Many churches, at least those in Hong Kong, are closed due to the pandemic.When the pandemic eased a little earlier, they rushed to open again - cautiously, but also eagerly. Then another wave hit, and now everyone is forced to close again.
Will the congregation return when churches finally re-…-reopen again? There used to be little doubt that they will. Believers seemed eager to return. Many were pleading for the churches to reopen. When the social distancing eased a little earlier, many did return eagerly.
However, there are more and more signs that some are having send thoughts. Some seem to be thinking - “I have not been attending church for many months and I seem to be doing OK. Do I really want / need to return to church?“
Some are thinking - “I am having more time for myself and my family. I can still attend service online if I want to. Why shouldn’t I continue in this style even when the church re-opens?”
Some may be thinking - “When we were having the social unrest, the church was no help, the preachers didn’t want to talk about the conflict, we were discouraged from talking about it. The pastors seemed to be saying that faith has nothing to do with social justice. We were essentially left to ourselves to deal with the conflict. Going to church didn’t seem to help at all.”
Then when the pandemic hit, the church closed. “Other than worship service online, there seems to be little that the church can offer. Again we are left to deal with the pandemic ourselves. Again, going to church didn’t seem to help at all.”
If faith have nothing to say about the events in our lives that affect us so deeply - materially, physically, emotionally and spiritually - that really is a matter of life and death, then what good is faith for? Some pastors may feel this is the wrong way to think of our faith. But that is how a lot of people - particularly the young people - are thinking.
Some will certainly feel the urge to return to church as soon as possible. Some others will return when it is safe, whatever that means. But there may be a significant number who may feel otherwise.
How will this affect the church? What, if anything, is the church going to do about it?
This is not meant to be a criticism of the church or the faith. This is just a description of the reality - a possibly existential challenge.
Today, November 28, we are running a symposium on service-learning in secondary schools.
In the past 10 years, we have worked very hard on developing service-learning at our university and having quite a bit of success in doing so.
We are also collaborating with and helping other universities in doing so.
But why wait until university? What we are doing can and should start earlier. In fact, many secondary schools are asking their students to do community service. But there is a lot of potential in taking what is happening at the secondary schools to a higher level. This is what we are aiming at.
Today, we have a very experienced speaker from the USA, Susan Ward Roncalli. Some of the people in attendance come from schools that we are collaborating with, and others that we hope to collaborate with in the future. We are looking forward to plant more seeds and ideas. Looking forward to seeing more happening among the secondary schools.
Yesterday, November 26,I was interviewed on RTHK Channel 31 《日常8點半》program.The day earlier, in the Chief Executive’s Policy Address, she announced a program 「大灣區青年就業計劃」.The Hong Kong governmentwill subsidise the creation of a number of positions by HK firms having business in the Greater Bay Area around the Pearl River Delta.
In the 5 minute interview, I tried to squeeze in as much as possible. First of all, it is a good opportunity for young people in Hong Kong. There are, however, some issues to consider. Since the firms pay only part of the salary, will these be real jobs with good learning opportunity? What happens when the program is finished? Will the firms keep the jobs? Will the young people have acquired enough experience to help them in their career?
Hong Kong is such a small place. Youths surely should venture out of Hong Kong. Not just to Greater Bay Area, but also other countries.
With the rapid development in Mainland China, the competitive advantages that Hong Kong youths used to enjoy are diminishing. Yet they can still retain certain edges. The universities in Hong Kong have been working hard to nurture their global competency, with plenty of opportunities for exchange, …, and service-learning. PolyU, in particular, has been sending students all over the world, to experience different cultures, languages, people, environment, events, …, with great benefit. Just now, a student from Computing was offered an internship that pays HKD 40,000 a month. It is a testimony of the great competitiveness of some of our students.
One of the areas with greatest opportunities for development in China is, obviously, information technology.
Our students have also learned a lot from the service-learning opportunities. We took a team to Gansu. The students from Beijing, Shenzhen and the coastal cities are surprised by the poverty and the big discrepancy from coastal cities. But the backwardness also present great opportunities. How can we help them develop? It motivates the students to learn. Challenges can also be great opportunities.
