Trying Different Things
After living and studying for 18 years in mainland China, I was excited when I came to Hong Kong for the first time to continue my learning at the university. However, things didn’t go as I expected. I found myself lost in the unfamiliar language and the totally different lifestyle. What made things worse was that, as an ICT major with almost zero prior knowledge in this subject, I found my major courses extremely boring and difficult to follow.
At that time, my view towards university life was relatively negative. I resisted becoming an ICT teacher in the future but, at the same time, don’t know where my passion could be. With limited language and academic abilities, I even wondered whether I could survive in Hong Kong after graduation. I was almost stroked down by all those uncertainties until one quote suddenly touched my heart:
"When you don’t know what you’re searching for,
you have to look absolutely everywhere."
–- Holly Black
The quote reminds me that despite the uncontrollable disappointing factors, I’m still an active contributor to my own life and can always control my behaviors to make changes. Therefore, I decided to step out by participating in activities in different subject areas that I’m interested in, just like spreading seeds in the wide and undeveloped field.
The 1st seed: Mass Event Promotion
Chinese Students and Scholars Association
publicity department officer
Designed leaflets, posters and WeChat cover pictures for promoting large-scale activities organized by the association
Collaborated with members from different departments to organize a large Halloween party for mainland students
1st Chinese Language Festival
volunteer & technical support officer
Assisted in external liaison and review of entries
Maintained a social media account to post the competition progress and culture-related activities
Conducted interviews with experts in the field of Chinese Language Education
The 2nd seed: Education
First Major: Information and Communication Technology
Four years of learning have reformed my original attitudes toward ICT. Learning this subject closely associated with science and advanced technologies, I develop a more rational and logical way of thinking.
My problem-solving skills improved after getting through different programming challenges with the most effective solutions. Various group projects also promoted my creativity and social interaction skills. Because I need to work with my groupmates to come up with innovative ways to fill the gaps in existing products with technologies.
Second Major: Educational Psychology
I chose educational psychology as my second major based on pure interest. And it indeed provided me with a brand-new perspective of viewing myself and the operation of society.
With theoretical knowledge in different psychological fields, I am able to critically evaluate phenomena happening in both pedagogical and social settings. The subject also makes me more sensitive to ethical issues and equips me with useful tools to make better decisions.
Educational Research in Early Childhood Education
I also greatly improved in written communication by working as a part-time research assistant in early childhood education projects to develop computational thinking skills in young children. My job includes:
Summarizing and translating research papers and materials
Organizing meetings among researchers and recording meeting minutes
Retrieving and filtering academic documents for literature review
The 3rd seed: Social Services
Action by Care Volunteer Team
volunteer
Made WhatsApp stickers through personal photos of children from grassroots families
Sent New Year wishes to those children and let them feel the warmth of the society
People Service Center
student tutor
Collaborated with 2 group members in the Student Mentoring Program supporting low-income families
Organized 5 co-curricular family-based activities for a matched 9-year-old child
My Reflections
Positive Sides
Participating in different activities has built up my confidence. I became more used to life in Hong Kong and felt capable of overcoming any difficulties as long as I make effort.
In this process, I acquired various skills and knowledge that are essential to not only learning but also my personal growth and integration into society.
I also realized my passion for education, psychology and the promotion of social inclusiveness. Therefore, I decided to take becoming an educational psychologist as a key objective to pursue in the future.
Negative Sides
However, the experiences also share some common limitations.
Many of them lasted for a relatively short period, making it almost impossible for me to make recognizably positive impacts on the stakeholders, which in turn reduced my sense of accomplishment.
Moreover, my application of subject knowledge still stayed at an academic and theoretical level, which means I hardly have chances to practice them in authentic scenarios.
Despite the positive and negative sides of those experiences, I have to admit that they are all precious memories and have helped me discover my own strengths, weaknesses, interests and ambitions. On that basis, I can set up a clearer goal for further actions, which is to dig deeper into a specific area that is both interesting and closely related to my future career: special educational needs.
