On September 22^nd, the College Ambassador Team hosted the “Welcome Party” with college teams and societies to introduce new Lap-Cheers to them and the new and colourful life that awaits them at the College.

Clubs and teams prepared fun activities and unique gifts for the participants. If a participant answered their questions correctly or finished a given task, they would gain a stamp. The LCC Media Team prepared the game, “Spot the difference”: If players could find six differences between two otherwise similar images, then they would win and get a stamp. The sports teams also held a variety of games to introduce their individual sports. For example, the Ultimate Frisbee Club set a game to throw the frisbee disk to a short distant target to help players understand the basic rules of this sport.

Once the residents collected stamps from the diverse lineup of booths, they would get a chance at the lucky draw at the final booth, to win a customized Lap-Chee souvenir. The souvenirs included key rings, teddy bears, laptop cases, memo pads, A4 folders and many other exciting options. Residents thoroughly enjoyed the varied selection of games and got to know more about the clubs at Lap-Chee College.

Jennifer, from the 19^th floor, enthusiastically recounts, “This is a really impressive activity, especially for us new Lap-Cheers, because we learned a lot about the various club culture of the college through it, and we could choose what we were interested in joining in and enjoy our time in the College.”

Writing: Huang Jingjing

Photos: Tom Tsui, Sally Oh and Mark Chen

Edit: Weiss Bai

On September 13 and 19, Lap-Chee College held the Admission Ceremonies at the College Hall to welcome new residents: September 13 for the residents living on the sixth to fifteenth floors and September 19 for those living on the sixteenth to twenty-fifth floors.

Before entering the venue, residents had to complete the registration process and were given a Lap-Chee goodie pack containing Lap-Chee calendar, pin, notebook, etc.

The event started with all participants standing to welcome the tutorial team members. Master Professor Yuen Man-Fung then proceeded with a welcoming speech, wishing everyone an enjoyable stay and expressing his anticipation for the student’s participation in the upcoming events when the pandemic situation improves.

The event proceeds with the commencement of the gown presentation. New undergraduate and postgraduate Lap-Cheers were presented with the traditional green and black gowns respectively, as a symbolization to welcome them to the College family.

Senior Resident Tutor Dr. John Kubi was then invited to give a speech. He talked about how the residents could gain opportunities through the activities in the College and reminded everyone to comprehend the regulations applied in the College.

During the event, the participants also enjoyed some performances and a lucky draw. Two Lap-Cheers showcased their talents in front of the residents, Katie with her graceful dance, and Evan with his talented voice and piano skills.

Closing the night, the MC invited the senior management team to each draw two numbers each for a lucky draw. Lucky students received a pack of Lap Chee goods.

Report: Bianca

Photo: Tanvi, Christy, Valdy

Edit: Weiss Bai

On September 3rd, 2022, the student volunteers from Lap-Chee College set out at 9 AM to do something very special. Carrying gifts and mooncakes with them, they went about Kennedy Town, visiting the homes of the elderly residents.

Mooncake delivery has always been a traditional event at Lap-Chee College. Through the years of visiting and bringing gifts to the elderly residents of Kennedy Town, Lap-cheers were able to build a strong connection and a sense of belonging to the neighbourhood by joining together and celebrating the holiday, which has major significance to Hong Kong culture.

Different from last year, this year we had two different sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Invitations to volunteer were extended to students from all four colleges in JCSVIII and more than 100 students from all four colleges participated.

This year we partnered with two elderly centres: St. Luke’s Settlement Neighbourhood Elderly Centre and Caritas Mok Cheung Sui Kun Community Centre and served more than 180 elders.

Upon arrival at the centres, we were first briefed by the centres, and then separated into groups of 2 to 3, with non-local students paired up with locals. We delivered gift packs (each containing mooncake, hand sanitiser, a pack of drink, instant oatmeals and 5 masks) to each elder. Afterwards, we spent time with them, during which we helped them fill questionnaires and taught them to use mobile apps. We were able to learn so much about their lives and needs during this process.