I would have loved to say a lot more. But 5 minutes is all I had.
It was the beginning of my run along the TSTE promenade.I was focusing on my ankle, hoping that it won’t give me trouble.It was sprained a month and a halfago and it has not yet healed completely.
Suddenly I was startled by something that lunged at me from my right, slightly ahead of me. It was a pretty big dog. about a meter away. There was no warning. It seemed the dog was muzzled, perhaps that was why there was no big sound coming out of it. Perhaps it was the non-barking type. And the man holding the leash was able to pull it back. He did say sorry. I was not hurt. Just startled. But I could have been hurt. Even when muzzled, such a big dog can cause some serious damage. I guess I would probably defend with my legs. Not sure whether that would be enough against such a big dog.
I think I have seen the dog before, almost at the exact same spot. It was then being walked by a small-sized maid. It was similarly muzzled and on a leash. I remember thinking to myself that the dog was so big that the maid would not have been able to hold it back, should it decide to attack someone. I never thought I would be the target. I even took a picture of it. I didn’t react at that time.
I like dogs. I don’t think I am particularly afraid of dogs. But a big dog that attacks without being provoked is not suitable for a densely populated community such as Hung Hom.
From the beginning, there was intense pressure to develop new subjects and to increase capacity quickly. At the same time, there was also acute awareness of the need to maintain the required quality and stress on impactful service-learning. It is relatively easy and thus tempting to quickly develop subjects that are mostly academic studies with a light element of community service - which can be indirect service or desk research. In fact, that is the path taken by some universities that wish to implement service-learning quickly. Some would take an existing academic subject and add a small community service/study project, requiring only a few hours of work. Such subjects could be useful if the students are already predisposed to or even experienced in community service. However, set against the lack of a culture of civic engagement in the education system in Hong Kong, it would not be very helpful in cultivating empathy, compassion and civic engagement. Putting out a large number of such subjects would deliver service-learning in name without achieving the spirit. It may even be quite damaging when they students delude themselves that they are socially engaged - when it is nothing more than an intellectual exercise.
Academic studies may inform students cognitively of social needs; but true compassion and commitment is much better achieved through emotional investment - achieved through extended person-to-person, direct interaction. Hence effective service-learning requires a significant amount of time involved in personal interactions with the people in need. Hence we have to resist the temptation of taking the easier way out.
Having decided to take the harder, narrower path less travelled, we must provide strong encouragement and assistance to the academic departments to come up with a sufficient number quality SL subjects. Hence the OSL work hard to assist the subject proposers in coming up with viable proposals, particularly in designing suitable projects and finding partners. The sub-committee worked hard to provide detailed comments to the proposals received. Based on these comments, the OSL and members of the sub-committee meet with the proposers to assist them in revising the proposals. The process can cycle through a number of iterations.
The process is so strenuous to some that one successful proposer was heard to remark that it was harder to a SL subject proposal accepted than to secure a competitive earmarked research grant from the University Grants Committee - the governmental funding agency. It is most likely an exaggeration born out of some genuine frustration. The actual success rate of SL subject proposals is quite high, compared to other general education subject proposals. The perception of difficulty is possibly partly the result of an iterative process of comment - revision that can take several rounds. The sub-committee actually seldom rejects a proposal outright as not suitable. It tries to identify elements that can be developed into a proper subjects. Sometime it succeeds, sometimes it does not.
The rigour is necessary in establishing the academic quality and reputation of SL subjects. This insistence of academic quality is important particularly in view of one of the major original objections to SL - that SL was not a suitable academic worthy of academic credit. It is gratifying to note that this argument is seldom heard now, after the program has been running for a few years. The positive results are evident through the rigour of the process, the impact on the students, the perception of the community inside and outside of the university, support and commendations from stake holders, and international benchmarking.
