APR 2022 Edition
TUF x UBS Pen Pal (with Partner School collaboration)
By Kiko Law, Year 3 Program Mentor This was the second year that we had organized the Pen Pal Program with UBS. In a similar manner to last year, students from Hong Kong (Yan Chai Hospital Law Chan Chor Si College) and Japan (Kamaishi High School) interacted online despite being based in different locations and time zones. During three sessions, students were granted several opportunities to discuss their personal lives and exchange information about cultural differences with their peers and UBS volunteers. While the Program was a real-time virtual event, participants were also encouraged to communicate with their pen pals outside the virtual sessions by exchanging letters and videos. Our participants mainly used English to communicate, although a few students from Hong Kong wrote and spoke in Japanese. We observed that most of the participants were actively engaged and offered positive feedback on the sessions. Some acknowledged that the Pen Pal Program allowed them to get to know and meet international students and volunteers, and a number even requested more one-on-one opportunities to interact with their pen pals. We, as Program Mentors, found that the Pen Pal Program was exceptionally encouraging and meaningful as it provided an alternative opportunity for our students to meet people from different backgrounds, learn from them and strengthen their linguistic capabilities.
TUF x UBS Hobby Horse By Glayds Shiu, year 2 Program Mentor After a successful cooperation with UBS last year, we are happy to work with the institution again this year on a “Hobby Horse” online session for 50 BAFS students from TWGHs Chang Ming Thien College. The students participated in ice-breaking games such as “Never have I ever” with UBS volunteers. In the small-group sharing, the students prepared a short script to introduce themselves, and learned about the hobbies and workplace experience of the UBS volunteers in return. The volunteers acted as mentors to share insights and knowledge of the financial sector and guided students on ways to further develop their hobbies.
TUF x Telstra - Dream Achiever By Kimberly Chu, Program Executive TUF x Telstra first collaboration of our Pilot program Dream Achiever. 40 students from 11 partner schools and 24 Volunteer Mentors were recruited for this pilot program. Dream Achiever aims to provide a chance for our students to explore their dream and encourage them to have the confidence to accept any challenges. Along their exploration journey with Volunteer Mentors guidance and support. Each student received a $1500 HKD subsidy to take a course which related with their Dream Achiever. In the exploration and finding, there would be a stumbling block and hope all our students are on their way to their Dream Achiever, Keep up the spirit!
New Staff Profile By Michelle Tam, year 1 Program Mentor Hello, this is Michelle. I obtained my BSocSc Psychology degree from City University of Hong Kong. I am now a TUF’s Program Mentor at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School. Back then, I felt lost and helpless due to the challenging Secondary school life. I was lucky to have class teachers and social workers who were concerned about my personal growth. Hence, when I first heard about TUF’s mentoring program, I knew that it was my opportunity to help Secondary school students who faced struggles like me before. As a Program Mentor, I can see how developing rapport with students is important to them and helps enhance their motivation and self-esteem. I can observe the uniqueness in these students and many just need more support to help them unleash their potential. I hope my mentoring work in TUF can promote positive changes in students.
By Joile Ng, year 1 Program Mentor Hi! This is Jolie, a year 1 Program Mentor (PM) stationed at TWGHs Chang Ming Thien College. I was majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology before my graduation last year. It is my pleasure to become a Program Mentor in the TUF family upon my graduation. Speaking about the unique work of TUF in secondary school, one of the most important tier of our work is the Individual Mentoring with our mentees, in which we get to have chances to have one-on-one mentoring sessions with students. Through building relationships and trust with students, we can grow with them and be there for them as a "big sister/bother" at school. One of my mentees loves to try on different cuisines, that's why we had our mentoring sessions at different restaurants each time! We both enjoyed the lovely food and our quality time together.
