By TAM Ka Shing, Johnny (Lee Shau Kee Hall)

“I have been living in the residence for four years and it is truly a life-changing experience,” said Ken Ip, Residence Tutor of Jockey Club Humanity Hall (Hall 1), who is now in his final year of study in laws.

Since his freshman year, Ken has been involved in many hall activities like voluntary services and sports competitions. But on top of hall participation, he has also worked hard on his schoolwork. Whenever he had doubts or questions, he would seek advice from someone influential.

“I really thank Elaine [Dr. AU LIU, Suk Ching Elaine], our hall master, for giving me advices throughout the years and creating a very caring community for everyone. She taught us how to set up our life goal by offering us her own stories,” said Ken.

To show his gratitude towards the hall, he took the role of Residence Tutor last year to spread the spirit. He said it has been great to work with other tutors as a team to serve the hall. “Though it is tiring to organise and hold activities, we [Residence Tutors] always share our workload and after every activity, we would sit down and celebrate,” said Ken.

Recently, he organised a campaign called “一齊ONE書” to promote a study atmosphere among his floor mates. For several nights on weekdays during semester peak and in the run up to the examination period, six to seven floor mates gathered in the common room to give advice on each other’s schoolwork and decisions on job or exchange studies application.

This year, in an attempt to achieve his goals, he applied for pursing a postgraduate degree in Oxford. “I asked for advice from Elaine and my friends at the hall and they all supported me. The result came positive after all,” said Ken.

For Ken, serving others seems to be part of his life goals. He wants to apply what he learned to serve the community, Hong Kong and even China. He hopes that he will get some inspirations after studying in Oxford, so that he can help improve human rights on mainland China.

Ken will commence his postgraduate studies – Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) – in the coming September. BCL is a taught postgraduate degree widely considered to be demanding because of its intensive and Oxbridge-style small-group tutorials.