Ever since the university decided in 2010 to make service-learning a graduation requirement, we were under severe pressure to develop sufficient service-learning subjects for the students. Based on our own prior experience in organising service-learning projects, and practice at other leading universities, we expected that the classes would be relatively small.Our previous groups were 20-30 each at most. We decided we could probably handle 40 students in one class.Partly it was because intensive field work is required and in-field support and guidance is important for achieving good learning outcomes.
Our initial target was an annual intake of 2,400 students for the 4-year undergraduate programs. Hence we need a minimum of 60 subjects, with 70 subjects as a target in order to provide a buffer. The first cohort entered PolyU in 2012, and was expected to graduate in 2016. By 2016, we expected to have a full set of students in place and an average of 2,400 students taking service-learning subjects at steady state. That means starting from around 2011, we have to develop an average of almost 20 new subjects each year in order to meet the demand. The pressure was on.
We had developed an alternate (Plan B), just in case we could not develop sufficient subjects for all the 2,400 students each year. We were prepared to allow the students to take a free elective subject, in lieu of the required service-learning subject, in order to graduate, until we have sufficient capacity. That is far from ideal, of course. First of all, it defeats the purpose of the service-learning requirement. Secondly, once that option is made available, the urgency in developing service-learning subjects will be greatly reduced, possibly making it even harder to achieve the goal. Hence we decided to push will all steam ahead. Nevertheless, our senior management remain quite concerned, for quite some time. We were repeatedly being asked whether we could develop sufficient subjects.
The sub-committee for service-learning subjects, together with the Office of Service-Learning, took a very active approach. Calls for new subject proposals were made twice each year. The sub-committee worked practically around the clock to process the proposals, provide feedback and suggestions, and process the re-submissions as soon as possible. The OSL run numerous workshops on writing proposals and other aspects of service-learning, offer to take colleagues on service-learning projects to gain personal and practical experience. OSL, together with members of the sub-committee, meet with subject proposers and teams individually, to explain decisions and recommendations, and suggest revisions.
There is no easy route running from University of Hong Kong on the western side of Hong Kong Island to Shue Yan University on the eastern side.
There are no walking paths and no bicycle paths. There are only narrow, practically non-existent side walks. One has to cross so many streets and flyovers. Up and down steep slopes.
There is one consolation around central, however. There are numerous trees on the walls.
They are mostly banyans, with small leaves and long air roots.
They are aggressive, and they are tough. Many have already been chopped down, but many still remains. Given half a chance, they will take root. They will squeeze through the tiniest crack and grow, thicker and thicker. The wall may crumble, but the banyan stays.
They will drop air roots. As soon as an air root touches down, it will thicken into a trunk. Branches will sprout, air roots will drop, and the cycle starts again. They are full of life.
They also make our streets that much more interesting. We should be grateful.
When we visited University of San Francisco in April 2012, we noted the staff were very proud of the involvement of their rector, a Jesuit priest - who went with the students on service trips to central and South America. It is, of course, a strong indication of the commitment of the university as well as great encouragement to the students and staff. We took the lesson to heart, and worked hard to get our leadership to join the students in the field, particularly the president.
President Prof. Timothy Tong of PolyU, who presided through the inception of service-learning at PolyU, has always been a supporter. Among his many actions, his trip to visit the teams serving in Cambodia in 2014 made a particularly significant impact. By then we have built up a strong presence in Cambodia. Several teams were on site around Phnom Penh in early June. Prof. Tong went around visiting them and insisted on serving with them. It is one thing to read and listen to reports on campus. It is something else altogether to be holding up charts to test the local children’s colour blindness, playing eagle and the chicken with the local children, reading to the children in the classroom, eating in the face of numerous flies with the students in the local village, distributing supplies in the city’s slum, listening to the students’ sharing after a full day’s hard work and sweating, …, seeing the satisfaction of the students at their moment of success, and the joy of the community who benefit. Since Prof. Tong came back from Cambodia, his passion and conviction have been evident for all to see.
