Presenters and Presentations

1. Dr. Lisa Lam, Director of the Centre for Innovative Service-Learning (CISL), HKBU

Dr. Lam’s presentation showcased CISL. Dr. Lam noted that HKBU places a strong emphasis on service-learning. Implementing that emphasis, it offers a range of credit-bearing service-learning courses. The mandate of CISL is to manage these courses. The Centre offers training in service-learning to HKBU’s students and faculty. It helps HKBU’s faculty and academic departments to design and implement service-learning courses. And it collects evidence on the success of HKBU’s service-learning courses and helps the University assure their quality. Dr. Lam’s presentation explained in detail all of these aspects of the work of CISL.

2. Dr. Rina Camus, Senior Service-Learning Lead, CISL, HKBU

Dr. Camus’s presentation examined what service-learning is. Dr. Camus explained the meanings of the concepts of “service” and of “learning,” discussing the kinds of service that service-learning can provide to our communities, and paying special attention to how learning takes place in service-learning. Dr. Camus emphasized that reflection on the part of students is what transforms the real-life experience of service into learning. Following this theoretical discussion, Dr. Camus showed specific examples of successful service-learning courses at HKBU.

3. Dr. Gray Ho, Senior Lecturer cum Director of the Bachelor of Science Programme in Analytical and Testing Sciences, Department of Chemistry, HKBU (online)

Joining the seminar online and following up on Dr. Camus’s presentation, Dr. Ho showcased his course, CHEM4085 Food Analysis, which is one of HKBU’s outstanding service-learning courses. Dr. Ho explained in detail how the course works, and discussed its challenges and achievements. The course focuses on students collecting unsold food from food sellers in Hong Kong, performing chemical analysis of it to make sure that it is fit for consumption, and distributing it to low-income members of their community. Dr. Ho’s presentation demonstrated how service-learning can offer vital help in our communities, making a real difference in them.

Event Outcome

The service-learning seminar was attended by close to 40 members of UIC’s faculty and staff. It generated many questions that its presenters addressed. The discussion of some of these questions continued even after the seminar. Thus, the seminar inspired an active engagement with the topic of service-learning on the part of its participants.