We welcomed 300 students today
We welcomed 300 students today
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Today we welcomed 300 Hong Kong students who have applied for admission to United World Colleges in September this year to our campus. The event was our annual Challenge Day, which is an important part of the annual selection process, not only for Li Po Chun UWC but for Hong Kong students applying to all the United World Colleges.
We received well in excess of 500 applications this year, and every one of them was read by me plus at least one other senior teacher at the College. Some of the applications were encyclopaedic in their length - which was not always helpful for me in trying to get enough sleep! As always, the selection process must be based strictly on merit, and it is therefore quite a challenging task to process all the applications in such a short time-line - after all, the deadline for applications was only a few weeks ago, on 16th December last year.
As a result of reading the application forms, a list of 300 students to be invited to Challenge Day was developed. The students who attend Challenge Day today had a great time filled with fun and activities, including problem solving, social interaction, interviews, preparing performances, and so on - and while they are engaged in these activities, they were being observed by our volunteer assessors drawn from staff, students and graduates.
From the assessors’ results, a short-list of about 100 students will be drawn up, and these students will be invited to the next phase of the selection process, which is the entrance aptitude testing day scheduled for 28th February. They will also be invited to be interviewed by the selection panel appointed by the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, these interviews being scheduled for late March and early April. In round figures, 50 of these students will be invited to attend Li Po Chun United World College in Hong Kong, and an additional 12 or so will be invited to attend overseas United World Colleges in Canada, Costa Rica, India, Italy, Norway, USA and Wales.
The selection of students is an extremely busy but very important time for the Hong Kong UWC Selection Committee, and a potentially life-changing experience for the students who are fortunate enough to be selected. Challenge Day is just one step in the process, albeit an important one. It will be May to June before the successful applicants find out if they will have the opportunity to attend a UWC.
I have uploaded a gallery of 66 images showing today’s Challenge Day activities which I hope will give you some flavour of the life and colour of this day - but unfortunately not the noise, the laughter and the applause. You can access the gallery HERE, and through the image at the top of this blog.
I would like to record my deep appreciation to Ms Esther Chau, our Head of Humanities and Alumni Co-ordinator, who organised Challenge Day again this year and brought together her huge team of helpers - students, staff and graduates - without whom this massive undertaking could not have happened. Thank you to everyone who made this great but exhausting day such a huge success.