In line with its commitment to serving the local community, the Interdisciplinary Programs Office joined hands with The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) to launch again the 25th Anniversary event “Innovating Today, Imagining Tomorrow” Mentorship Program in 2016/17.  Through interdisciplinary activities and mentoring sessions with faculty, the program aims to broaden local high school students' horizons, and inspire them to unleash their potential and pursue personal goals. 

This year, the program has grown even bigger, with 55 local high school students from more than 40 secondary schools, 23 HKUST faculty from various disciplines, and 18 HKUST student ambassadors recruited university-wide to strengthen the engagement of high school students, give them a taste of university life and act as a peer mentor to them.  It is really a delight to receive tremendous responses from HKUST students expressing interests in serving the community.

The kick-off ceremony was held successfully on 18 February 2017, which provided an opportunity for the mentors and mentees to get to know each other.  Throughout the program, mentees had 4 campus visits led by different faculty members and numerous individual exchange and meetings with their mentors.  The final Sharing Session was held on 15 July 2017; with the support and guidance from the HKUST student ambassadors, mentees were managed to pull off the video task assigned on their own.  Each group of mentees presented a two-minute video on HKUST’s environment, mentorship, friendship and learning experience.  Not only the faculty and student ambassadors enjoyed the presentations and sharing of mentees, mentees also had lots of fun in doing the sharing.  The learning, bonding and laughter all wrapped up in good memories of mentors, mentees and student ambassadors.