The Review 2008

42 The Review 2008 Supporting the ‘First in Family’ Sylvia Choi, a first-year student in Ecology and Biodiversity, is a promising 19-year-old with a keen interest in animal conservation. Her studies are going well, but to really make a career in this field she needs overseas experience through summer internships and the like. The problem is, these are out of financial reach for Sylvia’s family. Some 29 per cent of HKU students in 2007-08 came from families earning less than $10,000 per month, who cannot afford the impor tant learning enrichment offered by overseas exchanges and internships. Recognising this, the University launched the First in Family Education (FiFE) Fund in April 2008 for financially strapped students who are the first in their family to attend university. “The idea of this fund is to advocate equal learning oppor tunities among students despite their family backgrounds,” the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, said. Sylvia’s mother is a housewife, her father is an air- conditioner engineer and they live in public housing.With her FiFE scholarship, she plans to apply for an internship in Africa to study endangered cheetahs. “I wouldn’t be able to afford this otherwise,” she said. “If I’m going to be a zoologist or ecologist, I have to have a lot of work experience and I have to travel overseas to do that.” FiFE is suppor ted by a network of donors that includes alumni, businessmen, community leaders and other interested individuals.They fund several impor tant programmes that help to advance learning, research and institutional development at HKU. Endowed Professorships, for example, have been made possible through their donations. These promote research by providing funds to individual professors with proven academic excellence.Thir ty-three Endowed Professorships have been established since 2005. Individual donors have also made significant, change-making contributions. In 2007-08, Dr Lee Shau Kee, Chairman of the Lee Shau Kee Foundation, donated $500 million for institutional advancement. The money will be divided between student scholarships and the Centennial Campus development. Dr Cheng Yu-Tung, Chairman of New World Development Co Ltd, donated $400 million to suppor t academic and research development in the Faculty of Law and the Centennial Campus. The Review 2008 • Community 43 Sylvia Choi hopes the FiFE funding will take her studies beyond the laboratory.