“Sam,” as Samantha Kong is known by her friends, is always on the go.
She had spent three years at HKUST before completing her BEng in Chemical and
Environmental Engineering in 2014. She spent a semester as an exchange student
at Stanford University, represented Hong Kong at the Asian Youth Leadership Camp
in Singapore, and attended the G20 Youth Summit in Russia. And she was one of
HKUST’s very first Head Student Ambassadors.
She did all of these before she even finished Year 2. Her extensive extracurricular
and overseas experiences have opened up her eyes to different perspectives. “As an
engineering student, I had never considered doing anything business related. But then
an idea came along, and I thought to myself – why not give it a try?”
Her idea had something to do with caring for the elderly. “Hong Kong is an aging society.
My partners and I saw the increasing need to heighten the awareness and understanding
about the elderly in our society. In particular, we wanted to develop a sense of empathy
among the younger generation towards the elderly,” she says. Sam and two other
like-minded HKUST students decided to found Eldpathy, a social enterprise aimed at
promoting empathy for elderly. The team first submitted the idea to the Hong Kong
Social Enterprise Challenge in 2012. They won, and used the prize money to launch
training programs.
Having just celebrated its second anniversary this year, Eldpathy now runs regular
workshops and trainings for diverse groups. They have brought in volunteers to expand
the scope of their work and run various educational projects.
In 2014, Sam became a winner of the Top 10 Outstanding Youth and Social Service
Awards by the HKSAR Government Home Affairs Bureau and the Commission on Youth
for her services to the community and many outstanding achievements.
Samantha
KONG
Keep great ideas great –
ACT
!
Great ideas can occur to anyone of
us. Only those who really act on
them, however, make a difference.
//
BEng in Chemical and
Environmental Engineering, 2014
06
