A series of overseas summer tours designed to foster a regional perspective for learning and whole person development has proved popular with students in CityU's Department of Applied Social Studies (SS) over the past two years. The tours, which last three to four weeks, include attending International Youth Forums and inter-governmental meetings organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, visiting social service agencies, conducting social work fieldwork training, studying with local universities, living with local families in rural and mountainous regions, and interviewing policy makers, mayors and academics.

This past summer, 120 students and teachers took part in tour groups that visited Beijing , Nanjing , Changsha , Shanghai , Cambodia , Vietnam , Indonesia , the Philippines , Singapore and Thailand . Some 23 students took part for the second time, in the role of student leaders.

 

 

The Department invited 12 students and two teachers from the School of Creative Media to join three of the groups to videotape their activities. The videos will be one of the highlights of Celebrating Student's Cross-cultural Learning, a presentation of the students" field experiences to be held in Multi-purpose Rooms on 9 November. The presentation will also feature the fund-raising campaign organized by the Cambodia and Vietnam group to build a library hut in a remote village in Siem Reap in Cambodia for children who have no opportunity to attend school. A fund raising campaign for the library hut will be held outside Multi-purpose Room C from 4 to 7 November.