Thank you to all the volunteers, who dedicated their time and effort to participate in this Lap-Chee tradition. We hope you all had fun while spreading love and celebrating local culture!

Photo: Mooncake Delivery event team and participants

Content: Helen Chen

Edit: Weiss Bai

With Christmas around the corner, countless families and kids are excited to celebrate the joyous occasion and holiday. The HKU LCC Rotaract Club also organized a special Christmas workshop– Words of Kindness for the children of ethnic minority and new arrival families in Hong Kong. On December 19, about 30 student volunteers from the Lap-chee College went to the Ngau Tau Kok Caritas  Community Centre to celebrate the Christmas with the children from the community.

Before the event, the LCC Rotaract Club invited the staff from the Ngau Tau Kok Caritas Community Centre to give a event briefing for all the volunteers. After the briefing, all the volunteers also prepare the gift bags for the children and do some preparation for the workshop.

The event began promptly at 10 am. Volunteers were divided up and teamed up with different children to better engage them in the activities.The first activity is “Pass the Ball”, where 10 children and 5 volunteers formed a group and passed a ball around to music. When the music stop, the person holding the ball must say a recent happy memory. This activity served as a great ice-breaker as children and volunteers alike spoke up about their happiest memories.

Then the workshop proceeded swimmingly, with games such as “Telephone” and a sing-along performance of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, where volunteers taught the song to the children and then sang together with all the children and added another happy memory to the joyous holiday spirit.

And of course, what is Christmas without gift-giving? The volunteers presented each child with a bag of DIY materials,and the children worked with the volunteers to make their very own special Christmas snow globes or wreaths.

At the end of the activity, volunteer Mona gave a few words as a closing speech,and the children were all presented with a full gift bag, which included two book coupons, a Christmas card written by volunteers, a group photo of the event to help them remember the happy occasion, two DIY gifts and a pack of stationary.

Like Mingxuan, one of the volunteers said after the event, “it’s such a great time talking and playing with the kids.” Everyone enjoyed the great memory of this special Christmas.

Text: Helen Chen, Huang Jingjing

Photography: Bai Xuedong

Typesetting : Bai Xuedong

Since the COVID-19 situation, after a long-time preparation work, the Lap-Chee College managed to resume our signature event– the Lap-Chee High Table Dinner in November. In view of the social distancing, the event was divided into 2 sessions: 5^th November for odd-numbered floors and 17^th November for even-numbered floors. In the first session, Master Professor Yuen Man-fung, Professor Tsui Lap-chee, Dr Patrick Poon Sun-cheong and Mr Samuel Poon were invited as guests. In the second session, we invited Mr Kwan Chuk-fai to join us.

At the beginning of each High Table Dinner, all the Lap-Cheers were standing to welcome all the guests, including benefactors and our tutorial team members. Professor Lap-Chee Tsui gave an interesting speech about the origins of our college and encouraged all Lap-Cheers to balance their life and study. Master Professor Yuen Man-fung welcomed all the Lap-Cheers and wished them to enjoy their life in Lap-Chee college.

An Admission Ceremony was also simultaneously held where all newcomers were presented with green (for undergraduate) or black (for postgraduate) gowns, symbolizing that they were admitted to Lap-Chee College and formally became a Lap-Cheer. Each floor also had a precious opportunity to take photos with guests.

At the end of the event, the Lap Chee College’s music society gave us a wonderful performance. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful songs accompanied by the piano. Jenny, a new Lap-Cheer said, “this is a brilliant experience for me, the speech is good, and it also gives me a chance to chat with people from different floors and different backgrounds.”

Text: HUANG Jingjing

Photography: Lap Chee Media Team

TYPESETTING: Bai Xuedong

On September 25, City Hunt was curated to help Lap-Cheers brace themselves for the new environment and college life. Meanwhile, students could mingle together, and the City Hunt event facilitated cultural exchange.

