|
|
Post by Admin on May 18, 2019 3:31:34 GMT
1. All questions must be posted within the period from 23rd May 2019 to 9 am on 30th May 2019, to give time for all Candidates to respond by 10 am on 30th May 2019. When posting questions, the sender’s Full HKID name and Form 5 year must be stated.
2. Candidates can decide for themselves whether or not to reply to questions so posted at the Forum, and if they do, must respond by 30th May 2019, 10 am [24 hours before election].
3. All persons using the Forum acknowledge and accept that the SJCOBA, SJCOBA Alumni Manager Election Sub-committee (ESC) and the SJCOBA accept no liability whatsoever for any loss and damages that he may suffer as a result of his participation in the Forum, and he hereby waives all his rights against them.
4. The ESC and the SJCOBA reserve the right to close the Forum at any time without assigning reasons therefor.
5. Questions and answers must:
* be concise and to the point
* not be repetitive
* be based on facts and not rumours
* be decent and polite
* not contain personal attack, defamatory remarks, or abusive language
* not attack on or bring disrepute to SJC, school management or any school personnel
* not represent the views of the SJCOBA or the ESC.
* be liable to be deleted by the ESC without notice or reason on contravention of any of these rules and ESC's decision shall be final.
SJCOBA Alumni Manager Election Sub-committee
|
|
Louis Poon (Class of 1990)
Guest
|
Post by Louis Poon (Class of 1990) on May 22, 2019 23:00:01 GMT
Dear Alumni Manager candidates,
I would like to ask the following questions to understand your views:
(1) what will you suggest to IMC acting as alumni manager in coming 2 years to face the challenges of SJC in next 5 years;
(2) SJC is always the leading boys school and what kind of suggestions will you provide to IMC for achieving our leading status in coming 10 years;
(3) how to bring our alumni voices into IMC;
Thank you very much for your kind attention and looking forward for your replies.
Best Regards
Louis Poon
|
|
Michael Yen (class of 1987)
Guest
|
Post by Michael Yen (class of 1987) on May 23, 2019 0:35:31 GMT
Hello all fellow Josephians. I am Michael Yen, candidate (No.2) for the SJC IMC alumni manager election. I'd like to quickly introduce myself here. More in depth information on my contributions and views can be found on my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/michael.yen.315)
I am passionate about SJC and a proud Josephian. I have been heavily involved in various programmes for SJC and SJCOBA for the last twelve years. Here are some of them:
- initiating, organising and running the summer mentorship programme that has helped over 900 Josephians get vital work experience (https://cli.re/LN49bW)
- Writing and putting together the bid proposal for the successful acquisition of 26 Kennedy Road campus (https://cli.re/GZQrXZ)
- Assistant coach (goalkeepers), all SJC football teams (https://cli.re/6bBNqR)
- Initiating and co-organising the comprehensive university application preparation programme and increasing Oxbridge applications fivefold
- Initiating and co-organising the overseas elite sportsmen scholarship programme and successfully placing Josephians in NCAA Div 1 as athletic scholar
- Initiating, organising and providing seed money for the entrepreneurial game for all S4 students
- Initiating and co-organising the SJC football fun day
I am in the marketing/advertising/branding field and have already assisted SJC and SJCOBA in numerous projects making use of my expertise and my company's resources.
Although I'm not an educator by profession, I have made it a point to study the educational landscape, policies, pedagogies and how these affect the running of a subsidy school in HK in recent years. (that is one of the reasons why I have initiated so many programmes at SJC to help arm new generations of Josephians to better compete)
If I were to be elected IMC alumni manager, there are several things I hope to be able to achieve.
1. Continue the work I have been doing for SJC and Josephians
2. Bring my expertise in marketing/advertising/branding to help the SJC brand and maintain our status as an elite catholic boys school
3. Be a better conduit between the old boy community and the school. Bringing not only the voice of the OB community to the IMC but hopefully communicating in a more timely manner school developments to OBs.
4. Help in anyway I can SJC to move into the 21st century and evolve. Be it initiating and running more new programmes, finding donations, or providing intelligence on what works elsewhere.
