Sharing of Scholarship Recipients - LAM Ho Wai Ivan
LAM Ho Wai (Ivan); Bachelor of Social Work (Hons.)
Once again, I am very thankful that I can receive the HKBU Alumni Gratitude Scholarship (AGS), and it helped me support myself financially during my full-time social work practice.
Being a final year social work student, I am not able to work part-time jobs as I need to attend the required practicums as it is a part of the compulsory requirement in the social work programme. Besides, I have very slim financial support from my family. This scholarship played an important role in supporting my daily expenditures and an affirmation of my contribution to volunteering, significantly assisting the students with special needs(SEN).
I will become a registered social worker in Hong Kong in the near future, and I particularly want to help students with special needs (SEN). In Hong Kong, less than 5% of SEN can receive tertiary education because they cannot win the public examination competition. However, they are gifted. What they need is patience, care and proper assistance on their learning and emotional status. In my opinion, I volunteered as an SEN tutor in the educational psychology project organized by HKBU and EDUHK, I was assigned to help a kid with autism (we tend to present children with autism instead of an autistic kid because of de-stigmatization), after some sessions, she found the way to study, and she started to stretch her potential and scoring high in the exams. Therefore I am dedicated to helping this SEN.
However, there are still many SEN students who need assistance. Thus I want to help them as a social worker in the future. The planning and volunteer above cannot happen again because it is hard for me to volunteer if I have the insufficient financial ability. There are other expenditures during clusterings, such as transportation and dining. Hence, thank you for providing a helping hand to me, and I will make good use of the scholarship while empowering other SEN in the future by using my learnt professional knowledge. If possible, I truly hope that I can further my studies in Special education and psychology to undergo more professional training, which allows me to handle SEN more effectively.