BEd student from SES recognised as a “Persevering Star”
Ms Chan Wing-man (left), Vice-chairman of Hok Yau Club, and Mr Clarence Leung Wang-ching (right), Under Secretary of Home and Youth Affairs, present the award to Teresa Chan Hoi-yan.
Teresa Chan Hoi-yan gives ethnic minority children a pack of colour pencils as presents. They use the pencils to make their thank-you cards. *Faces of participants are deliberately blurred to protect their identities.
Teresa Chan Hoi-yan, a third-year student of the Bachelor of Education (Honours) (Science) programme from the Department of Science and Environmental Studies (SES), won the “Persevering Star (Senior Group)” award and a scholarship of HK$25,000 for her “Learning to Give Mutual Help: Ethnic Minority Students Support Others” project in the C Me Fly Persevering Star Partnership Scheme this summer.
Teresa shared her dream to promote social inclusion among students from ethnic minorities during the award presentation ceremony held by the organiser on 13 August. She learnt about the concept of mutualism from a biology course in SES, which states that individuals of different species can both benefit from interactions between them. Teresa applied the idea of mutualism to her project with the aim to help different groups of children benefit from mutual interactions.
“Underprivileged Chinese and ethnic minority children often have lower self-esteem. They are less motivated to contribute themselves and connect themselves with others. I observed that Chinese children are generally proficient in Chinese and ethnic minority children are good at English. By grouping Chinese and ethnic minority children together, they can learn from each other. This helps unleash their own potential and promote social inclusion,” the third-year student from SES said.
Through the assistance of an NGO, Teresa organised a workshop for a group of ethnic minority primary school students to learn mutual help. In the workshop, students played games, learnt how to design thank-you cards, and reflected on their own strengths and experiences while contributing to their families, friends and classmates. “In the ‘Write down three things that I can give, share or help’ session of the workshop, children who originally had little or even no idea what they could give were guided to learn about their own strengths. By the end of the workshop, they discovered how they could share their materials, as well as contribute their skills and services,” Teresa said.
Designed by a professional illustrator from the organiser, the poster features Teresa Chan Hoi-yan.
Teresa believes collaborative activities can encourage mutual learning. “When I become a teacher in future, I will fully utilise the collaborative nature of group activities to create a mutual learning environment. I also support mainstream schools enrolling ethnic minorities to promote social inclusion,” she said.
On winning the Persevering Star award, Teresa wanted to thank her mentor Mr Su Weisheng, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Shenzhen Municipal and the Vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Youth Alliance, for his guidance and encouragement throughout the nomination and presentation preparation. “My mentor is keen on community services. He shared with me his experience in organising community projects and his belief in positivity as well as a people-oriented approach when serving society. His mentorship enabled me to face the challenges that occurred during the implementation of my project,” she said.
Organised by Hok Yau Club and sponsored by the China Merchants Foundation, the C Me Fly Persevering Star Partnership Scheme was launched in the 2021/22 academic year to honour youths who are determined to overcome challenges and strive for progress. The scheme is divided into a Junior Group for primary school students, an Intermediate Group for secondary school students, and a Senior Group for students from tertiary institutions. A total of 27 awardees were selected in the first year of the scheme.