I think my work proves my dedication to SJC. I also hope to inspire more of you to come out and help our beloved alma mater in whatever way you can. The school and in particular future generations of Josephians can do with all the help it can get from us, whether monetary, resources, time, effort or creativity. The first step is to come out and vote on June 1 whether you vote for me or not.
I hope to see you at SJC sometime.
Green and white forever.
|
|
Michael Yen (class of 1987)
Guest
|
Post by Michael Yen (class of 1987) on May 23, 2019 1:47:50 GMT
Louis thanks for your questions. Here're my answers:
1. I think ever since the handover and wholesale changes to the education policies in HK around the turn of the century, us subsidy schools have been fighting on the back foot to make our students competitive. We face Private, DSS and International schools with more resources, more autonomy and more flexibility. The EDB regulations are in my opinion (and that of many others) biased against subsidy schools. At the same time, the educational landscape is shifting and evolving. University admissions requirements are changing. So we are facing challenges aplenty as a school and new generations of Josephians require a lot more help to just stay competitive. As Alumni manager, I hope to assist the school to implement new pedadogies and teaching methods, help SJC find more resources and donations, and provide the school management with more intelligence and insights from the "masses" (whether OBs or oursiders).
2. As mentioned in my first answer, we have been and will continue to be facing severe challenges from all quarters while shackled by EDB regulations. I believe if we are to maintain our status as a leading boys school, we need to keep evolving. And we need all the help we can get from our alumni at large. We need to embrace new teaching methods, we need to be exposing our boys to new and different opportunities, we need to give them global insights. To that end, I've organised an entrepreneurial game to give the boys a chance to experience "doing business" first-hand. I have organised luncheons on one belt one road, arbitration, and taking companies public, where the boys can learn first hand about these topics from our esteemed old boys. I think we can make use of our LaSallian network and create more exchange programmes (with our overseas counterparts), I believe we can have more official exchanges with girls schools (on top of the private "parties" that we no doubt have). As the Alumni manager, I hope to assist the school in putting these programmes into action should it be so decided. Evolve and we may or may not be able to retain our status, but maintaining status quo and our boys will become less and less competitive.
3. I believe it is the duty of the Alumni manager to gather and express OB opinions to the IMC and school management. I also believe it is the Alumni manager's duty to communicate school policies and developments to the OBs in a timely fashion. To that end, I pledge to have a dedicated email for OBs to communicate with the Alumni manager, and to be present at OBA exco meetings immediately after IMC meetings so as to exchange information with interested OBs. I am of course open to all other suggestions from any Josephian.
I hope these answers satisfy you. I will be happy to answer more questions, elaborate on any point or discuss any issues further with you or any other OB anytime.
Best regards,
Michael
|
|
Louis Poon (Class of 1990)
Guest
|
Post by Louis Poon (Class of 1990) on May 23, 2019 2:12:11 GMT
Dear Michael,
Thank you very much for your quick reply.
Personally, I agreed with your answers and the visions & actions which you suggest for SJC in coming 5 years and 10 years.
Best Regards
Louis Poon
|
|
John Wong (Class of 04)
Guest
|
Post by John Wong (Class of 04) on May 24, 2019 15:33:54 GMT
First of all, thanks for setting up this forum.
Something just came to my mind and like to learn more from the candidates. As we all know recently WYHK has selected an old boy of SJC as their new principal. It created some noise for this arrangement within their old boys group.
I believe many old boys also concern whether the candidates are really 100% loyal to SJC.
May all candidates share how to demonstrate the loyalty to SJC (I.e. Like how he and his family to support SJC in different ways, etc).
It’s a critical factor to some people as the selected one will be a role model for the new generation on how they should act in future.
Thanks again!
John
|
|
Michael Yen '87 (Candidate #2)
Guest
|
Post by Michael Yen '87 (Candidate #2) on May 25, 2019 7:33:26 GMT
Dear John,
Thank you for your questions. I'll try and answer as best I can.
I am passionate about SJC.
I am passionate about providing the best education and opportunities to future generations of Josephians. And helping to equip them with the right tools in this increasingly competitive world.
