My Major is Just Part of Me
My Major is Just Part of Me
Chan Chun Yin's Story
Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
MBBS
Marcus is an MBBS sixth year student and Master of Research in Medicine candidate with a research interest in autism genetics. Living his busy life as a medical student, he still spares his time for activities organised by CEDARS-General Education Team (CEDARS-GE). Keep reading to see how Marcus has become a loyal fan of CEDARS-GE.
“The General Education programmes are always educational and rewarding.”
“The Taiwan Elections Study Tour 2016 was my first General Education (GE) experience. Since then, I have become an active participant in GE programmes,” said Marcus. In retrospect, the study tour gave him a new insight into Taiwan affairs. The study tour widened his horizons and enhanced his understanding of urban-rural symbiosis which was an alien concept to him. The inspiration brought by this tour motivated him to continue with other GE events.
According to Marcus, the GE programmes are always educational and rewarding. Not only did he acquire new knowledge from the programmes, but he also made connections with new friends who blew his mind. Throughout the years, he had joined many GE activities, including the Taiwan Elections Study Tour 2016, Camping in Hong Kong, 2-day-1-night Cultural Heritage Camp in Yim Tin Tsai, Ecology and Astronomy Camp in 2017 together with three book clubs. He has also been a moderator of an online seminar, "Current Reading", this year. He said that keeping an open mind is crucial as people in these programmes may hold values that are contradictory to your own. As a moderator in “Current Reading”, he was worried about the audience response as it was the first time he channelled the conversation in a massive book sharing session.
“That book sharing session was a success. I was glad that I did a good job and received a positive audience response. The audiences were very proactive in asking questions,” Marcus described.
Besides focusing on his medical endeavour, Marcus had found his second interest when he looked at different faces of life in a series of GE programmes. He said, “I fell in love with hiking after joining the Trail Walker organised by GE. After I completed these programmes, I joined another Trail Walker programme organised by Oxfam. Hiking has already become a lifelong interest.” On top of that, he valued the friends he met in Trail Walker as it was hard to make friends with people from other streams in the Faculty of Medicine.
The eye-opening experience in GE helped Marcus to rethink the choice of lifestyles. There are different possibilities in life that are worth exploring. Your profession is only part of your life but not the whole world.
Written by:
Tracy Wong
Year 1, Faculty of Arts
April 2021