HA Seminar – The Linkedin Launchpad: What to Post, What to Skip, and How to Shine
(refer to the photo album here for more highlights)
Date: 2 Oct 2025 (Thu)
Time: 2:30pm – 4:00pm
Venue: A403, S H Ho Academic Building, HSUHK Campus
Speakers: Charmaine Leung and Cathy Yu (HA5)
On 2 October 2025, two Honours Academy (HA) students, Charmaine Leung and Cathy Yu, organised and led HA Seminar #2: Unlock the Hidden World: Be a Hero for Caregivers! This student-led initiative was a direct outcome of their transformative experience at the Social Sustainability Leadership Forum (SSLF) where four HA students represented HA in Singapore, translating global lessons into local action for the HA community.
Charmaine and Cathy began by sharing their journey to the SSLF, a forum that gathered student leaders from across the world to explore the theme of “Empowering Good Health and Wellbeing”. They described how immersive activities – experiential learning, panel discussions, and workshops – including one titled “Challenge by Chance, Caregiver by Choice”, which sparked their passion for caregiving as a universal and often overlooked role.
The heart of the seminar was an interactive and eye-opening exploration of the caregiver’s role. Charmaine and Cathy first engaged the audience with a thought-provoking question: “What words come to your mind when you think of ‘caregivers’?” This set the stage for a deep dive into the multifaceted challenges they face.
The highlight of the seminar was an interactive scenario-based game. Charmaine and Cathy guided participants through a series of realistic caregiving scenarios, such as caring for a parent with chronic kidney failure, a child with autism, or a partner with a severe disability. Using provided information on government subsidies, community resources, and service fees, HA students worked together to devise practical and sustainable care plans. These scenarios challenged participants to think critically about the difficult decisions and immense responsibilities caregivers navigate daily.
Instead of just identifying challenges, they also shared solutions, and a wealth of local resources, such as the “Y Good Helper” Scheme of Training for Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs) in Elderly Care and the「關照您」心理支援計劃, which offers free mental health services for grassroots caregivers. They also provided a comparative perspective, outlining support systems in Singapore, Taiwan and Japan, from training grants to respite care services, to inspire ideas for systemic improvement in Hong Kong.
The seminar concluded with a powerful call to action, reminding everyone that “YOU can also be the caregivers’ caregiver”, and highlighting practical steps like attending a Mental Health First Aid course. By bridging their SSLF-inspired global perspective with tangible local resources and empathetic storytelling, Charmaine and Cathy successfully ignited a vital conversation within the HA community, proving that leadership is about turning insight into inspiration and action.