To attract young talents, reward academic excellence and nurture students with all-rounded development and overseas experience, CityU has established the CityU Scholarships for Hong Kong Talents for students with excellent public examination results to pursue government-funded bachelor's degree programmes. In the academic year 2021-2022, two CLASS freshmen were awarded the Institutional Scholarships, and both were admitted to the Department of Media and Communication (COM).
Photo 1: Despite the heavy workload from school, Chie never stops playing the trumpet. One of the awardees is YAMADA Chie, who achieved an International Baccalaureate (IB) score of 43 out of 45 studying English Language and Literature, Economics, Psychology, Spanish Ab Initio, Biology, and Mathematics Applications and Interpretation. She is a Japanese, and has been living in mainland China most of the time. Having been to Hong Kong multiple times for school activities and trips, she started to consider the possibility to stay in this vivid city. Her chance came when she received an admission offer from CityU’s media and communication programme. It is a good fit for her, as she had a strong passion for advertisements and media since high school. After being challenged with assignments related to analysing non-literary texts in English, including films, political cartoons, and advertisements, she was more determined to become a media planner and work in the advertising and branding sector. She believes the programme would give her various opportunities and resources to obtain the necessary skills needed for her future career.
Photo 2: Cheuk-yi is a film lover who has critical standpoints towards the media industry. Unlike Chie, who has been educated at schools outside Hong Kong, LAU Cheuk-yi, the other awardee of the Institutional Scholarships who scored 36 in the IB, studied in a local primary school and Direct Subsidy Scheme secondary school. Cheuk-yi traces her interest in the media industry back to her childhood. She reveals that she spent much time watching TV, reading novels and comics when she was a kid. She was stunned by the brilliant ideas brought by artists and producers and how media with different characteristics presented a broad range of topics. As a big movie fan, she found the powerful viewing experience brought by the combination of sound effects, colours, plots and lines, characters and costumes amazing. Aspired to work in the media industry to impact the world, Cheuk-yi believes the training offered by COM can help her understand how media communicates with people in different ways, learn techniques with a plan and professional guidance, and explore her talent.
Obtaining such an exceptional result in IB means a lot of hard works, but that did not stop Chie and Cheuk-yi from joining extracurricular activities. Chie joined the varsity cross country team and was a trumpeter for all the musical groups at her school, including the jazz band, wind ensemble, and pit orchestra. Cheuk-yi was a member of her secondary school’s Campus TV and has participated in several competitions with her teammates.
Their first few weeks at CityU have been great. In-person teaching has been resumed for many of the courses that Chie takes. It made meeting and connecting people from her home department and through participating in extracurricular activities–she has joined CityU Philharmonic Orchestra–easier. “But certainly, I am striving to learn Cantonese so I can alleviate that barrier and understand my local friends better, including their cultures and hobbies,” she says. Meanwhile, Cheuk-yi attends mostly online lectures at the moment. She finds the university workload quite manageable, but hopes to attend lessons on campus, join different activities and meet new people in the following semester.
Cover photo: Chie and Cheuk-yi are enthusiastic talents who are determined to equipping herself with essential knowledge for the media career at CityU COM.