It is one thing to be cognitively convinced of something. And quite another to be emotionally invested. For the former, it is achievable with data and reasoning. For the later, personal experience is vital. Both are critical for true commitment. We work very hard to educate the campus, including our leadership, on the merits of service-learning, through academic arguments, presentations, publicity, and discussions. We also work hard to facilitate our leadership to acquire that vital personal experience. In fact, we strive to do that for all levels and aspects of campus life. We actively reach out to the departments/units/offices of finance, personnel, health clinic, campus development, … For service-learning to truly become part of the core value of the university, we need the buy in from all over the campus. On the other hand, civic engagement is truly the business of everyone.
Prof. Tong was not the only member of our leadership to be actively engaged with service-learning. Prof. Philip Chan, while he was provost of the university, had officiated at many events over the years, and have been most encouraging. Before he retired, he helped us put social responsibility into the graduate attributes. Prof. Walter Yuen, vice-president for Academic Development and the instigator of the whole program, went on the first Rwanda expedition in 2013 and worked closely with the students in the field. He stayed with the students in the same spartan guest house, suffering the same water shortage. Later he came again in 2015, after he stepped down as vice-president, confirming that he did not just participate out of a sense of duty. Prof. H. C. Man, Dean of Engineering, went with the team on the first solar panel project in Rwanda in 2015. He climbed onto the ladder to teach the students how to install solar panels on the roof of a primary school. When we realised that we didn’t have the correct type of electrical cables for outdoor wiring, Prof. Man demonstrated problem solving skills as a true engineer would. He went to a local hardware shop nearby to purchase plastic pipes and to teach the students how to use the pipes to protect the cables - we were in the hills and proper cables were just not available. Naturally he became a hero for the students.
Prof. Angelina Yuen, vice-president for Student and Global Affairs, was a social worker by training. She has been a very strong supporter for service-learning, particularly in taking students to Mainland China and international collaboration. She was the motive force behind the establishment of the University Social Responsibility Network (USRN). She secured funding for students from USRN member universities to participate in PolyU service-learning projects in Mainland China as well as Cambodia. Most importantly, she was instrumental in securing many major donations for service-learning. Naturally she also went to visit the students in the field in Cambodia. She climbed to the top of a used container being converted into a community learning centre, to the cheers of the students and staff. Prof. Daniel Shek, associate vice-president for undergraduate programs, oversees the Office of Service-learning (subsequently Service-Learning and Leadership Office). He teaches a number of important service-learning subjects himself, taking students to serve in challenging environments in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Vietnam. He also conducts many research projects related to service-learning and publishes numerous papers on the topic. His team received the University Grants Committee Outstanding Teaching Award in 2018 for work related to service-learning.
Prof. Chetwyn Chan, associate vice-president for Learning and Teaching, visited the students in Cambodia as well as Rwanda. He is a strong advocate on eLearning and encouraged us to develop MOOC and other eLearning tools with service-learning content. Dr. Miranda Lou, executive vice-president of PolyU, is also a strong supporter. She visited the students in Cambodia in 2019, working alongside the students enthusiastically on a number of tasks, earning much respect from the students and staff. She has also participated in events related to service-learning in Mainland China and Hong Kong, becoming a great ally. Prof. Esmond Mok, Dean of Students, came with the students to Rwanda in 2019. An engineer himself, he was able to advice the students in their projects. In his capacity as Dean of Students, he has also facilitated much closer collaboration between the Dena of Students Office and the Office of Service-Learning.
In the process of engaging the leadership in service-learning, we face many questions and challenges. These occur at all levels ranging from the operational to the existential. Why did you choose this project? Why did you choose to come to this site? In what way does it benefits our students? Why should we help this community? Is this really academic? Why can’t this be left to the academic departments to do? Why do you do this? Why do you not do this? Why is it necessary to have a office of service-learning? We do not fear questions and challenges. They are opportunities to educate and draw people in.
Tufts is very different from PolyU as a university. PolyU, starting with our polytechnic heritage, retains a strong applied science character.Tufts, on the other hand, emphasises active citizenship and public service in all its disciplines, and is known for its internationalisation and study abroad programs.We are here to visit precisely because we wish to do better in these areas.
