CLASS STUDENTS HONOURED FOR DISCOVERIES ADDRESSING SOCIAL ISSUES

The Discovery-enriched Curriculum (DEC), which emphasises discovery, innovation, and creativity, is at the core of City University’s academic strategy. The teachers at the University, those of CLASS’ various academic units included, are making these qualities the focus in their course delivery. 

With the guidance of these passionate teachers, CLASS students have conducted a number of problem-focused researches over the years that DEC is being implemented. To honour the most outstanding ones, the College has established the DEC Award and given out prizes every year. In 2019, the champion and runner-up go to Social Work undergraduate Sylvia CHAN Ho-lam and Linguistics and Language Applications undergraduate Irene TSOI Ching-yin respectively.

Photo 1: Sylvia organised a socialisation group with six gatherings, where the elderly can share past experience and happy memories together.

In Sylvia Chan’s research “Integration of Reminiscence Therapy and Positive Psychology for Single Elderly with Negative Thinking”, conducted under the supervision of Dr Sylvia KWOK LAI Yuk-ching, the winning student tried to deal with a phenomenon that she witnessed during her placement – the pessimism of single elderly. After carefully defined the target study group (aged 65 or above) and analysed the problems (the ageing trend of the Hong Kong population, the needs of the elderly, the pros and cons of possible solutions), she organised a socialisation group for single elderly with minimal support from the community, putting her knowledge in reminiscence therapy and positive psychology into application.