CW Chu College The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

Two Scholars' Roundtables, as lunch gatherings on Saturdays, were held in Term 2, 2013–14 to bring College students into contact with leaders in the community and to share experience and views, in a relaxed and informal setting.

Topic: Reflections on the Global Financial Crisis

Speaker: Ms Julia Fung-Yee Leung (former Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury)

Date: 22 February 2014 (Saturday)

Ms Julia Leung joined the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau as its Under Secretary in 2008. Just a month later, she had to deal with the aftermath of the global financial crisis, especially the mess surrounding the Lehman minibonds. The minibonds, a derivative product, plummeted with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and investors in Hong Kong accused banks of misleading them into buying the complex products. During the gathering, she analyzed the causes of this incident and the policy measures adopted to restore market stability and to improve the global and local financial system. She also raised a series of questions to encourage students to discuss and reflect on this incident. Drawing on that experience, Ms Leung also guided the participants to explore the meaning, value and incentives of financial services and what it means for those preparing for a career in that sector.

Topic: Reaching Socially Disadvantaged Youths in Beijing: a Service and Research Project

Speaker: Dr Yao Kin Hing, Paul (Research Associate, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Date: 22 March 2014 (Saturday)

As the College Service Team is conducting a service project entitled 'Understanding Socially Disadvantaged School Youths through a Social Service Endeavour', the College invited Dr Paul Yao, who has experience in helping disadvantaged young people, to give a talk in this gathering. Dr Yao is now working on a whole-person development programme, namely 'Beijing Intensive Community Mentoring (BICM) project', for the children of migrant workers in Beijing, and at the same time analyzing the effectiveness of the project through qualitative research. The talk was intended to broaden the perspective of the College students, especially members of the Service Team, on the youth service project, and to prompt students to think about incorporating research into their service project and service learning.

In the gathering, Dr Yao and his assistant Miss Xie Meng introduced to College students the BICM project, and the living conditions of the migrant families. The programme offers the participating migrant students a one-to-one mentoring service. Undergraduate students from local tertiary institutions are recruited as mentors, serving the students from Migrant Workers' Children Schools. Each mentor is required to meet his or her mentee regularly, in the hope of achieving mutual growth. Dr Yao also shared his experiences in training the mentors and the supportive supervisors of the programme, and analyzed the conditions for building mentoring relationship in the programme. He also talked about the effects of the mentoring programme on the welfare of the migrant children, as revealed through follow-up longitudinal research studies and reflective journals by the migrants' children and the mentors.