Our visit focused on the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. Tisch College studies and promotes the civic and political engagement of young people at Tufts University, in the communities and in democracy. In 1954, Tufts created the Center for Civic Education, later renamed the Lincoln Filene Center for Citizenship and Public Affairs. In 2000, Tufts signed a Declaration of Purpose - which states “We dedicate ourselves … to educate a new generation of committed and engaged citizens who will ensure that the American model of participatory democracy continues to flourish.” - and created the University College of Citizenship and Public Service. In 2006, thanks to extraordinary philanthropy from Jonathan Tisch, the University College was renamed the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. In 2016, the name was updated to the present name.
In 2002, Prof. Robert Hollister was named the first dean of the University College. In 2014, Alan D. Solomont, former US Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, became Dean of Tisch College. Such is the statue of the Tisch College. Over the past two decades, Tisch College has grown into a vibrant platform for local and global partnerships, for myriad student learning and service opportunities, and for ground breaking research.
While we were visiting Tufts, we also had an opportunity to listen to an inspirational speech by Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, pioneer of microcredit and microfinance, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Many years later, PolyU also invited Prof. Yunus to speak with our students at PolyU.
In 2005, Prof. Hollister co-found the Talloires Network, a global coalition that has grown to number 410 university presidents, vice-chancellors and rectors in 79 countries who have publicly committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of their institutions. It is the largest international network focused primarily on university civic engagement. One of the highlights of its work is its global conferences in different parts of the world (France, USA, Italy, South Africa, Mexico, …), with hundreds of university and student leaders coming together. It truly has a global reach.
Hong Kong is a small place with a relatively homogenous population, with little resources other than our people. We are highly cognisant of the need of an international exposure, to compete in the global market. Hence, from the very beginning, we have strived to take our students our of Hong Kong, to international service-learning projects, to collaborate with foreign universities and organisations. In 2014, PolyU led a coalition of 14 leading universities (including Tufts University) across 6 continents to establish the University Social Responsibility Network.
Our next stop was University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia on the East Coast of USA. In 1985, 4 undergraduate students proposed a after-school program at a local elementary school for their honours seminar class, which grew into the idea of the university-assisted community school.In 1992 the Center for Community Partnerships was formed to direct this effort.In 2007, the Center was renamed the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships.
At the core of the Netter Center’s work is Academically Based Community Service (ABCS). ABCS students and faculty work with West Philadelphia public schools, communities of faith, and community organisations to help solve critical campus and community problems in a variety of areas such as the environment, health, arts and education. Penn acts as an “anchor institution” to improve their local communities and help solve significant urban problems. The Anchor Institutions Task Force (AITF) is a network of 700 individual members promoting the engagement of anchor institutions.
To see first hand how ABCS works, we were taken to one of the school just a few blocks from the Penn campus in West Philadelphia, where Penn students serve. This is the first time we visit a school where students have to pass through metal detectors to enter their school. For example, Penn students would come to a school as an intern to read to elementary students, assist the school teachers in preparing for lessons, …, and to carry out so many other projects.
The PolyU team also visited the School of Engineering at Penn. Penn Engineering runs a number of impressive Local and Global service-learning programs. A team from Penn had actually been collaborating with a team from PolyU’s Biomedical Engineering Department for a number of years by then. The joint PolyU-Penn team has been going to southern China to serve handicapped children. The team would go to take measurements for the handicapped children, come back to PolyU to design and manufacture orthotics devices in their laboratory at PolyU, and make a return trip to fit the devices for the handicapped children. On this visit, the PolyU team exchanged views with associate dean Joseph Sun of Engineering and explored possible further collaboration. A number of years later a joint team was sent to Rwanda to work on an information technology project. Joseph Sun remains a good friend and collaborator even after he left Penn for other universities.
