In celebrating the 50th anniversary of Shue Yan University, Shue Yan Newsletter invited the incumbent President of the Hong Kong Shue Yan University Alumni Association, Mr. CHAN Siu Wa Jeffrey, to share the association’s vision and mission, and to talk about its new emphasis on attracting more young alumni to join.
Mr. CHAN mentioned that, after assuming presidency, he and the newly elected management committee members have formulated a two-year work plan. There are two major problems that the alumni association considers as having top priority. Firstly, the network of the alumni association is rather small, while the alumni’s sense of belonging to SYU has to be raised. Secondly, there is an uneven distribution of members in different age groups. Currently, alumni who graduated 8-10 years ago (i.e. graduated in 2011-2013) only take up 20% of the membership. In contrast, the number of alumni who graduated before 1990, amounts to nearly half of the association.
He stated that the alumni association is following two directions to develop the membership affairs: “acquaintance and communication” and “growth and development”. One of the specific tasks is to apply “one senior and one junior,” pairing alumni with more seniority in the workplace and alumni with less working experience. The former parties can pass on the workplace experience while the latter can share the new technical knowledge. The association hopes that it can attract graduates to join the alumni association to fill the current age gap. On the other hand, the association hopes this arrangement can deepen the understanding among the two generations, achieving mutual progress from the teaching and learning process.
To let alumni and students in Shue Yan be able to understand the operation of the alumni association, the Hong Kong Shue Yan Alumni Association Bulletin will be changed from one issue half a year to one issue quarterly, to foster a closer connection between the alumni association, alumni and students. Besides, they will organize the welcome gathering. The organization and activities in the alumni association will be introduced to let the new members quickly integrate into the big family of the alumni association.
This year is the 41st anniversary of the alumni association. Mr. CHAN pointed out that the alumni association will continue the mission “Unite the alumni, gather the strength, support the alma mater, contribute to society.” Organizing activities, like talks, visiting, recreation and sports activities, volunteer works and participating in the mentorship programme of the alma mater etc., promotes the diversified development among the alumni and the schoolmates at school. The alumni association will continue to cooperate with the alma mater to organize the “Alumni Subject Talk Series” to support the alumni to process lifelong learning. For instance, on 17 July, Dr. CHUNG Siu Kuen, the vice-president of the alumni association was invited to host a talk regarding the subject, “the digital transformation of the banking sector,” in which he shared information about the digital solution, and the development of virtual banks and artificial intelligence in the banking sector.
Mr. CHAN, graduated from the Department of Accounting in 1985, and was a member of the executive committee of the first term of the Student Union of Shue Yan University. On 24 November 1984, the first term of the Student Union organized an evening event – “Shue Yan’s Variety Contest” – with the three faculties, namely the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Business and Faculty of Social Sciences as competitors. He said that Dr. HU Hung-lick Henry and Dr. CHUNG Chi Yung, both about 60 years old at that time, also pitched in with the students. Regarding the achievement of Shue Yan now, he expressed that he feels extremely relieved.
Regarding the future development of Shue Yan, Mr. CHAN leaves a message to the school to insist on its orientation and benefits. Apart from making good use of the current resources for development, the school also needs to continuously examine its and students’ needs, and have imagination and innovation. “Through the cooperation among the university, students and the alumni association, Shue Yan can surely move on to the next 50 years.”
Source：50th Anniversary Special Issue