In the beginning of the event, Participants were divided into several groups and listened to the instructions attentively before going for the actual city hunt.

Participants went to different places like Kennedy Town Promenade, university Street, Happy Park and so on to get some picture clues and to finish the different tasks like taking group selfies, answering questions and playing games. If they finished the task, the checkpoint helpers would give them a Character of  “Lap-chee” as a reward.

During the event, Lap-cheers held a flag which read: LAP-CHEE COLLEGE HKU and placards pronouncing ‘We love Lap-Chee’ to show their love for the college.

Despite the competition, one of the objectives of this event was to promote peace and love between one and the other, regardless of one’s nationality, cultural background and even skin color.

TEXT:Leung Hoi Kei

IMAGES: Collected from participants

TYPESETTING: Bai Xuedong

On October 29, the Lap Chee Ambassador Team organized a Halloween event that was inspired by the popular Netflix series, “The Squid Game”. 

The Lap Chee Ambassadors were able to successfully bring in the thrilling vibe from the series. At the entrance, all the participants were greeted by the red suit guard from the series. When they entered the venue, they were assigned to complete three games which are the Ddakji Game, Marble Game, and Guess What’s in the Box Game. If they managed to complete all of the games, they were rewarded with the famous Dalgona Candy and many other snacks. Furthermore, the team also prepared a photobooth for the participants to keep their memories of the event.

The event ran out smoothly and successfully as all of the participants enjoyed and had a good time mingling with the other Lap Cheers. Janet, one of the participants, claimed that the night, especially the Guess What’s in the Box Game, was fun and memorable. Liz Kim, one of the LCA members, was also satisfied with the positive outcome of the event. 

Text: Justiani Valensis, Olivia Bianca

Images: Indrawan Valdy

Editor:Huang Jingjing

Typesetting: Steve

On September 24, a Welcoming Event was held to introduce Lap-cheers to the various college teams and let them familiarize with the new and colorful life in the Lap-Chee College.

Different clubs of the Lap-Chee College prepared fun activities and unique gifts for the participants. If the participants answered the questions correctly or finished the task, they will gain a stamp, and if they gained all the stamps of different booths, they would gain a customized Lap-Chee souvenir offered by the college. The customized souvenirs include key rings, teddy bears, laptop cases, mugs, memo pads, and A4 folders. Everyone in that evening enjoyed the games and took pictures with their friends.

Through this activity, Lap-cheers learned about the various club culture of the college, and they could choose what they were interested to join in and enjoy their time in the college.

Text: Huang Jingjing

Images: Collected from residents

Typesetting: Bai Xuedong

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As undergraduates, we may often feel lost navigating the daunting and unfamiliar university experience. Further, it’s all too common to be plagued by the stress of juggling coursework with extracurriculars whilst still planning for internships, exchange, or post-grad. To quell all these concerns, the Residence-based Academic Advising System, RAAS, hosted its last event of the semester, “RAASHow: Surviving UG” on the 25th of April.

An accomplished and lively group of speakers were invited to share their diverse undergraduate experiences and journeys in an engaging panel discussion. On the panel, we had Ahsan Syed Muhammad, a third-year Computer Science major from the Faculty of Engineering, Jessie Ho, a second-year PhD student from the School of Biomedical Sciences, Sally Oh, Lap-chee’s Resident Tutor and a recent graduate from the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Shuvam Mishra, a third-year undergraduate student pursuing his degree in Computing, Data Analytics, and Wealth Management under the Faculty of Engineering and Science.

At the start, the panellists were invited to speak about their general growth throughout UG. Common themes of growth in terms of gaining confidence as well as understanding and appreciating independence and its associated responsibility were among the first ideas to be discussed. Jessie and Ahsan identified their shared experiences of understanding to be comfortable in their respective areas of interest while Shuvam brought up an interesting realisation of matching his career to the skills he has developed or is working to develop.

