7 IN FOCUS We Four School of Engineering students share their views on the difference that helping others has made to their own lives My passion is helping people and this takes many forms: helping new students settle into School of Engineering life by serving as a peer mentor; establishing a community-based organization called Y-Talk.org – we held our first Y-Talk event in April with student speakers at HKUST; and setting up a Student Chapter of the Malaysian Association of Hong Kong for Malaysians studying in Hong Kong like me. Last summer, I went to Myanmar with my two best friends, spending one month teaching English to secondary school students, university students, and graduates in the northern city of Myitkyina. As we organized the service trip ourselves, we first had to find sponsorship, locate books to take and raise donations. On arrival, we needed to travel from the south of Myanmar to Ryan Hong Yee Kow BEng, Civil and Structural Engineering (2013) Roy To Community Service Awardee Myitkyina in the north, a journey that took 10 hours by bus and 24 hours on a 1920s-style train! My Myanmar visit put my engineering studies in an interesting new light. Before going, I had seen them mainly from a technical perspective and wondered how useful my skills would be in teaching English. Afterwards, I took a wider view, as it was clear that with my engineering mindset, I could understand my students’ problems and design ways to assist their learning. Precision, problem solving and finding solutions are all key aspects of being an engineer and can easily be applied to other situations. I am sure my recent membership of ASEAN Youth Volunteers Network and Engineers Without Borders will expand my Xiaojun Yu, MPhil, and To Hung Tsui, BEng, both Civil and Environmental Engineering, had rewarding community service experiences overseas in different ways when they became volunteers for the charity Habitat for Humanity and spent several days building houses in Nepal. “Before this trip, Nepal was just a small country on the map to me. After, it became very special,” explained Xiaojun. “I spent my four days there carrying, chopping, weaving and shoveling. We talked to local people, and worked and ate like locals. “It all had a tremendous impact. I have become better at caring about others, appreciating others’ work and, above all, understanding how people’s different situation and surroundings affect them,” he said. “Even though I am a Civil Engineering postgraduate student, this was my first experience of working on a construction site and I really enjoyed building the house. The feeling of helping others and making their wish come true was wonderful, and there was a smile on every face when we finally dedicated the house to the local village. I have promised myself another visit to Nepal in the future.” vision further. Indeed, for me, community service has no boundaries. The most important thing is serve wholeheartedly and use engineering to find solutions. Building Homes, Building Understanding The Roy To Community Service Award recognizes HKUST students who have made an exceptional contribution to community service. Only one undergraduate or postgraduate student is selected for the award each year.
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