Undergraduate students from all over the world meet for the Impact Lab Course orientation and prepare for their work at social impact organizations in Hong Kong!
Impact Lab is an experiential learning course by Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI) that gives university students the opportunity to work for social ventures, under the supervision of faculty instructors and a mentor in their placement company.
On 14 September, we organized an in-person orientation event on the campus of The University of Hong Kong for our new cohort of Impact Lab students, coming from all over the world and gathered to connect and prepare for their internships at social ventures such as FSI, Soap Cycling, GREEN Hospitality, Migrasia, Weava, Clearbot, EmpowerU, and Gowld Art Centre.
The orientation event started with an introduction into the course and a presentation featuring experiences of previous interns, as well as some of their inspiring success stories. We talked about the safe learning environment we are creating at Impact Lab, where students are encouraged to be proactive, but also to learn to face failure at times and accept it as part of their self-improvement process.
The orientation was organized by David Bishop, Associate Professor of Teaching at HKU and Co-founder of FSI;, Jon Pedersen, Course Teaching Assistant and Director of FSI; Erika Makino, a former Impact Lab student and currently Multimedia Designer at FSI; and Adnan Riaz, Project Assistant of the FSI Community Business Support team.
Our Fall 2022 cohort is as diverse as always, and we used this to help our students connect with each other more easily. In one of the ice-breaker games we played, students were asked to group together in a line, with their place in the line representing how far away they are from their home country. Over the years, we have had students coming from over 57 different countries, representing 126 different universities!
We then had the students pair up and learn as much as they can about the person standing next to them, in order to encourage the participants to connect with each other and reinforce teamwork. By the end of the event, we could see many friendships forming, and students starting to build a sense of solidarity that will undoubtedly come in handy in the upcoming months.
Some of the participants in the orientation have shared their experience with us. Erika Makino, who was in charge of the event organization, said: “As a previous Impact Lab student, and one who took the course during the pandemic, it was a joy to be able to help plan and host this in-person session for the incoming students.”
“The main theme of the activities was “communication”. After years of limited in-person interaction, especially in professional and educational environments, it was my hope that the students would gradually become more comfortable again with asking questions and communicating with each other more actively. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see the enthusiasm of students taking part in the activities, and the excitement of some students who hope to get as much as they can from the program. I hope they will carry the same enthusiasm throughout their placement.”
Adnan Riaz, another member of the FSI team who helped organize the event, said: “As a recent university graduate, joining the Impact Lab orientation was a very fruitful and eye-opening experience. It was also my first time in a long time, interacting with many students face-to-face after two years. The event was vibrant, filled with like-minded students from diverse backgrounds, who were eager to tackle social challenges by dedicating their valuable time and efforts. It was interesting to hear students’ unique fun facts during the ice-breaking activity, and I appreciated conversing with them about their action plans, for making a positive impact in the social businesses they joined.”
Finally, Clara Holthuisen, an exchange student from Switzerland who will be participating in the Impact Lab Course this semester, had a positive experience attending the event: “I really enjoyed getting to know everyone in person. Since a lot of people only work from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was very nice to see who you will be working with in the near future. You can learn so much just from the personal interaction, the gestures and facial expressions of people.”
“ I’m only in Hong Kong for one semester, so I’m particularly looking forward to getting to know a different corporate culture. That we got an introduction was very helpful. I didn’t expect that besides our actual work in the companies, we would also have a course where we could meet people and learn something. I am looking forward to the upcoming seminars.”
With an Impact Lab seminar coming up soon on 3 October, our students will have a chance to meet again and work together in person throughout the semester. Stay tuned to our highlights of the seminar!
*Acknowledgement: This article is written by Jovan Ivankovic, an Impact Lab intern of the FSI Communications and Marketing team.