Student’s Story By Michelle Tam, year 1 Program Mentor During the recesses, a student was always standing outside of the classroom on her own. After I chatted with her, she shared that she had some issues with her friends and she did not have the confidence to develop trusting relationships anymore. Then, I tried to get to know her better through chatting and class observation. I discovered that she also had low self-esteem and felt lost in pursuing her personal goals. After inviting her to be my mentee, she shared more of her stories with me, including how she perceived herself and how she was criticized by her family that shaped her low self-esteem. Hence, I invited her to join my Positive Education Ambassador Scheme to establish new connections with other schoolmates and enhance her self-esteem. At first, she showed hesitation to chat with those she was not familiar with. After a few rounds of interactive group tasks, she was able to connect with others, initiate new ideas for her group and show leadership. Hence, I believe that creating small wins with her can enhance her self-esteem and her sense of achievement. The changes she has shown have inspired me to think about what would be the next steps that help improve her personal growth. I will continue to support her and encourage her to achieve more positive changes.
Mentorship Learning Community Partner School Teacher Sharing (Current Mentorship Learning Community Member, 2017-2019 TUF Partner School Teacher)
By Teddy sir, TWGHs Yau Tze Tin Memorial College I first met TUF at a booth in HKUST. The staff were kind and we had a great conversation about a career path to education. I am glad to work with TUF now and support students on personal development. When I do mentoring, I start building a good rapport with mentees first. What I did was to play with them like playing basketball. They tend to speak with me comfortably and share their feelings. Of course, mentoring is still a big challenge during the pandemic. Communication through Zoom is not effective as face-to-face communication. For me, I keep trying to chat with them as much as I can in order to encourage and motivate them more. I also really appreciate TUF for providing training to teach me systematic mentoring skills like OARS which supports me to overcome difficulties. Being a mentor is a great experience that I could assist students with mentoring skills in a more structural and effective way. I used to be a student with an aimless life. I know students like the old me do need a guide and motivation. Amid this difficult times, I truly want students to have their own target and work for it with enthusiasm.
Mentorship Learning Community By Cherry Wong, Program Manager Our 4th session Mentorship Learning Community (MLC) was held virtually on 14 January. During the session, we shared to over 20 teachers about how to apply coaching techniques and the theories in sustaining mentorship programmes and worked on some student cases via the LEAP coaching model. We also invited Miss Linda, a net teacher from Kiangsu-Chekiang College (Kwai Chung) to share how they implement the after-class English small groups with interactive games. Their creativity and ways to motivate students in breaking through the learning challenges are inspiring to the community. Although the 5th wave of pandemic hits, we keep engaging our teachers by send them a 3T mentoring tips: trust our students, tell a story and treat ourselves and encourage them to exchange thoughts on our online think tank. All of the MLC participants deserve a round of applause for their effort and creativity during these difficult times.
Mentorship Training Platform Launch!
The TUF Mentorship Training Platform (MTP) is now launched! It is an online learning platform to enable a larger population of teaching professionals in Hong Kong to acquire the basics of mentorship and incorporate them into their daily work with students. For TUF partner schools, Program Mentors are the leads to implementing mentoring. However, the number of schools is limited by our resources. MTP aims to break through this bottleneck and benefit a wider audience - teaching professionals and educators. By opening this door, we want to empower more teachers and educators in Hong Kong and amplify the impact of our mentoring approaches to more positive growth and development of our youths. For more details, please check https://mtp.tufhk.org/.
Enroll Now!!
