Showing no signs of slowing down her sustainability efforts any time soon, Eva is the epitome of someone who will make changes and take action towards her dreams. Her other love, musical theatre, is no different, and through the HKUST alumni network, she found a kindred spirit who shares this passion. Edwin WAN, who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in Global Business and Management of Organizations, was a banker, but chose to change his direction by heading to the UK to study musical theatre. The two connected, and their exchanges and discussions inspired Eva to explore the possibility of pursuing a musical theatre degree overseas after her HKUST graduation in 2022. Eva’s time at HKUST has taught her to think about issues from very different perspectives and consider possibilities she never could have imagined. She credits her sustainability course with changing how she sees her role in the world, and performing as the lead actor in the 2021 HKUST Musical! with encouraging her love of musical theatre. While the two may seem worlds away, they’re united by Eva’s commitment to taking action, and she continues to inspire those around her to do the same. This musical theatre singer has a social and environmental conscience as big as her musical talent — she is a striking example of the power of individual actions. Everything changed at her first “Introduction to Sustainability” lecture. She abruptly came to recognize the privileges, advantages, and opportunities we have living in a resource-rich region, and she was inspired with a new sense of responsibility to make positive changes and take action, asking herself, “If not now, when? If not us, who?” To combat environmental pollution, Eva stopped buying new clothes and chose to only buy secondhand, or to swap clothes with friends. She reduced how much meat she ate, and completely stopped consuming beef and lamb for its environmental impact, alongside minimizing her consumption habits in general. By publishing social media videos with vegan and vegetarian recipes, she hopes to encourage others to adopt healthier, more sustainable diets, too. But Eva felt compelled to do even more, and, knowing there’s power in numbers, she joined the HKUST Green Team, a collective interested in creating a more sustainable campus environment. Following a particularly bad typhoon season in Hong Kong, the shoreline on campus became an issue of concern for Green Team members. The beach was covered in trash, so as a Green Team Leader, Eva sent out a call to arms to her fellow students for a beach cleanup. Expecting two dozen people to join her efforts, she was astounded when, after two days, over 200 people had signed up to help. The cleanup gave her a glimmer of hope about what could be possible when people work together. 11
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