With finals just around the corner, the panel dived into recounting their experiences with exam pressures and demands. Shuvam and Jessie emphasised the importance of time management by explaining that they work best by conquering smaller challenges every day or every week. They also spoke about setting consistent and achievable schedules to stay on top of work. For those of us who may be too far into the semester to do that, Ahsan and Sally have us covered. They stressed the importance of trying out past papers, finishing up readings early, and handling work smarter during exam week. Despite the differences in their approaches, all of them cautioned us about being mindful of our health, both physical and mental, and advised us to take breaks, eat and sleep well and reach out as and when required. Before we moved ahead, Shuvam urged us to be careful given the new arrangements being implemented in the coming examinations and to test all devices and setup procedures well beforehand.

Moving onto lighter topics, we had questions regarding planning for and going on the exchange to the panel. Sally described her exchange as a quest for cultural reconnection with Korea. Offsetting the gain in knowledge, both academic and cultural, that is commonly associated with exchange programs, she mentioned some of the challenges faced, such as culture shock and the language barrier. She further recommended that we do extensive research on the place that we are applying and prepare suitably for the same. Weighing on the pros and cons of virtual exchange, Ahsan related his experience with an exchange, having just completed it this semester. He noted that with everything being shifted online, one may run the risk of losing the essence of “going on exchange” and only experience the coursework and not the culture. On the other hand, he spoke on being able to recognise the advantages of being able to gauge this coursework and the general academic environment of his selected university.

Shuvam and Jessie presented an alternative solution to those who cannot apply for the usual semester exchange and suggested planning for summer or winter programmes. Giving us an insight into her own experiences, Jessie encouraged all outgoing students to be perceptive of the community and the country they apply to. She further brought up the importance of adapting to and embracing the culture prevalent in the region.

Arguably the most exciting aspect of the night was the discussion on internships which brought out a long discussion range of perspectives. Having been on both sides of the recruitment process, Jessie opened the discussion on this section by breaking down the expectations from both ends in a research setting. She pointed out qualities that professors and lab personnel consider when hiring interns emphasising features like being well versed with the broad concepts that a specific laboratory deals with, curiosity, and displaying a willingness to learn and grow. From an aspiring intern’s perspective, she addressed the importance of understanding the lab’s core requirements, culture, and schedules as well as gauging the people working in the lab because factors like those affect not only the quality of one’s experience but also their learning there.

Ahsan, detailing his history with an internship, cautioned us of the frenzy that surrounds the internship and/or job playing field. He addressed the significance of developing a strong brand that stands out in the industry of interest and sustaining and updating the quality of this brand, especially given the competitive nature of the work culture. He also highlighted the importance of developing a network and recommended being bold in making use of those connections for not only job/internship opportunities but also to grow by learning from both their successes and failures. His ended with an encouragement to continue fighting and to never lose hope as well as the sight of our goals.

Shedding light onto investment banking and, generally, the finance industry, Shuvam spoke about the different areas and levels of work we could consider applying to. Further, he pointed out other essential aspects to examine, such as balancing/matching our skills with those required, language requirements at different positions, conditions of the industry, and the natural biases in play among others. For those looking to enter finance, he also suggested branching out from investment banking by targeting opportunities among the different aspects of the finance world.

One of the key takeaways from the next discussion on life immediately after graduation was to remember to apply for an extension of visa and sort through other legal procedures to continue staying in Hong Kong. Sally spoke about how it’s only natural to feel overwhelmed and worried by the prospect of graduation and even during everyday life at university. She reminded us that we shouldn’t, in such circumstances, hesitate to reach out either to the university or, personally, to her and the rest of the community here for help.

Further to what Sally said, the panel collectively emphasised the importance of trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and mindset. They reassured us not to give up but continue pushing for our dreams and make the most of this formidable yet exhilarating undergraduate journey.

TEXT: Tanvi Falodiya
IMAGE: Yan Yiing Lim, Residence Based Academic Advising System