Community Development

Community

Development

Message from Community Development Office

The KGV school community has enjoyed another successful year of achievements. The collaboration between our students, parents and alumni has yielded fruitful results. Students benefited from our alumni mentorship program which supported the Higher Education activities, Career Fair, University interviews and other experiential learning programs.

The cancellation of IB Diploma exams provided an unique opportunity for IB and BTEC Diploma students to engage in some exciting and worthwhile learning opportunities during Term 3. The KGV ‘Flying Start’ was launched as a bridging program to keep students engaged over the months before they embarked on the next chapter of your learning journey. The program was a series of short courses, keynote speeches, panel discussions and wellbeing sessions, all aimed at giving our students a flying start to life at University and beyond KGV. The program offered a broad range of topics, drawing on the expertise and resources from our alumni, KGV Teaching staff, Universities, Corporate partners, existing and valued online programs, ESF connections, community partners and parents. Our students thrive on mentorship achieving much success for us to celebrate.

Since the launch of the KGV Alliance in 2018, we have hosted six ‘Pitch-night’ events. The Alliance is a community partnership, powered by student ideas to create positive change. There are three big ideas that drive this initiative. First, creating new ways for our school and students to engage with our community. Second, to bring our business community, alumni, parents, community partners, teachers and students together on regular occasions across the year. Last but not least, to create positive change as it is our moral imperative, and we strive to do so by influencing positively, sustainably and ethically.

This year our students presented 23 projects, creating 25 mentorship opportunities, engaged with 250 students in Hong Kong. and attracted sponsorship worth HKD 250,000.

Alumni News

Alumni relations building and strengthening is a key function of the Community Development office. At the beginning of the past academic year, we hosted numerous alumni visits and Heritage tours for the community with the support of our student leadership, who are actively involved in bringing greater awareness to our school heritage and strengthening our ethos.

Alumni Visit 2019/20

Anil Mirwani 1992’_2 Oct 19 Desmond Ko 2002’_17 Oct 19 James Rice 1975-1980’_21 Oct 19 Laurelle Cheng 2011’_12 Sep 19 Mamatha Geddam 1996’_16 Oct 19 Nazvi Careem and Peter Saunders 1984’_ 6 Nov 19 Paul Siu_12 Sep 19

KGV Alumni residing in Hong Kong and around the world are connected to the school through our online social platform the ESF Connect. We are now 4000 members strong across ESF, of which over 900 members are KGV alumni. This platform has given our community the opportunity to quickly access information on alumni activities such as social gatherings, professional networking and mentorship programs. Our alumni communications are now being channelled through this platform to make it a one-stopshop for all.

The KGV School Principal’s Outstanding Alumni Award

This award is given as tribute to the contribution an alumni has made. We look for an alumni who stands out because of their achievements in Hong Kong and who goes beyond what would be expected in pursuing a career.

This year Dr James Kong from class of 1973 is the recipient of the award. Dr Kong then attended Barts in London. He returned to Asia and joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine) before moving to the public sector. Until the outbreak of SARS in 2003, he was Consultant Surgeon, in charge of the Breast Service and the first Director of Trauma at the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital. Dr Kong led the implementation of the first public hospital information system in Hong Kong in 1990. During the SARS 2003 outbreak, he volunteered and led the Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) team that developed eSARS, the electronic database that assisted in the management of the epidemic outbreak. This project was awarded 1st prize in the Health sector of the Stockholm IT Challenge 2004.

2019- 2020 Graduation

The Graduation Ceremony this year at KGV was a socially- distanced event. We were enormously lucky to have the resource and space to host the event with both the graduate and their family in attendance.

Following the tradition we invited alumnus James Pomfret to address our graduates. James, graduated from KGV in 1992, is a former Rowell house captain who held a junior HK athletics record for the 400m hurdles and represented Hong Kong schools in athletics and football. He is an award-winning Special Correspondent for Reuters specializing in investigative journalism across Greater China and Asia. He is also a Pulitzer finalist team member for National Reporting. He has won a Human Rights Press award run by the FCC and Amnesty International; and garnered several SOPA awards for editorial excellence in Asia, one of the region’s top journalism prizes. A Eurasian local from Tsim Sha Tsui, James has taught journalism at the Chinese University and Baptist University, and always has time for the city’s youth. His favourite KGV canteen snack was the (in) famous “ka lei yu dan meen”. Which sadly, we no longer serve.

It was a heartwarming farewell and the last time we had them in school as a whole year group.

Yasmeen Ashraf Communication and Community Manager