Cruz Yutong

Beneath the black of my pupils and the yellow of my pigmentation, there lies a persona interweaved by cultural and engineering complexities. Born and raised in a traditional Chinese family, I took my first step away from the ordinary when moving to Ethiopia at the age of eleven. Growing up in an international school, my seven years in Africa bestowed on me the visions and values of a global citizen. After high school, I embarked on a journey to the United States, where I first became acquainted with the mesmerizing realm of engineering. The erudite of the academia and the industriousness of the American spirit morphed me into an engineer who ravenously yearned for more knowledge. Moving to HKUST, I sincerely rejoice from the symbiosis of research aspirations and personal goals. More importantly, here I am blessed with the opportunity to embrace both an international environment and my unyielding passion towards my motherland. This content quickly evolved into a sense of belonging that I had never experienced anywhere else in the world.

In HKUST, many have asked why I chose engineering as a career. To me, engineering is not a career, nor a profession; it is a mentality, an attitude, a pair of lenses through which I view the world. Perhaps since I built my first wind tunnel with wood boards and a plug-in fan in high school, I began to look at the unknown not as fearsome voids but exciting prospects. And to an engineer, the biggest reward of cracking the unknown lies not on materialistic things, but the heartfelt sense of achievement and self-recognition. On the other hand, in today’s world, the traditional perception of engineering as purely technical-oriented is obsolete. It is only through excelling in both interpersonal relations and technical disciplines, could an engineer be truly successful, and capable of solving real life problems.

At the most crucial crossroad in life, many adolescents are perplexed by temptations and choices. As an Engineering Student Ambassador, I wish to share my humble views and experiences with all of you, and provide the necessary assistance to help you see unequivocally your true passions in life. In the end, no path in life is free of difficulties, but it is precisely these difficulties that define our characters.