At the risk of being repetitive, I draw your attention to the numerous programmes I have started and ran in the past twelve years. In particular:
- The Summer Mentorship programme whereby we have already sent over 900+ F5/F6 Josephians on weeklong work experience stints. Apart from all the organisational work I do, I myself take up to 8 mentees a year. So I have plenty of direct face-to-face time with these young students whom I endeavour to help in anyway I can. And they never let me down when I ask them to come back to the school to help with my other programmes for Josephians.
- The Comprehensive University Application Preparation Programme, whereby we start from F3 and go all the way to F6. We provide the students with lectures, workshops, career and university subject choice tips, and help them edit their application material. It really is a year long programme and I am there working with the professional consultants every time.
- The Overseas Elite sportsmen scholarship programme, whereby we are for the first time helping elite sportsmen who otherwise may not get to the best universities in HK, get into top universities in the US on scholarship. I personally invested much time and effort to get this programme going and am pleased to say that we have swimmers placed in NCAA Div 1 universities on athletic scholarships. I hope to be placing footballers soon also.
- I am a member of the coaching staff of the SJC football teams and during football season, we train every Wednesday and celebrate or mourn together on game days.
- The entrepreneurial game whereby I came up with the idea and even stumped up seed money for F4 students to design, produce, and run their own business stalls on Open day. Twelve mentor OBs and myself giving advice and coaching along the way. So the boys could practice real-world business skills, teamwork, problem solving and creativity all in one go. Very important skills in the coming years.
There are many more programmes I can cite but I believe my work speaks for itself.
I believe I expend as much (if not more) of my time and effort on SJC programmes and Josephian welfare than most Alumni.
There is one particular example I wish to share with you. One of my very first batch of mentees (back in 2009) is now an active member of the SJCOBA exco and regularly contributes to both the OB community and SJC. While I don't claim full credit, I believe I made enough of a difference when he came under my care to influence his decision to come back and help ardently. I don't know if you classify that as being a good role model but I submit that anyone who can induce new generation Josephians to come back and help the school and Josephians must be doing something right.
If this is not the best example of me leading by example and cultivating the right kind of brotherhood spirit, I'm afraid I don't know what is.
I hope I have satisfied you with my answer. I am of course always ready to respond to any other queries you may have.
Thank you and best regards to you John.
Yours in green and white,
Michael Yen
|
|
|
|
Post by Peter Lee on May 27, 2019 1:39:46 GMT
1. All questions must be posted within the period from 23rd May 2019 to 9 am on 30th May 2019, to give time for all Candidates to respond by 10 am on 30th May 2019. When posting questions, the sender’s Full HKID name and Form 5 year must be stated. 2. Candidates can decide for themselves whether or not to reply to questions so posted at the Forum, and if they do, must respond by 30th May 2019, 10 am [24 hours before election]. 3. All persons using the Forum acknowledge and accept that the SJCOBA, SJCOBA Alumni Manager Election Sub-committee (ESC) and the SJCOBA accept no liability whatsoever for any loss and damages that he may suffer as a result of his participation in the Forum, and he hereby waives all his rights against them. 4. The ESC and the SJCOBA reserve the right to close the Forum at any time without assigning reasons therefor. 5. Questions and answers must: * be concise and to the point * not be repetitive * be based on facts and not rumours * be decent and polite * not contain personal attack, defamatory remarks, or abusive language * not attack on or bring disrepute to SJC, school management or any school personnel * not represent the views of the SJCOBA or the ESC. * be liable to be deleted by the ESC without notice or reason on contravention of any of these rules and ESC's decision shall be final. SJCOBA Alumni Manager Election Sub-committee |
|
|
|
Post by Sherman Luk (‘00) on May 27, 2019 1:53:59 GMT
Thank you first of all to both candidates for your intentions to serve the School. Much appreciated.
I think as Old Boys - even as Alumni Manager, our primary role is not to run the school but to trust in the La Salle Brothers and the School Authority and support them running the School.
So here is my question: What networking or connections can you bring to the table which you foresee that it will do a lot of good to the School? Of course as a matter of privacy pls do not mention actual names here, but I am interested in what fields / areas are your network strongest, and how can that help the School to excel in providing authentic Christian education as She always has. Thanks a lot.
|
|
Michael Yen '87 (Candidate #2)
Guest
|
Post by Michael Yen '87 (Candidate #2) on May 27, 2019 2:53:06 GMT
Dear Sherman,
Thank you very much for your question.