It is at Penn when we began to appreciate there seems to be a social science - applied science divide in the world of service-learning. Penn is a big university, with 4 undergraduate schools, 12 graduate and professional schools, 4,000+ staff and 22,000 students. The work centred around the Netter Center seemed to be mainly in social science and humanities disciplines. At the same time, Engineering operates its own set of service-learning courses and projects. Later, we observe a similar divide at other universities as well as the cross-university level. There are service-learning conferences that involve mainly social science and humanities, and there are also service-learning conferences that involve mainly engineering. At the PolyU, however, we believe and learned from experience that there are lots of potential for cross-discipline synergy, and are determined to bringing multiple disciplines together for the same community. A real world community’s problems are usually multi-facetted: education, jobs, skills, health, housing, … And solutions even for a single issue often require multi-disciplinary skills. For example, to build a successful community learning centre may involve construction, information technology, building services, teaching resources, public health promotion, financing, …
In late April 2012, the team went to University of San Francisco on the west coast of the USA. This was the home institution of Prof. Dayle Smith, who gave us a lot of help when we got started building out program.USF is a Jesuit Catholic university, which puts “socially responsible learning” in its mission statement, with “a culture of service” as one of its core values. It also said that “Central to a Jesuit education is the cultivation of community service, a passion for justice, and a life of faith.” Many Catholic universities in different countries across the world - North America, South America, Asia, Europe, … - have strong social engagement programs.
At USF, a Service-Learning course has been a graduation requirement at USF since 2002. Service-learning is compulsory and credit-bearing at USF, similar to PolyU, but they started 10 years before we did. There is, therefore, a lot that we can learn from them. A course designated as service-learning has the following 5 key components:
service is mandatory
connection between service and academics
services benefit the community
articulated reflection
assessment by faculty
These components make service-learning courses at USF look quite similar to those at PolyU!
We met with several people from the leadership. We also visited the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, which opened its doors in 2002. It is the centre for programs and scholarship supporting community engagement and public service at USF. It is located in the Provost’s Office and Division of Academic Affairs, reflecting its integral roles in academics. It supports undergraduate and graduate programs, provides service learning, and government experiences for students and generates publishable research. The centre has strong networks with community partners in San Francisco and the Bay area. It runs a wide range of activities for students, faculty and staff. In 2003, the USF in DC program was established, which enables students to spend one semester in the USA capital in full-time internships in government or nonprofits. They also run international service-learning projects in foreign countries such as Nicaragua, Uganda, India, Bolivia and Argentina. While the McCarthy Center has a broader mandate than OSL at PolyU, there is also a lot of parallels between our respective modes of operations and types of programs organised.
We learned that the rector himself, a Jesuit priest, as well as other members of the leadership, would go with the students on international service-learning projects in Latin America. It demonstrates the strong commitment of the university to service-learning and encourages the students and the faculty tremendously. It also helps the university leadership to understand the challenges and the joy involved. We took this lesson to heart. In 2014, the then president of PolyU, Prof. Timothy Tong, went to Cambodia to work with the students and the staff on a number of projects. In fact, many members of our university leadership participated in service-learning projects in a variety of ways. Not only does that demonstrate university commitment to the program. More importantly, it strengthens university-wide understanding, commitment and support. More about that later.
At the USCF library, we were pleasantly surprised to find a painting of Matteo Ricci. Ricci was, of course, one of the earliest and most famous Catholic Jesuit missionary to came to China in the late Ming Dynasty in the late 1500s. It reflects the strong link between San Francisco and China, as well as the large number of ethnic Chinese students as foreign students and Chinese Americans.
For a lot of people, this is a very depressing time in Hong Kong.The substantial freedom that we enjoyed is being eaten away literally everyday. It seems the worse is yet to come.They see little hope for the near future.The prospect for the longer future is, if anything, worse.
Looking around the world, many countries are becoming more autocratic. Some democratically-elected leaders are acting more like despots. Theoretically at least, the citizens of some countries can remove those wannabe despots with their votes, in time. But we do not have that luxury in Hong Kong. Will we acquire that right to vote in the future? it is difficult to see that happening at this point.