疫境同行專欄：「我可以做甚麼？」 22年2月27日，我坐在電視機前，看到確診新冠肺炎人數
盤踞五位數，無數大廈需要圍封強檢，教育局宣佈學校需 在3月17日前提早放暑期，人人自危的氣氛彌漫着整個城
市。除了擔心家人會否染疫外，更想起過去擔任「教育無 邊界」(TUF) 啟導友師時，所遇見的一張張臉孔。這群十
多歲的中學生家境清貧，他們在狹窄的家中網課，家人因 無法外出工作而「手停口停」，生活必更困難。當我向 TUF的畢業友師和董事局成員提出時，大家不約而同地問
，「我們可以怎樣與這群中學生同行？」一輪商議後，我 們決定以送贈食物、抗疫物資及資金援助，與學生們同行 這一里路。
We “Stand by You” 短短一個晚上，"Stand by You" 援助計劃便由意念到實踐。我們兵分兩路，一方面畢業友師和董事局成員合共捐款籌得約8萬 元資金， 更招募了二十人組成義工隊。另一方面，在24小時內我們緊急聯絡上21 間伙伴學校，尋找有需要的同學。
跟著的一個多星期，我們共聯絡了105個家庭，理出他們急需的物資，並在網上超市搜羅相關貨品。第一張訂單即在3月1日成
功送達!誠然，實踐總比想像複雜。很多網上超市有缺貨問題，或不接受送貨到確診大廈的訂單，義工們不斷嘗試，又找來一 些批發商協助，終於將物資送到每一個家庭，更跟進當中情況特別嚴峻的家庭，送上額外現金資助，以解燃眉之急。
「剛開始感染新冠病毒，當時心情真係忐忑不安，怕感染家人，不知如何處理，又找不到任何支援，我真係好感謝，喺我哋最 無助嘅時候有你哋幫手，真係萬分感激！」學生們的回覆使我們明白，我們的回應不單止是一個需要，更是送出了一份關懷， 造就了一次教育的機會。
「你又看見嗎？」 這兩天疫情中的火拼時速，令我回想起一幕幕過往與學生經歷的點滴。貧窮與沒有自信每每限制了他們的思想和未來；我曾遇 上一位中四的男生，他說不知道在香港升讀大學可以申請不同的資助。亦因為家貧他放棄了升讀大學， 再想「未來」。這是我們相遇前的「他」。
放棄了學業，也不敢
上課時他默不作聲，小息時他倒頭就睡。我花了一些時間，每天小息邀請他玩桌遊，慢慢打開話匣子，了解他的故事和需要。 他跟很多男生相似，對數理電腦感興趣，對語文卻沒有信心。我邀請他加入我的英文小組和生涯規劃小組，重建他的學習信心 ，一同規劃創造未來。
故事沒有如童話般發展，他並沒有考入大學，但他找到屬於自己的路，向自己的興趣----資訊科技進發。中學畢業後，他報讀 了相關課程，嘗試走出自己的未來。
「教育無邊界」(TUF) 是香港一個非牟利及使命導向的機構，在熱心人士及機構捐款支持下，每年邀請有共同理念的學校參加
為期五年的「校本啟導計劃」。 在首兩年TUF聘請並培訓大學畢業生作為「啟導友師」全職駐校兩年，與社經地位較低的學生
同行，以啟導方法、知識和技巧，有系統地逐步提升他們的自尊感、學習態度和學習動機。作為畢業友師，我非常珍惜在TUF 的兩年富有挑戰，卻又滿載得著的經歷。
疫情揭露了清貧學生生活上的缺乏，還有成長、完夢、脫貧的需要。然而，他們能夠振翅高飛的未來， 要的未來不單是資源，更是一個個願意與他們同行的引路人。你願意為他們引路嗎？
你又看到嗎？他們需
Operation Desk By Clement Ng, Executive Director Hong Kong faces the 5th wave of the Covid-19, with the number of positive cases remain at a high level. It has been over two years since this pandemic outbreak, and it continues to upset us that the virus still affects our everyday life. TUF Alumni Community launched a resource relief project called “Stand By You”. It is an ad hoc project to support the urgent needs of students whose families’ livelihood are impacted badly by this 5th wave of Covid-19. We have delivered food and sanitary products to 136 students and 12.4% have received a pre-paid Octopus Card to meet the immediate and urgent needs. We are so proud of our alumni and incredibly grateful to the Board of Directors for helping to make this project possible. At the same time, we are doing our utmost to plan for and respond to the early summer break. Program Mentors and corporate volunteers are providing mentoring sessions and a variety of online programs to keep our students active over the holidays. Together we will do all we can. Stay safe and stay strong.
Special Thanks Jockey Club Teach Unlimited “Walk with Youth” Mentorship Programme is funded by
Sponsors (in alphabetical order)
Leung Hon Hung Scholarship Fund
Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy The PCD Charitable Trust
Contact Us www.teachunlimited.org Teach Unlimited Foundation teachunlimited +852 2857 1205 inquiry@teachunlimited.org Room 2801, 28th Floor Shun Tak Centre, West Tower 200 Connaught Road Central
Teach Unlimited Foundation is a ...