Empowering Ethnic Minority Students
Empowering Ethnic Minority Students
Tam Tsz Ling's Story
Faculty of Arts
BA
In 2019, Alice and her friends founded a joint-university student group called Connextiar which aims to assist ethnic minority secondary school students in career-planning and pursuing higher education.
"Alice learnt mentorship could help students gain insights and build confidence in pursuing their goals."
From her past volunteering experience and being a mentee in an educational programme, Alice learnt mentorship could help students gain insights and build confidence in pursuing their goals. Some of Alice’s friends, also coming from the local ethnic minority community, have experienced challenges in their careers and studies. Noting how often this phenomenon occurs, Alice and her friends are delighted to support ethnic minority students in Hong Kong through mentorship.
For that, Connextiar’s mission is to connect ethnic minority students with university students. The group was honoured to have the support of the HKU Common Core Office and HKU Equal Opportunity Unit, as well as the chance of representing HKU in the Enactus Hong Kong Regional Competition.
The first mentorship programme was held in the summer of 2019, with the participation of over 60 mentors, benefiting mentees from 5 local secondary schools and 4 community centres. In the span of four days, students participated in interactive games and discussions, toured around the university campus and listened to presentations and sharing by professionals, including a renowned comedian Vivek Mahbubani and many others.
Alice said that she is beyond grateful to have all the brilliant teammates and friends who joined her along the journey in making the programme happen.
Written by:
Truston Yu
Year 3, Faculty of Social Science
March 2020