From Sing Woo Road to the Board of Governors: Dr Francis CHEUNG’s Journey with Shue Yan

“My parents gave me life; Shue Yan nurtured me.”

Dr Francis CHEUNG, Vice-Chairman of the HKSYU Board of Governors and a 1979 graduate of the Department of Business Administration, recalled receiving a personal telephone call from
Dr CHUNG Chi-yung, then President of Shue Yan, offering him admission as a “probationary student”. That phone call changed the course of his life.

Dr CHEUNG said frankly that without the determination of Dr Henry HU Hung-lick and Dr CHUNG Chi-yung to establish and sustain Shue Yan, he would not have achieved what he has today.
“One of the most important lessons I have learned is that everyone may stumble once or twice in life. The existence of Shue Yan has given many young people who stumbled along the way a second chance to change the course of their lives.”

He also recalled the difficulties Shue Yan faced in its early years. The selfless commitment of Dr HU and Dr CHUNG to education inspired many newly retired professors and scholars, and even senior executives from major corporations, to teach at Shue Yan without remuneration or for only a token payment. Their contributions helped lay a strong foundation for the University’s teaching faculty.
From a young student studying on Sing Woo Road to a member of the Board of Governors who now gives back to his alma mater and supports Shue Yan’s development, Dr CHEUNG’s own journey reflects how the educational philosophy of “cultivating virtue and establishing benevolence” (樹德立仁) championed by Dr HU and Dr CHUNG has been passed from one generation to the next.
Dr CHEUNG remains actively involved in the University’s mentorship programme and believes that Shue Yan graduates continue to live up to the values embodied in the University motto, “Cultivating virtues of benevolence; broadening horizon and knowledge” (敦仁博物).

He offered this advice to younger generations of Shue Yan students: “Before learning how to do things, you must first learn how to be a good person. The first step is to cultivate virtue and establish benevolence — to care for others, give selflessly and become someone who contributes to society”