world. The programme is now being expanded to cover more developing countries, such as Uganda, Kenya and Papua New Guinea, so that students can, in addition to honing language and workplace skills, help those who need them most while expanding their perception of the world. To similar ends, the University will invite more NGOs such as Oxfam, the Rotary Club and UNICEF to join the internship network. In addition, the University recently set up the Steering Committee for Promoting Personal Development through Social and Civic Engagement to enable students to serve underprivileged groups in local, regional and international communities as a form of experiential learning. The contribution will take the form of service projects, internships in NGOs as well as workshops and seminars, outside the formal curriculum, all undertaken to bring positive change to the communities involved. It is hoped that through these engagements, students will learn to be sensitive to the needs of other people, to grow independently, and to treasure what they have. Lorraine Lee, Year 1 student of Geography and Resource Management, joined the Amway Nutrilite Organic Farming Internship Programme under the CUHK Global Internship Programme, to work on an organic farm in Brazil for two months. The farm, located in northeast Brazil, near the town Ubajara of Ceara, produces acerola to provide Vitamin C for the health supplements industry. Lorraine’s jobs included harvesting, weeding, spraying fertilizers, preparing lunch for over 100 farm