By connection, I assume you mean outside connections. Because through initiating and running various programmes (mentorship, careers day, entrepreneurial game) for the last twelve years, I have been able to motivate hundreds of Old Boys to come back and pitch in. Some of these were my friends, some I didn't know. But I consider them all in my "network" now and the network of the school. It is one thing to have a network of old boys, it is very much a different thing when you have to motivate them to come back and help on meaningful projects.
Putting aside "internal" connections, I've said I've done my homework on education. In this process, I have met and made friends with many people and it is precisely through these meetings and discussions that the comprehensive university application preparation programme and the overseas elite sportmen scholarship programme came about. We work with a professional company ARCH education in providing the most relevant coaching and preparations for our students. Coaching and preparations beyond the scope of our own teachers in order to better prepare our students to compete when it comes to university applications. It is through another friend of mine that we are able to begin the elite overseas sportsmen scholarship programme. Their company is the only one in Asia that specifically helps elite sportsmen acquire US university athletic scholarships. Something we have not been able to do for our boys despite the years of elite sportsmen we have produced. I am happy to report that we have already placed swimmers in NCAA Div 1 universities and are working on helping others.
My own line of business is advertising and marketing and it is inevitable that I have connection with a variety of businesses. I'm also somewhat familiar with the press through my work. I believe these connections will help me provide better marketing of the school should it be required. I am always looking at ways of making use of these connections to help josephians such as industry specific information and even job opportunities.
To be honest Sherman, I believe everyone of us should be using our connections to help the school, NOT merely IMC members. At the same time, we really need to understand and accept how far the education landscape has evolved in HK since the handover and how we can ADD to the authentic Christian education that we are well known for, so as to give our boys the best chance to compete at university application and in the work place.
I hope this a satisfactory to you. Please do feel free to follow up with questions either here or directly to me.
Thank you and best regards,
Michael
|
|
|
|
Post by Peter Lee on May 28, 2019 8:43:48 GMT
Thank you first of all to both candidates for your intentions to serve the School. Much appreciated. I think as Old Boys - even as Alumni Manager, our primary role is not to run the school but to trust in the La Salle Brothers and the School Authority and support them running the School. So here is my question: What networking or connections can you bring to the table which you foresee that it will do a lot of good to the School? Of course as a matter of privacy pls do not mention actual names here, but I am interested in what fields / areas are your network strongest, and how can that help the School to excel in providing authentic Christian education as She always has. Thanks a lot. |
|
|
|
Post by Test on May 28, 2019 8:56:21 GMT
Testing
|
|
|
|
Post by Peter Lee on May 28, 2019 9:31:39 GMT
Dear Josephians,
First of all, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks for your patience and for your valuable time spent with us at this forum.
I’m Peter Lee, a graduate of 1977. I’ve had years of experience and expertise as a brand specialist. I have also been a practicing Catholic since childhood.
I sincerely hope that you'll kindly consider me as the best candidate for SJC IMC alumni manager, thereby allowing me to contribute to a new and fruitful future for our school.
MY MISSION
Assist our Alma Mater to become an outstanding Catholic School for education and formation of future leaders in labor et virtue (talented and virtuous
simultaneously)
協助聖若瑟書院成為優秀天主教學校以培育“才德兼備”的未來領袖
MY OBJECTIVES
1) To gather valuable opinions and boost synergy between SJC Old Boys to contribute to continuous development of our school.
2) To introduce new ideas and resources for enhancement of our school's identity to be communicated to the public.
3) To seek new opportunities for our Josephians through quality networks.
4) To uplift traditions of our Christian faith in SJC.
I have perused the various summer mentorship programs, university application preparation and coach training activities, etc carried out by Mr. Yen in the past. I do appreciate his efforts in fostering academic and sports-related attainments for students of St Joseph's College. I reckon all these activities will be carried out with
added value and diversity in the years to come. However, I would suggest we should consider going beyond the aforesaid to ensure that an all-round education would be provided for our young Josephians in regards to the development of both knowledge and good character.
