SHTM Meeting its Responsibilities with CSR and Service Learning Activities
Helping to develop sustainable tourism is one of the SHTM's most significant priorities. Recently, SHTM academics and students participated in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and service learning activities in Cambodia, Vietnam, Sichuan and Hong Kong with that aim in mind.
Dr Pearl Lin and Mr Raymond Kwong led 17 students, including 11 from the SHTM, on a service learning trip to Cambodia from 11 to 23 June. Organised by PolyU's Office of Service Learning, the group visited Green Pasture Inn, a guesthouse located in Phnom Penh that creates job opportunities for youngsters.
Having received pre-trip hotel operation training at Hotel ICON and food and beverage training at the Vinoteca Lab, the students helped at the front office and with
housekeeping and food and beverage operations, modified the guesthouse's marketing and promotional materials, and provided hotel operations, workplace English and marketing training. Professor Timothy W. Tong, PolyU President, also took part by demonstrating how to make Hong Kong-style milk tea. The guesthouse's staff members and management were very grateful for the effort involved.
In a similar effort over summer, the SHTM's Dr Alan Wong and Ms Chloe Lau took 29 students to Qing Ping
in Sichuan, China on a service learning trip to review potential ecotourism resources as tools for poverty alleviation. Enrolled from across PolyU, the students designed ecotourism activities, brochures and a website to promote the project site, formulated marketing plans, provided training to the local community and organised an ecotourism-related fun fair.
Over the past several years, the SHTM has helped the Hospitality School of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to develop a curriculum for a one-year certificate course on Housekeeping Management. Professor Kaye Chon, SHTM Dean and Chair Professor, was invited to speak at the Hospitality School's graduation ceremony on 30 June. He commented that the hospitality and tourism industry was one of the fastest growing in the world and that was certainly the case in Vietnam. The SHTM
would continue to provide assistance to the institution as part of its CSR activities.
Back home in Hong Kong, on 8 June SHTM students cooperated with the Windshield Charitable Foundation to co-organise a community event entitled "P.S. I Love You - The Stolen yesteryears", with the aim of raising awareness of community heritage, values and tradition by promoting Ping Shek Estate. They organised a Volunteer Community Ambassadors project in which new immigrant women acted as tour guides
for over 600 participants.
The SHTM is proud of these efforts, and will continue to encourage its academics and students to help those in need toward better futures.
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