The Hub for the Future’s (the Hub) first leadership training workshop, “Starting Your Impact Journey”, organised by the Foundation For Shared Impact (FSI), was held at the HSBC Main Building on 23 August 2024.
The session was attended by 23 HSBC Scholarship recipients together with HKU Business Case Competition Awardees.
The session started with an engaging networking hour with the FSI team and HSBC Scholars connecting to profile interests, exchange information, and brainstorm ways to enhance leadership skills and facilitate broad collaboration to create an impactful purpose for the Hub.
Then, a leadership training workshop was presented by FSI Co-founder and Director David Bishop, who walked the scholars through his inspiring path from a young lawyer to an award-winning educator and social entrepreneur.
“What is the secret to a long and happy life?” David prompted the scholars to ponder before going on to explain how to unleash leadership potentials through “strategic side gigs”.
“Developing a strategic side gig has many long-term benefits, such as recharging your energy, building knowledge, skills, and confidence, and developing a broader perspective,” said David as he told the story of his journey as a serial social entrepreneur co-founding social impact organisations like Soap Cycling, Migrasia, EmpowerU, and FSI.
After the training workshop, HSBC Scholars were given an opportunity to think through professional and personal development paths that could best leverage their experience, talents, and passion.
“I’m very delighted and honoured to be one of the awardees of the HSBC Hong Kong Scholarship, because I can use the money to pursue my future career and to gain more professional insights. The scholarship will allow me to apply for different professional courses, perhaps even a master’s degree, to gain further professional knowledge,” said Alison Yi-tak Tang, currently reading Speech and Hearing Science at The University of Hong Kong. “After I graduate, I hope to serve the Hong Kong society as a speech therapist. No matter which sector I will be working in, I hope to use my professional knowledge to really help people in need, both children and adults.”
The FSI team also encouraged interest and participation from HSBC Scholars by highlighting upcoming events such as FSI’s roundtable workshop at ReThink HK, FSI’s first GuideFong Bazaar, a volunteering day at Soap Cycling, along with career advancement and leadership development opportunities accessible via FSI’s Skills-based Volunteering Matching service and our widely acclaimed Board Director Training Program. The workshop concluded with actionable next-steps on starting an impactful journey.
“I am excited about the volunteering activities offered to us members of the Hub for the Future. I haven’t done any volunteer work during my three years at university, and I would like to do more in my final year. I have already signed up for the Soap Cycling Volunteer Day in October, and I hope there will be more volunteering activities,” said Luqman Mohammad, an incoming year-four student reading Applied Computing at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. “In the future, I would like to have an impact on the working-class people of Hong Kong. I want to create an app that would give them access to gig economy type of work and enable them to make extra income.”
“I am excited about joining the Hub for the Future as I will get to work in leadership roles. Talking to Dina Pesumal (FSI’s HSBC Scholarship Programme Manager) just now, I realised that I can actually do things like marketing, research, finance, communications etc. I have never been in a leadership role before and I feel like this is a great opportunity for me to actually learn skills and put them into great practical use,” said Areeba Sayed, a year-two student reading business at the Lingnan University.
“I recently started a side business to help women lead a healthier and more balanced lifestyle,” continued Areeba. “My goal is to create a good impact in our society, especially in womanhood. From what I have seen growing up in a very diverse environment, women may want to do things but they tend to not prioritise themselves. And I just want to teach them that it’s okay to prioritise themselves and to take care of themselves.”
To stay engaged with the Hub community and learn more about upcoming activities held under the FSI x HSBC partnership, follow the Hub LinkedIn page or email hubforthefuture@shared-impact.com
