Members Reflection

Member: Lim Kang Le (Singapore, Hwa Chong Institution)

Having for the first time embarked on collaboration with foreign students in a project is indeed an eye-opening experience for me. First of all things, I have gained a wonderful insight on the culture and lifestyles of Hong Kong and Australian students. But more importantly, I have made new friends and expanded my network to overseas. These are the treasures that I will hold dearly to my heart and cherish them for life. Inevitably, there have emerged some form of misunderstanding and problem pertaining to the project (such as on the issues, topic etc.), but I felt that within our group we have always reached a compromise, and I wish to thank my members for such. They have taught me to think, and to question, and I hope that they have gained as much as I have. It has been my honor to have embarked on this project with the Diocesan girls and Joel from COCB. It has been a fun journey and I sincerely hope that they feel the same as I do.

Through this collaboration I have picked up several skills and perhaps life-long experiences that I feel gives me an edge over those who have missed such an opportunity. For one, I learnt the importance of establishing an effective and efficient communication channel with my counterparts. Without a platform for discussion, ideas can never be exchanged, questions posed, and the result would only be a stagnation in progress. Through this experience, I understood the importance of organization: of an action plan, and of the information that we have collated. Planning a timeline of the work to be done, accurate and just distribution of the workload are all key elements that culminate in a good relationship among the team members. I find that in order to optimize learning in such an experience, it is always necessary to find joy in work and in teamwork. Finally, I wish to thank again the Diocesan girls and Joel for putting their time and commitment into the project, and I feel that without their proactive participation, I would not have such a wonderful experience.

Member: Mavis Lee (Hong Kong, Diocesan Girls' School)

"The dramatic modernization of the Asian economies ranks alongside the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution as one of the most important developments in economic history." - Not only does the Renaissance set a huge milestone for the world's later economic development , it also forms the foundation of human's understanding of religion. Before doing this project, I did not know about how the religious values developed during Renaissance would shape and change the song. I also didn't think I would ever have the chance to express my opinion on whether Renaissance was an improvement for the histpry of mankind of a decline in human history. The project opened up chances for me to dig deeper into things and read between the lines as it was essential for us to realize why everything happened during that period of time, in which requires a large amount of energy and concentration. In spite of that, I learnt a lot of things during the process and was satisfied when I completed my research work. Also, the chance to work with student from Singapore and Australia was very exciting too. Not only was I given the golden opportunity to communicate with student with a diverse family background, I also understood the importance of setting a timetable for myself, and being punctual for the 'online meetings'. Although I was not doing too well at keeping up with the work schedule, I appreciate my team mates' patience and understanding towards this situation. I'm grateful for the friendship I've made through this project and I look forward in working with more international students.

Member: Belle Lam (Hong Kong, Diocesan Girls' School)

Born in a world with rapid technology advancement and economy prosperity, it is crucial to understand how this world was created and developed in the past.

In this project, we were given the opportunity to understand how Renaissance, being one of the most significant periods in history, helped shape the development and growth of the modern world we are living today. I first learned about Renaissance in my studies in history last year. However, I only learnt about the basic information about Renaissance without establishing a thorough understanding about it. Therefore, I treasure this opportunity to look into the depth of Renaissance, analyzing its impacts on religion, social structure and status of women and ultimately how Renaissance influenced the future development.

After working on this project, not only did I have a richer understanding about Renaissance, I also learnt how to prepare meeting minutes in an organized way after having a meeting and jotting down the main points. Through preparing minutes, I acknowledged the importance of it as we can always refer back to the minutes for information on the project. Also, I learn how to structure my pieces of essay and prepare meeting minutes after having a meeting and jotting down the main points.

It is my first time working with people from other countries with different backgrounds and cultures. In this project, I, together with my two classmates, Jane and Mavis worked with Kang Le from Singapore and Joel from Brisbane. Although we could not discuss directly to each other, but with advanced technology, we frequently communicated through internet effectively. All the members were nice and cooperative. It is my pleasure to work with them. This for sure is a brand new experience for me and will definitely widen my exposure and broaden my horizons. Last but not least, I would like to thank our coaches for their guidance and support.

Member: Jane Wong (Hong Kong, Diocesan Girls' School)

In the past years, I have participated in various projects and competitions involving a lot of teamwork and cooperation within members. But this is the first time for me to cooperate with different students around the world, for which I am most grateful for.

While working with my wonderful teammates from Singapore and Australia, I learned some of their culture and interesting traits. With very different people from different countries, we have come up with a lot of different ideas. Though we may have to hold many sessions to decide and agree on a certain issue, these ideas increased our variety in our work and also enriched our content. Working with overseas students was not completely easy for me. Usually in school projects or local competitions, teammates can meet up face to face for conferences or call through the telephone for discussion. But with the time difference and also the difficulty of calling overseas, we usually hold our meeting on MSN or converse through emails. Such methods are comparatively not as efficient as the former ones, but they sufficed and helped us along our journey. With the diverse talents among our teammates, I think we have compiled and produced a piece of great work which we will all treasure.

In this project, our group has explored different issues and aspects of Renaissance. Though I have learned about this period at school, I have surely gained a deeper understanding of what it is through researching and writing a paper. Through going into this topic, I understood how different aspects contribute to each other and also lead to a certain idea and consequences. Also, I learned that every period has their individual underlying positive and negative impacts, of which neither should be neglected.

Last but not least, I want to thank all of my wonderful teammates from whom I have gained and learned from. I also want to thank our teachers for providing their unfailing guidance and support. I will never forget this wonderful experience!

Member: Joel Olsson (Australia,Christian Outreach College Brisbane)

Over the past few months it has been my pleasure to work and learn with students from Hong Kong and Singapore. It was interesting to learn about the culture of the people with-in the group.

It was challenging to get meetings to work with everybody's time schedules. These meetings were conducted via MSN and then the transcript of the meeting was sent by email to all members in the group. We also used a shared email account to ensure all members were up to date with what needed to be done, and the deadlines that these tasks needed to be achieved by. The advantages of having such a diverse group of students was that there were many different ideas and opinions on a variety of issues and skills were well spread.

It has been a truly enriching experience that has been unlike any other group assessment or task.