Outstanding Performance Scholarship

I was fascinated by Biology and Chemistry when I was studying in secondary school; and so, I decided to study Biology and Chemistry-related subject after graduation. However, my HKDSE result was not as expected. Fortunately, I received a conditional offer from the Food Science and Safety (FSS) programme from THEi, and it seemed to suit my preference. After discussion with my parents, they supported me to enroll in that programme.

Currently, I am a year 2 student from FSS in THEi and I am glad that I have made a wise choice. Honestly, Food Science was quite new to me before I joined THEi. However, I now realized that FSS not just provides useful knowledge to me, it also provides a lot of opportunities to broaden my horizon and to utilize my knowledge. I also improved my communication skills as I participated in a Mainland food industry study trip and as student helper in several exhibitions like the Worlddidac and the Innocarnival.

From the past 2 years, I can recall three extraordinary experiences. Last summer, I went to Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) in Singapore for internship. I was responsible for developing a herbal beverage for a local beverage company with natural ingredients that suits Singaporeans. This was challenging and interesting because I had to start from scratch and learn by trail-and-error. The first thing I learned from this project was that before conducting product development, I had to understand the problem, for example, the level of sweetness preferred by Singaporean. These trials also taught me a valuable lesson – different combinations of herbs could give rise to various difference tastes. With advice from my supervisor, I had to try by myself first (e.g. testing my own hypotheses) and adjust various factors in each trial. Indeed, the first few trials of mine did not succeed, but I believed that I could accomplish it, thus I kept on trying, and eventually I succeeded. After this, I noticed I should embrace failure (success is built on failures) and I am very interested in food product development. I also made some friends with Singaporean along the way.

At present, I have a chance of developing a new candy in practical class in THEi, which allows me to utilize what I have learnt from NYP. Apart from Product development, I also got opportunity to take part in a STEM project collaborated with a UK university to compare the differences between nutrient labels in Hong Kong and the UK. I hope that I can learn more and establish friendships with students from the UK. I would like to have a food product development career after graduation, so I plan to further my study in this area. Therefore, I would like to save my Scholarship money for my further study.

In summary, these experiences had geared me up to pursue more knowledge and get ready for work. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Education Bureau for awarding me the Outstanding Performance Scholarship, as well as St. Louis School, THEi and teachers for their teaching and the opportunities they brought me. I would very much like to encourage others to keep up their effort by sharing the motto ‘success is built on failures’.