The Review 2009

14 The Review 2009 • Teaching 15 The Review 2009 • Teaching Persistence Pays for Award-winning Student “There were all these opportunities and I just kept applying for them” Polly Fung Pok-lam, who graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery in 2009, made the most of the opportunities at HKU, going on exchanges and training programmes to Liverpool, New York, Washington DC and several places in China, and engaging in research. She won the National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Award for younger researchers in China after putting her name forward in 2008 and being selected to represent HKU. “There were all these opportunities and I just kept applying for them. Those were the lucky ones where I succeeded, but there are a lot of cases where I put in the effort and failed. I just kept up my spirits and kept trying,” she said. The National Youth Award was in recognition of Polly’s research and academic results and her interest in the Mainland. She worked on a project using new technology and CT scans to detect tooth demineralisation, which is an early sign of decay, and made a presentation in Beijing on her findings. “Undergraduates rarely get to touch this equipment so it was quite amazing that I was able to use it. I learned a lot of things about research, like the proper way of collecting data, the importance of getting it verified by another researcher, and making correlations through statistical analysis,” she said. During her early years at HKU, she also went to the Mainland for a Mandarin debating competition, an etiquette competition, a business plan competition, and on an exchange to Shanghai. She also travelled to Henan to work with AIDS patients and taught them how to brush their teeth properly. Polly was also selected separately for a global citizenship programme in New York and a leadership training conference held in Washingon, DC. While those experiences were educational and eye-opening, a simple two-week exchange to Liverpool where she stayed with a family may have left the deepest mark. “The family treated me very well and their daughter and I have a wonderful friendship. It made me realise how stressful Hong Kong can be and gave me a little time to think about my life,” she said. Polly now works as a dentist in Prince Philip Dental Hospital and Queen Mary Hospital. Dental graduate, Polly Fung Pok-lam