SLS-7f Donations that support International Service-Learning

PolyU’s very successful efforts into international service-learning could not have succeeded in this way without the generous support from the university as well as donors. The university funds all the costs for teaching service-learning, and some of the additional costs such as equipment, materials, manpower, and some necessary travelling.  However, the travelling costs sending teams of students to far away places, and other unexpected costs often exceed way beyond the regular funding provided.  Some students from more well-off families can afford to cover such costs with their own resources.  In fact, many universities, including some in Hong Kong, require the students to cover the travelling costs themselves.  The heavy financial challenge can result in the undesirable situation of preventing less well-off students from participating in international service-learning.  This situation perpetuates some of the inequalities in education and is hence in direct conflict with the purpose of service-learning.  Hence it is important for us that we find other funding sources to cover much of the travelling costs so that students who quality can participate equally.  We do expect students to cover a certain reasonable portion of the costs themselves, to ensure their commitment and accountability.  

It is not feasible to discuss in a lot of details the funding support from all sources.  We will simply highlight the donations from one prominent alumnus for illustration.  Our first foray into Rwanda in Africa was funded by the university as an activity that promotes internationalisation, back in 2013.  That helped us to initiate one of our most impactful projects.  Unfortunately, the funding was provided to us in just one shot.  When it was exhausted, we had to seek other sources to keep the project going.  This is particularly critical for the projects in Rwanda, which is almost 10,000 kilometres away from Hong Kong, without direct flights between us.  The project involves a lot of engineering, such as the installation of solar panels to generate electricity.  Hence there is a significant need for funding for equipment and materials.  For the past several years, the Rwanda projects, and some others, have been generously funded by Mr. Wong, Tit-shing.  Mr. Wong is an alumnus of PolyU.  

Mr. Wong graduated graduated from PolyU’s predecessor, the Hong Kong Technical College in 1967.  He later founded Jetta Company, a very successful toy manufacturing group. Dr. Wong has also gained a reputation for his dedication to producing safe, high quality toys.  In 1998, he founded the Jetta Charitable Foundation, which has financially supported the construction of many schools and hospitals in mainland China, along with disaster and poverty relief.  Among his many donations to PolyU, he has been funding the Wong Tit-Shing Student Exchange Scholarship for outbound exchange of students in the engineering faculty for many years.  The programme helps engineering students develop their international horizons, understanding on global development and extend their global network.  When we approached him for his support for our international service-learning programs in Rwanda and other locations, he gave us a generous donation and has been supporting the program every year since.  His is keen to meet with the students to find out what they have done, what they have learned and how their experience fit in with their studies and career aspirations.  The students are very grateful to him, and other donors for help to make international service-learning so successful at Polyu.  

Throughout the process, we have worked closely with our Alumni Office. They helped us approach Mr. Wong initially and develop the concept, gets approval on the donation by PolyU management, negotiate on the concrete details and budget, arrange for Mr. Wong to meet with the team, etc.  This little episode goes to demonstrate that service-learning is much more than just a bunch of students doing something to benefit a community.  It involves many parts of the university working together on a wide range of aspects, in order to make service-learning happen.  It has indeed gone a long way towards embedding service-learning into campus life, and indeed making it part of our culture and values.