Samvitti Sharma

India
BBS 2019

“I loved attending the lectures, as it helped me gain exposure to innovative and groundbreaking research currently being done in a number of disciplines linked to biology. It’s difficult to pick my favorite lecture, but I found the lecture by Professor Duffy about his research on how musical exercises can be used to improve nurse training incredibly interesting. It taught me that we should not view subjects in isolation, as the most meaningful results often come from the interaction of two dissimilar fields of knowledge.”

Last year, my eyes were opened to a pressing issue in Hong Kong. Many ethnic minority students from underprivileged families in Hong Kong face significant language barriers in their education. They can only afford to attend government-subsidized schools, where Cantonese is the primary medium of instruction. However, these schools do not provide enough support for kids learning Cantonese as a second language, causing them to struggle and lag behind in their educational development. 

Being an ethnic minority myself, I was eager to help out. Therefore, I reached out to a local charity called Integrated Brilliant Education Trust (IBET) that is dedicated to educating and empowering these students. In September, I formed a service group at my school with my classmate, Madeline Liu. Members visit tutoring centers run by IBET every week and tutor these students in Cantonese, math, and English for an hour and a half. The beneficiaries are predominantly Nepalese and Pakistani students from disadvantaged families. The students we tutor are always very eager to learn and put in a lot of effort into their schoolwork, which is very inspiring.

This is our fifth month working with IBET. We are currently planning new initiatives to raise awareness about this issue at school. We are also slowly expanding and recruiting more students so we can offer more help. I have found the experience deeply enriching and rewarding!

Ambassador Year: 
2019