Amazing Journey as a mentee
“My mentor Dr Donald Ng Tat-fong is extremely helpful and experienced, and he always tried to do his best for us. I greatly benefited from having Tat-fong as my mentor. He is really nice in that he picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at my residential hall the day I arrived in the US. Since I arrived a day early, he took me to his home and gave me food, which was according to my dietary preferences. He interacted with me quite often to check everything is going okay. He took me to a couple of restaurants for more interactions. It was a nice way of getting to know more about each other.
He took me to a surprise dinner near Tufts University. I was so glad that Tat-fong gave me this surprise, which was to an Indian restaurant where I introduced everyone to the dishes from my culture. Mentee Dominic and HKU student Joshua, who are now on exchange at MIT, were also at the dinner. It was a good way to get to know about their life and studies at another university. It was a great day and we spent valuable time socialising with each other.
I also joined an Alumni Lunch organised by the Hong Kong University Alumni Association of Boston-New England. Being an executive member of The Muslim Students’ Association, HKUSU this year, I received an invitation from mentors to give a speech on our Association and to share how we conduct various events around the year. It was an amazing day for me because the event gave me a chance not only to meet with HKU alumni in another corner of the world but also to communicate with them and seek their advice on various matters. There were some retired professors from HKU at the lunch as well and it was a marvellous opportunity to meet them and get to know more about their lives.
In general, I would say it has been an amazing experience being a mentee. I highly recommend it to all my friends going on exchange in the upcoming years. The programme is an important part of the exchange semester because it helps one to settle in a new environment, which may be completely different from that of Hong Kong. Thus, nothing could be better than meeting someone who is already quite familiar with the new place. Additionally, being a mentee gives one an opportunity to attend alumni dinners, which again are golden opportunities to meet with alumni and get to know about their academic and career journeys, which might be very helpful. I really thank the HKU Mentorship Programme founders for creating such an initiative to assist HKU students.
First photo: Sheheryar (1st right) and YoYo Chan (3rd left, BSc[QFin] Year 2) are on exchange at Tufts University; Joshua Ching (2nd right) and Dominic Co (2nd left, BA[ArchStud] Year 3) at MIT and mentor Dr Donald Ng (1st left)
Second photo: the Hong Kong University Alumni Association of Boston-New England Fall Dinner on September 15, 2018.
Mentor in Boston, USA: Dr Danald Ng Tatfong
Outgoing Exchange Mentee (2018-19): Sheheryar Muhammad Naveed, BEng(CompSc) Year 2
