On Saturday 21 August, 2010, the OBA held an all new event called YOBs Gathering back at the GP Rooms of the school. We timed the event in August, so that we could catch OBs who were in university, and their new term has not yet started, including those studying overseas. Participants meet classmates who have moved onto different institutions, even different countries for the tertiary education. After mingling for an hour, we gathered the 50 odd YOBs and started a very informal sharing by a handful of older old boys, with varied backgrounds, qualifications and life paths.
The topic was “A Preview of your life in the first 5 years after you leave university”.
The speakers candidly shared their own stories after university, not only on their career front, but also their interests, their social life, work-life balance and, for some reason, their love lives where brought up more than once… hmm…
The sharings went on for some two hours, pretty much with everyone’s full attention (thanks to the wit, the interesting stories and the occasional 助語詞from the speakers), and we only found ourselves with more subjects to cover than time we had available. The gathering was supposed to end at 430 pm, but at 545 pm, lots of YOBs were still hanging around and chatting with their C-Hings, getting ideas and sharing views. I saw our Old Boys network shine so strongly and brightly today, and I feel very positive that we offered something solid and helpful for our YOBs. So even before the event ended, I requested the organizers to repeat this event twice or three times a year, which they agreed.
To all those YOBs who joined the gathering today, thanks for coming. I hope it was both fun and educational, and you took some thoughts or ideas away. I think the old boy speakers had a lot of fun too! In particular Lo Len. We should bring him back to the next gathering!
If you have any feedback or ideas regarding topics you’d like to hear in our next gathering, please send a message to Ricky Chow, Eric Chow or me.
Last but not least, Brother Steve, the new principal of the College, dropped by the event, and we invited him to say a few words. In addition to sharing a bit about his background before setting foot on Hong Kong, Brother Steve also shared his view towards driving LSC today, to ensure that we produce the graduates the world needs in year 2020. We were very encouraged by his passion and vision towards LSC.
Focusing my committee’s attention towards young old boys and their specific needs was one of my pledges during my Presidential campaign last month. This is the first of my deliveries.
For this, I wish to thank Ricky Chow (03) and Eric Chow (00) for organizing the successful event. I’d also like to thank those OBs who came to share their stories today, Leonard Chu (83), Lewis Chan (85), Gilbert Fung (98)
Anthony Woo (00), Henry Ma (00), Michael Wan (01) and Ho Kwong Kiu (01). Both Michael and Ah Kiu are members of the US South Cal Chapter, and the two offered us their experience of studying and working overseas, and how they made the decision to come back to HK. I’d also like to thank Henry Keung (07) and his classmates who offered me this idea of organizing such a gathering on a Saturday afternoon, which worked perfectly today.
Should you have any ideas for the OBA, please write to me.
Yours in La Salle always,
Mark Huang
President 2010-2011
[email protected]
PS: Our next gathering is an OBs Happy Hour on 8th October in Central. The formal announcement would be coming out soon on the LSCOBA.com website, on our Facebook group (La Salle Old Boys’ Ties) as well as on Linkedin.com (Group name: La Salle College (Hong Kong) Old Boys).