During my undergraduate study in HKUST, I joined the Science Student Association (SSA) as academic secretary (2003-2004). It was one of the most unforgettable experiences in my 5 years time in HKUST. Unfortunately, SSA is no longer present and I am very sad to hear that. Here, I want to highlight some activities organized by SSA in my term. I truly believe that science school needs a school society to unite science students and also serve as a bridge to the other parts of the university.
In August 2003, we organized an orientation camp (OCamp) (Photo 1). We aimed as providing information and tips to help new science students adapt university life. One of the big advantages of joining SSA OCamp was that, new students from different science departments could meet each other. After the semester had started, they continued to have gatherings regularly as we organized various social activities, such as BBQ and Poon Choi gathering. All participants enjoyed them very much.
Probably everyone in Hong Kong still remembers the painful experience about the outbreak of SARS in 2003. At that time, we felt it would be important for us, as science students, to learn more about this viral disease and in general about epidemic. So, we coorganized an academic seminar with Science Dean Office. We invited Professor Joseph Jao-yiu Sung from CUHK Medical School, a well-known expert for SARS, to give us a seminar (photo 2 and 3). Prof. Sung gave an excellent talk that covered a broad range of knowledge, including: What is SARS virus? Why it is so dangerous? How to treat it? How it becomes so wide spread? How building structure and ventilation system of Amoy Gardens leaded to the rapid spread of SARS, etc. The talk was a great success!
As a school society, we constantly communicated with the other two school societies (Business and Engineering schools). We co-organized the “BEST” (Business-Engineering-Science-Tournament), which included basketball and football matches (photo 4 and 5), together with BSU (Business Students’ Union) and ESU (Engineering Students’ Union). We had a good relationship with BSU and ESU and co-organized many other joined functions.
SSA also keened on charity activity. We co-organized the Charity Sundial Cup with Student Social Service Society (SSSS). It was a running race, which encircled the whole HKUST campus (Photo 6). The runners collected the donation from donors who supported them to participate the race. The beneficiary is ORBIS. Not only tight cooperation with SSSS, we also obtained important supports from Student Affair Office and in house Security Department in this event.
I hope you can see the value of having a science school society. If you are science students in HKUST and keen to have a fruitful university life, I strongly encourage you to consider about resurrecting SSA.