However, if we study the history of those countries that have the vote now, we see that they did not always have the vote. Decades, maybe centuries ago, they were like where we are now in Hong Kong. In fact, they could be in worse situations earlier. It was through decades, even centuries of hard work and good fortune that they arrive at what they are today. If we ask a person who lived in those countries back then, they probably could not see much hope. Yet they persevered. Had everyone given up then, there would have been no today - for them.
It is human nature to want to see the world change for the better - for us, right now. We want to believe we are special, in that we can witness historical moments such as a great popular movement ushering in freedom for us. Unfortunately, history can takes a long time to happen. Changes are often slow. So slow that we do not see it happen when it is happening. We are aware of the changes only looking back.
On the other hand, a democracy can only regress into despotism, if the people are not vigilant or not willing to put in the hard work to control the leviathan that is the government machine.
So, what is the lesson for us? If everyone gives up striving for freedom now, there will be no future, and no freedom. If we keep working hard, there is a chance, perhaps very small, that years, decades, perhaps even centuries down the road, there will be a more open Hong Kong. We may not live to see it happen. But someone will. Is this Ah Q speaking? Perhaps. But giving up is worse, truly unimaginable.
For those in despair, I recommend “The Power of the Powerless.” It was written by Vaclav Havel in 1978, inside the then Czechoslovakia when it was still behind the Iron Curtain, long before liberation in 1989. It is essentially a manifesto of dissent. It analyses the nature of the communist regime at the time, and discuss possible actions by individuals to resist a totalitarian system, to refuse to let the lie oppress us, to live in truth.
By 2012, PolyU had developed a sizeable and growing service-learning program. All undergraduates are required to take at least one credit-bearing subject in service-learning, each requiring the student to carry our 40 hours of community service, with clearly defined academic learning objectives and outcomes.A number of subjects had been developed.An Office of Service-Learning (OSL) had been set up to assist academic departments in developing these subjects.Yet we knew that we were still only beginnersin this area.Hence a small team was sent to visit a number of reputable universities in the USA experienced in service-learning, to learn from their experience.They were University of San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania and Tufts University.At the same time, we also wished to bench-mark our very young program against some of the best and most experienced.
The team was led by Prof. Walter Yuen, vice-president for Academic Development, Dr. Stephen Chan, head of OSL, Mrs. Winnie Lee, associate head of OSL, and Dr. Grace Ngai, chair of the sub-committee on service-learning subjects. It was a very fruitful expedition. Among the major take-aways are the following:
The objectives and structures of the PolyU service-learning courses are in line with those of leading universities in the USA.
Our program is focused on service-learning while many leading universities have broader scopes - leaving us with a lot of room to grow.
While each university has its own particular strengths, leading universities typically are strong both in local as well as international programs.
Leading universities typically have a central unit coordinating university-wide effort, while some also have centers with specific focus.
Leading universities have strong commitment from university leadership.
Successful programs are also underpinned by strong research.
On October 4, for the deer-a-thon, I wanted to run through as many of the universities in the central axis of Hong Kong as possible. I started from PolyU and reached OpenU, BaptistU, CityU before I sprained an ankle and could not continue onto ChineseU as planned.
A month later, I tried again. On November 7, I started from ChineseU, ran along the Shing Mun River, up Taipo Road, passed the monkeys near Kowloon Reservoir, down Taipo Road, and reached CityU. My ankle was still hurting, and I had little energy left; but I didn’t want to give up. By the time I reached BaptistU, I really couldn’t run. But I did managed to reach OpenU and then PolyU.
Today I started from PolyU, ran to the Star Ferry, took the ferry across the harbour, ran along the harbour and found my way up Lok Fu Lam Road, and finally reached HKU.
One day, I will run from UST to PolyU. Another day, EdU to ChineseU. Yet another, LingU to PolyU. It will take me a while, but I will do it.
One thing I learned to do through running: if I don’t give up, one day I will do what I want - if I don’t die first. Then it does not matter anymore.
