Advancement
2016 | david f. rittmann scholar KRISTINE LAU ’16 From a local school, to HKIS, and on to... by Minori Nagatomo ’01
Kristine came to HKIS as a sophomore when she was selected to be a Rittmann Scholar. Having graduated in June, she will begin her university life at King’s College London in the fall, with full support from the Hong Kong government’s Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme. Her HKIS journey began when she participated in our summer English Language Leadership Program where she was offered the Alumni Scholarship in Memory of David F. Rittmann to attend HKIS. An HKIS education would be vastly different for Kristine from what she had experienced before. She describes the school as having a “college-like, free, academic environment” and shares that the fun part of class was the lively discussion. “Learning isn’t just fill-inthe-blanks,” she says. “Here at HKIS, you can express your knowledge
in a lot of different ways… I had a lot more exposure here, because it’s an international school with a lot of different cultures. So that made me a lot more open-minded and accepting than I was before.”
This is reflected, too, in her adventures through Interim. Kristine learned to get along with a large group of people in her outdoor exploration in New Zealand, dove into the world of Greek history and mythology in Greece, and she speaks passionately about her Vietnam Interim where she interacted with children with disabilities at an orphanage. “I know it sounds clichéd, but it was truly,
truly, life-changing.”
Her love for service and inter-cultural understanding are not the only things that flourished during her time at HKIS. Kristine was surprised by the leadership roles our female students played at school and beyond, and this quickly fueled her passion for gender equality dialogue and exercising leadership herself. “It was just very
go into finance — something she had never even considered before HKIS. She even interned at a hedge fund firm this summer. She is grateful for the opportunities she had at HKIS, and as we send her off to King’s College London with our blessings, we are proud to have her represent the HKIS family. n
About the
ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP IN MEMORY OF DAVID F. RITTMANN
The Alumni Scholarship in Memory of David F. Rittmann provides full tuition for worthy and talented local students to attend grades 10-12 at HKIS. The scholarships are awarded on a merit and need basis. To help HKIS continue to welcome local students like Kristine, please give at hkis.edu.hk/giving and designate your gift to the scholarship.
cool to see that so many female students here, they are leaders of this school, yet no one asks questions about their gender…That was just so eye-opening and shocking to me,” Kristine recalls. She dove into action, first
with the Hong Kong chapter of Young Women’s Society her sophomore year, and later with the HKIS chapter of the same. She treasured having opportunities to interact with inspirational women with a wide range of professional backgrounds through the Society. These experiences even influenced her university major. She used to believe girls normally gravitate towards humanities, while boys pursued math and science. That’s a thing of the past, especially after having been inspired by Mr. Mike Baker’s economics classes. So inspired, in fact, she now plans to study and
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DRAGONTALES SUMMER 2016
Kristine immersed in Interim activities in Vietnam and New Zealand.