CW Chu College The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

In 2018–19, the College welcomed a total of 51 incoming exchange students (30 in Term 1 and 21 in Term 2) from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States at the welcome lunches on 31 August 2018 and 9 January 2019 respectively. They were greeted by College Fellows, Teachers and Affiliates, student ambassadors drawn from College students in senior years, as well as College staff, and each received a College T-shirt as a welcome gift.

Prof Wai-Yee CHAN, College Master, addressed the lunch gatherings. He encouraged the exchange students to participate in the activities organised by the College and student bodies, and to explore the College, University and our city as much as possible.

While enjoying the buffet lunches, the exchange students mingled with the other College members and got to know more about how their life would be at the College and University.

These students' active participation in college activities, such as communal dinners, High Table Dinners and sports activities, further enriches the cultural diversity of this intimate community, and enacts an important element of the College vision.

Exchange Student Sharing

Ms Marianna Scott MCMILLAN was an exchange student from University of Navarra in Spain during Term 1, 2018–19. She has shared with us her College life below:

This past semester I had the opportunity to live at CWC. It is a college at CUHK that prides itself on its intimate community composed of students from all over the world. The students here share the same desire to contribute to a sense of family at the College. Whether be it through the communal dinners, extra-curricular activities, or attempts at cooking in the kitchen, CWC is an ideal setting for students to discover new cultures and challenge their pre-existing conceptions of one another.

I was fortunate enough to share a room with a local student from Hong Kong. What a special experience it was in terms of my personal growth. Not only is sharing a room an intimate experience with that other person but with oneself as well, because it forces you to develop empathy and emotional intelligence. It forces you to expand beyond your little bubble of me, me, me and think of someone else in the most ordinary and mundane moments of one's day: from waking up to going to bed, one must consider someone else for once. I had to sacrifice humming movie soundtracks, for example. All in all, CWC is a good environment for growth: personal (community), academic (facilities) and cultural (activities). This is primarily due to the general sense of family that the Warden, professors, Resident Tutors, staff and contribute to and foster with their patience and example.