GCS Updates, December 2013

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School of Humanities and Social Science, HKUST GCS Updates December, 2013 SPECIAL NEWS: INTERNSHIPS AT WASHINGTON Congratulations to our second-year students Vanessa Lau and Matthew Tang on their congressional internship offers in Washington in the spring of 2014. Vanessa and Matthew, well-done! ACADEMIC AWARDS Congratulations to these GCS students as well:  SHSS Academic Excellence Award 2013 {2011 cohort} CHIU Ting Ting, WAI Tin Ying, WANG Yuqian {2012 cohorts} CHEUNG Pik Yan Linda, LI Yongzheng, NG Man Ching, PETROV Petar Zdravkov, SO Ning, XIA MengYao, ZHANG Pengfei Dean’s Award Ceremony (with President Tony Chan and Dean James Lee)  SHSS Academic Merit Award 2013 {2011 cohort} FOK Woon ON Winnie, JIN Hyungwon, NG Siu Ki, LAI Po Yan, TSOI Kwan Nok {2012 cohorts} CHENG Wing Hong Wesley, LAM Yan Ping, YAU Hok King, NG Kai Sze  Wallace C. K. Siu Prize for Undergraduate Humanities 2013 Winnie Fok is also the recipient of the Wallace C. K. Siu Prize for Undergraduate Humanities awarded by the Division of Humanities. School of Humanities and Social Science, HKUST NURTURING A LIBERAL ARTS CULTURE This year, we have aimed to foster a liberal arts culture on campus under the banner of GCS (or vice versa). Our initiatives include, among others, launching the Global China Cultural Salons and setting up the GCS Facebook Page. Three Salon events were held in Fall (“The Way We Dance”; Indie Culture; Tedx) and three more are in the pipeline for Spring. Stay tuned! The GCS Facebook Page introduces articles, books/ classics, writers, and thinkers, and promotes events and seminars on interesting social and cultural issues relating mainly to Hong Kong, Mainland and Taiwan. This week we are going to launch a special Winter Reading Series entitled“昏睡或夢醒”. (本系列將會從魯迅先生的著作開始，細閱過去百多年來中國人如何在夢與醒的邊緣徘徊、在狂妄與自卑間擺蕩掙扎。) Visit our website for more details: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/GlobalChinaStudies CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOPS This year, we have sought to enhance student development in various respects. Besides the cultural salons, we also work with consultancy firms and SAO in running workshops to train up students’ practical soft skills. **Team Building & Global Social Awareness In November, we ran a pilot workshop on team-building and student feedback was quite good: “I really appreciate the fact that there was a deeper message in every game we played … I felt like I actually learnt some major lessons.” Next semester, we will organize another, differently designed workshop as a sequel, with a view to enhancing both team-building and global social awareness among our GCS students. (p.s. These workshops are very costly but students don’t have to pay!) **Time Management & Reading Skills And to help students better adjust to university life, we will hold sessions on reading skills (by Dr Yvonne Leung) and time management in the spring. **Internship Preparation and Career Development We will work with SAO in running another training series on internship preparation and career development. All the details will be provided in our forthcoming announcements. School of Humanities and Social Science, HKUST SPRING PARTY! We plan to hold a party to celebrate the beginning of the spring semester in February, which will also be a good time for us to meet to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The theme of the party is “Cross-Cultural Experiences.” All GCS students and faculty members are welcome to join. Details below: Date: February 11 (Tuesday) Time: 5-6pm Venue: Tin Ka Ping Hall (next to the western restaurant at Bistro) p.s. We will send you reminders. JEFFERSON GLOBAL SEMINARS The University of Virginia (UVa) will collaborate with our School in offering a special program called “Jefferson Global Seminars” on the HKUST campus in the summer of 2014 again. The program offers courses in two modules, namely “Global Humanities” and “Global Technology, Environment and Society,” taught or co-taught by UST faculty and UVa faculty. The courses to be offered will be different this year. More details will be announced later. MAINLAND SUMMER PROGRMS Like last year, there will be summer exchange or study programs offered in different Chinese cities. Announcements will be made once we have the details. GCS INTERNSHIP PROGRAM We will launch the GCS Internship Program in the summer like last year. Thus far we have got confirmed offers by TVB, CityMagazine, museums, American Chamber of Commerce, NGOs and publishing companies and we are seeking to expand our internship program to include some other organizations. In the meantime, interested students are highly encouraged to look out for internship opportunities on their own as well. MERRY CHRISTMAS!