Let's not forget the original purpose of the Christian Brothers for our school. Their early students were not only taught on how to read and write but also to cultivate good manners and above all to pray and live their Catholic faith. Those students soon behaved like gentlemen, as we all are today.
I have been serving in my capacity as acting spiritual director for Our Lady of the Star Praesidium of the Legion of Mary since 2017, I feel our school's tradition of service to the community runs into difficulty as many students are subjected to loads of homework, sports training, personal interest groups, and on top of it all numerous tuition courses round the clock, day after day.
I think the aforesaid overwhelming works in school life are currently affecting many students at schools in Hong Kong and it's not uncommon to find some students who used to be good have adopted a mentality of escapism to release their stress from studies through different means, such as obsession in
toying with their mobile phones and indulgence in non-stop electronic games to name but a few, thereby creating a lot of difficulties both for themselves and for their families.
I’d suggest gearing up for the spiritual formation and training of these
students as being imminent for many these cases which could not be remedied through
counseling or penalty. Therefore, I concede that we should carefully consider paying more attention to the care for every Josephian, without restricting our care to a limited number of talented students who receive numerous scholarships and awards for the glory of our school as usual. In my experience, a proper spiritual formation together with academic reinforcement would produce positive results in helping our students to gain an all-round education. In this respect, I trust my knowledge in our Christian faith would be conducive in pursuing this worthy goal one step further.
Like our Christian brothers, I'm motivated by the LOVE of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to contribute my time, labor and self-sacrifice with one aim....to help our students with an all-round education and formation. I believe that this same love, labor and self-sacrifice from our late brothers have enabled thousands of Josephians to develop and benefit from a sound, moral and Christian education.
Kindly consider joining me to serve our Alma Mater in reaching out to serve and help one other for the benefits of all Josephians through the sharing of our experience, resources and networks.
Please support me with the casting of your precious vote on candidate No 1: PETER LEE on JUNE 1ST (coming Saturday) between 10:00-14:00 in person at the Audio Visual Room of the old building of St Joseph's College on 7 Kennedy Road.
I heartily look forward to receiving your kind support. Thank you.
Live Jesus in our hearts, forever!
Peter W H LEE
Candidate No 1
|
|
Peter Yao (class of 1979)
Guest
|
Post by Peter Yao (class of 1979) on May 28, 2019 14:15:51 GMT
Over the years fund raising within SJC has always be a challenge, especially when we compared to other schools such as WYC.
My questions to both candidates are:
1. What do you think the reasons behind this challenge?
2. Your opinion towards the fund raising exercise in the long run
3. How do you propose we can be more effective in the fund raising?
Thank you.
|
|
Michael Yen '87 (Candidate #2)
Guest
|
Post by Michael Yen '87 (Candidate #2) on May 28, 2019 15:24:50 GMT
Dear Peter,
Thank you for your questions.
I think SJC has never been short of donors, just not "big ticket" ones perhaps.
When I was still involved in the SJCOBA exco, I was a part of the donation solicitation team so I am intimate with the problems we have faced. Without going into any specifics, we have, on occasion, had to contend with certain requests that the school felt unable to comply with and have therefore had to turn down sizeable donations.
On the other hand, in my experience, potential SJC donors have always been more obliging when we have had specific targets or requests (such as the Agabeg annex project) which I was lucky to be a part of. On that occasion, we were explicit about what was required (the Agabag building) and how much we needed to get it done (HKD10M). And we managed it.
I am indeed intimate with the fact that a 7 Kennedy Road renovation project is in the pipeline and due to be announced towards the end of the year/beginning of next. It will be quite a significant project and will hopefully secure the school and coming generations of Josephians the facilities and hardware for top notch education.
I believe this project will become the focal point of subsequent fund raising activities. I am certain it will pull us all together and I look forward to working with you and indeed every Josephian who may want to muck in. Unfortunately I can't disclose anymore details so I'll have to ask for your patience and understanding.
I hope this is satisfactory. Do feel free to let me know if you have any follow up questions.
Best regards,
Michael
|
|
