Background and Purposes

The project of NGL, short for Nurturing Global Leaders, is designed to nurture future leaders, who will be problem identifiers and troubleshooters with global competence, and cross-cultural awareness. The NGL project was officially launched in 2018 based on the cooperation agreement between Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and the NGL project team of the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

The project was set in Yangon, a tropical region, and started in July, a monsoon there, which featured torrential rain almost every day, and high infection rates of yellow fever and malaria. These harsh natural conditions there present immediate threats to the team member .

General Outline

After their final exam, three SJTU students left for Yangon, Myanmar, on July 1st, 2018 as scheduled. Carl, a Yangon-based HKU teacher gave them a day’s brief training and took them on a tour around the city before introducing them to some HKU students. On the third day since their arrival, they got down to bussiness , and found an HKU student each as a partner to teach English at three locations. Yang Chengyuan went to Suu Vocational Institute, Xie Yihao to Mom’s House Charity Education Center, and Zhang Yanling to Mom’s Aim Charity Center.

These volunteer teachers  had to commute on the bus or train between their hotel and teaching locations, which were set in the downtown and suburban Yangon. Funded and operated by the local political party, National League for Democracy, all the teaching locations were open to the public free of charge. The learners  included all age groups, ranging from local university students who came to learn English during the summer vacation to adult workers who hoped to improve their English proficiency. Such popularity was attributed to the key role English has played in local trade and tourism, where English proficiency means greater opportunities for local youth. On August 3rd, they held a graduation ceremony for local students from eight schools and the volunteer teachers granted them each a diploma. As the project concluded the next day, the three SJTU students went back to Shanghai.

Management Guidelines

Three SJTU teachers shall be appointed to keep students company, with two for the students dispatched to Chiang Rai and Yangon, and one from International Affairs Division making an inspection tour with the HKU NGL project leader. The former two teachers shall recruit, train and evaluate volunteer students, go through all the necessary formalities and purchase insurance for all the members before going abroad.