Dear readers,

During the COVID-19 pandemic, “mask on” and “wash hands” are doppelgangers of which we have grown weary but we cannot get rid.  Our mingled feelings about this protective duo will continue to walk us through the hard autumn and long winter.  Although many of us are remained fixated on the disputes over the US presidential election, or still in the midst of the prickly divide between “yellow” and “blue” in this city, the novel coronavirus is playing as our archenemy here and now.  It has brought pain, loss and frustration across the whole world, and it costs hundreds of thousands of lives while many more have been left hospitalised.  We are at war with it, not with our opposites favouring Biden or Trump, nor the people who uphold different political ideology from ours.

The I·CARE Community Research Scheme aims to deepen students’ understanding of the deprived communities and to foster their curiosity to explore ways of civic participation through small-scale research.  Themed “Search for Well-rounded Perspective; Renew One’s Perception”, the scheme of this academic year is carried out at two stages to enchance participants’ knowledge of the marginalised groups, overcome their limitation of thoughts and explore the possibility of social changes.

Communication across different generations is by no means an easy task.  Generation gap may exist even among family members.  Are you willing to take the initiative to be in touch with your “senior-aged folks”?

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, this academic year’s “Fitness x Mentorship” Scheme was carried out in an online mode for the first term.  The enrolled CUHK students and their sports partners (i.e. residents of the Lee Yen & Lee Yuk Lun, BBS, JP, Father & Son Lohas Villa, Tung Wah Group of Hospitals) were engaged in three interactive sessions via Zoom on the 14^th, 18^th and 21^st of this month.

The University, through this Centre, generates Report of Experiential Learning Activities to help its graduates better prepare for career development and further studies.  Graduating students of the first term of this academic year (based on the graduate list of the Registration and Examinations Section, Registry) may make on-line application here by 4 January 2021 (Monday).  One copy of this report will then be issued to the applicant free of charge.  To avoid duplicate applications, each graduating student only needs to enrol for once.

CUHK Bridge to China Team is a university volunteering team formed under this Centre with the support and guidance from Wu Zhi Qiao (Bridge to China) Charitable Foundation.  Since 2009, the team has participated in and organised numerous investigation trips on villages, bridge building projects and public health programmes with the help of CUHK students.  The CUHK Bridge to China Team 2018-19 even received the Silver Award for Volunteer Service (Group) issued by the Social Welfare Department in appreciation of its contribution of 600 hours of volunteer service to the community in 2019.

The I·CARE Social Service Projects Scheme of this academic year organised two online training activities on the 16^th and 30^th of October respectively.  They were conducted for students who aspire to implement social services, particularly those interested in submitting applications for funding support under the aforesaid scheme.  The participants are expected to be equipped with competence in actualising their ideas.

To substitute the on-site mass programmes such as I·CARE Salon and I·CARE Theatre which are not recommended amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the University Lecture on Civility has proposed a new initiative Mobile I·CARE for this academic year.  Being the first activity of Mobile I·CARE, the “I·CARE Secret Talk” contained six online sessions hosted by different guests via Zoom in September and October to cater for CUHK students and staff.  The topics included, inter alia, job hunting in the pestilence, household conflicts, love affairs and restricted travelling.

The “Value Exploration Series” of the I·CARE Achievers Programme aims to enhance self-awareness and good qualities of CUHK members through a series of activities on character building, thereby promoting positive development of the community and the world.  This month, two online activities under this series were held, namely the fourth session of “Dialogue on Character” and three sessions of the “Workshop on Compassionate Communication”.

Hong Kong is a small place of unique culture which deserves to be savoured and explored.  However rapid the city has changed and developed, it is left with many anecdotes which hold clues to its past.  The I·CARE Hong Kong Cultural Tours Project, which has been conducted for years, aims to facilitate the CUHK students’ discovery of these Hong Kong stories and to offer free cultural tours to serve the needy.  Both groups of people are expected to develop an enhanced sense of identification to this city.

CUEA stands for CUHK Entrepreneurs Alliance.  As one of the members of the CUEA, this Centre has begun co-hosting the “Happy Hour” Talk Series with other University units since June of this year in order to facilitate the exchange of entrepreneurial information among CUHK members.  The first round of online “Happy Hour” talks (10 nos.) met with enthusiastic feedback.  For the second round of this series which was confirmed to be held in a face-to-face form, this Centre has arranged a sharing session titled “A Straw, A Crutch, A Book: Where Innovation Meets Social Problems” on the 20^th of this month.

Launched by this Centre in 2015-16, the Social Enterprise Startup Scheme has been encouraging CUHK students and recent graduates to make good use of their expertise to establish or expand their social enterprises.  The Briefing Session and Stage 1’s Training Activities of the scheme of this academic year were successfully completed.

Since its establishment in October 2016, this Centre is committed to offering a diversified learning experience to students to promote their whole-person development.  In addition to planning and implementing the I·CARE Programme, this Centre renders support to other services which aim to nurture students’ all-round development.  As such, it has been supporting the “Sustainable Development Solutions Network Hong Kong” which is jointly hosted by CUHK and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and organising many activities that achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations.  Besides, this Centre conveys the situation and needs of students during other units’ formulation of guidelines and programmes through its Director’s serving as the co-supervisor of various projects receiving the “Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant”.  The “Sustainable Development Goals x General Education” Study Scheme rolled out in this academic year is one of them.

The University has recently produced the 2021 desktop calendar themed “CUHK Through Learning and Temperance to Virtue”.  This calendar not only showcases the beautiful scenery and landmarks of the University (e.g. the sculpture “Gate of Wisdom” created by Ju Ming), but also contains the quotes from 12 internationally renowned scholars who have built very strong connections with CUHK (e.g. Prof. Sir James Mirrlees, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences).

Please click on the image below for more information.