At recent speech days for secondary schools, President Way Kuo of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) shared several stories that encouraged students to meet challenges with a positive attitude.

As a distinguished guest at the speech day ceremonies for Po Leung Kuk’s secondary schools and St Catharine’s School for Girls on 4 and 25 November, respectively, President Kuo presented the graduation certificates.

In his address, he said Hong Kong had been facing unprecedented challenges. Covid-19 had affected the teaching and learning modes of teachers and students as well as the economic development of society.

CityU had responded promptly to the pandemic and had taken the lead in launching a comprehensive real-time online teaching platform, CityU-Learning, he said. CityU had also provided timely employment support and strengthened employment opportunities for graduates.

“There is a traditional Chinese ceremony where hats are placed on people’s heads when they reach the age of 20, which indicates they are now adults. As all graduating students are turning a new chapter in life, it means all of you will meet different challenges,” he said.

“If you want to attain excellent achievements in any particular fields, you need to constantly update your skills, just like it takes 10 years to forge a sword,” he added.

President Kuo shared his study experience during his talks, urging the students to think by raising questions. He cited a classmate during his university days who had been an outstanding student but who had not graduated as scheduled. He asked students to consider why this had been the case, and the students responded actively.

President Kuo explained that individual intelligence was not the only key to success. More importantly, one should persevere and work hard.