all right hi everyone I’m sky yes this
is the one I’d like to start off with um
kind of hard to talk about people after
you’ve seen such a riveting and deep
emotional tie with animals isn’t it
right I was sitting there thinking how
am I gonna continue on that talk when my
heart is going out to all these animals
I don’t even want to think about myself
anymore but the reality is I do want to
share one thing and it starts with this
picture again coming back to nature what
do you see when you think about this
picture what are some emotions that come
with it freedom
excellence that’s like the first thing
that came to my mind – what else
Photoshop true it could be Photoshop in
our generation that can definitely be
sure to put Photoshop it is also
something for me it represents deep
satisfaction contentment an absolute
moment of joy when you are able to
connect with nature when you are able to
be on top of a mountain when you’re
connecting with animals that feeling in
your stomach that emotion that churns
out its absolute indescribable and I
wanted to share this because and before
I even continue maybe a little bit about
myself I am Chinese I look Chinese don’t
I maybe a little bit but I grew up in
Ghana in West Africa so we have a little
bit of a African theme going on down
there I think sean has probably seen
more wild animals live close to him than
I have in 16 years of living in Africa
but I grew up living in slum areas my
parents were educators they went over to
Africa in the 80s and they decided to
live as the poor do if you work with the
poor and so live like a poor person we
did but it was very humbling and it was
extremely inspiring because people that
we met the things that we do and the
experiences that I went through have
shaped the decisions and the way that I
think and have really allowed me to
doing the work that I do today now ten
years ago I moved
to Hong Kong and that’s where I realized
that we are more on this now how many of
you have seen this raise of hands a
version of this some sort of cartoon
version of this I think that this is a
reality for most of us young people in
Hong Kong we can talk a lot about you
know dreams and we can talk a lot about
being inspired to do a lot of great
things but the reality and we see this
every day because we work with young
people the reality is this the whole
concept of winning at the starting line
because a lot of the young people that
we work with will look at something like
this and it defines that where they are
well my parents didn’t weren’t able to
afford the fact that I could have an
amazing education to go to overseas and
so therefore I’m nor reading I’m already
starting last or you know my parents
weren’t really able to allow me to do
this or that and so therefore I didn’t
I’m not able to do what I can do or
maybe I didn’t have as many life
experiences growing up I just grew up in
Hong Kong I’m just you know you know
Andy you know who was born in Hong Kong
grew up in Hong Kong and everyday
anything else oh so I I’m definitely way
at the back of the line in fact I think
this site type of societal pressure is
so high for every one of us you and me
sitting here and I think we can all
pretend and just smile and you know let
it roll off our backs but the reality if
we ask ourselves deep inside we’re all
going through this and we’re all asking
the questions about this and the reality
also is that when we look at a situation
like this in Hong Kong most of us didn’t
really have a choice because when we
were born we were already born into a
society that looks into this we are
already living in a society in fact I
was talking to a friend the other day
she’s not married she has no children
and she was saying you know when I have
a kid I’m gonna do this and this and
this I’m definitely enroll them and this
and this and this and you know they’re
definitely not gonna be doing these
things that I’m doing now why because I
think there’s a better thing that they
can do and I looked at her and goes you
don’t even have a kid yet
but you kids not even born and I just
started thinking well if I was her kid
that hasn’t even been born yet
I’m definitely sitting on this and
looking at this and saying this is my
reality but the reality is also that
this doesn’t have to be your reality a
famous New Zealand Mountaineer Sir
Edmund Hillary once said you know the
mountains are not the things that we are
conquering it’s actually ourselves
ourselves are the ones that we are
conquering and that is actually you we
talked about the untapped potential we
talked about the unknown capacity I
think the biggest barriers to us as
young people to really tap into the
potential that we’re able to do to dream
is actually ourselves because we’re
wrapped up into the society and the way
that everyone thinks that we have even
we haven’t even started walking and
we’re already doing this we’re going
backwards why and so I think it’s really
important for us to think about how
we’re thinking about things first of all
how we interact with the rest of the
world with these thoughts and finally
when we’ve processed our thoughts what
we’re actually gonna put in action to do
and I’m a pragmatic I’m a pragmatic
person so bear with me I think the first
and most important thing that I’ve
learned is actually being very honest
with yourself and saying who are you I
am so take a minute well maybe 10
seconds and think about it how would you
how would you answer this in all honesty
are you gonna say that I’m a daring
person or I gonna say I’m somebody who’s
still learning are you gonna say I’m an
entrepreneur or are you gonna say oh I’m
somebody who has ideas I’m not really
sure where to put them yet but you know
what either one of those things is okay
I want to share a story of a young young
guy that I met a couple years I went
back to Ghana to visit my parents
we’re going into this village probably
about ten hours north of Accra which is
the capital city after a really long
bumpy road we get into this village and
we sit down with the village chiefs this
is the conversation we’re having my dad
was trying to figure out whether or not
we could start a vocational training
school in this village in northern Ghana
so you have all the Chiefs sitting
around in a circle everyone is you know
talking about the pros and cons and from
nowhere there was a voice that said well
I think that you really should be going
to the next village because there’s
really nothing to educate over here and
my dad and I look at it we’re like first
of all where is this voice coming from
and second of all what is this person
talking about do you know who it was we
looked down we were sitting on benches
we looked down at the benches and there
was a little young man he was completely
paralyzed from the waist down in fact it
looked like he had cerebral palsy
because his legs were all deformed I
didn’t take a picture of him because I
thought it would be disrespectful so
sorry no images here we found out later
that when he was three years old
he was placed into a boiling pot of
water by a mistake and so because of
that he lost all function from his lower
her legs down he was tossed aside and he
spent most of his life his key
developmental years crawling out around
the village on his two hands and the
only place that he could really hang out
was under the benches of the Chiefs
where they sat and had their key
conversations I looked at this young man
and I thought to myself this guy has a
voice he has a he has such a great mind
and he has such so much confidence
especially in the way he talked and I
went to up to him with a translator
unfortunately I don’t speak the local
tribe language there and I an asked and
later I was like what gave you such
confidence you know to be able to have
this conversation and even chime in when
there is a foreigner coming in to talk
to your Chiefs and he said I’m a realist
I spent my entire life on the floor
under these benches and I know where I
am
but I also know because I have spent my
entire life under these benches I know
exactly what I’m saying
and those Chiefs don’t know what they’re
saying they just want your money so they
want you to build your school in this
village and not the next one this kid
had so much had so much capacity because
he knew exactly who he was he knew what
his limitations was and from that point
onwards he made very decisive steps to
be a part of this community that he was
actually shunned on and basically not
really looked at but because of his
ability to know where exactly he stood
he became a very integral part of this
community
so selfic self acknowledgement and
knowing where you are and being
realistic are and what your abilities
are and being really real and honest
about you know what it is that you want
that is a first step so I mentioned that
the second thing is not just thinking
about yourself but also how you interact
with honk with with others did you know
that in Hong Kong 70% there was a study
that was done 70 percents of secondary
school students are actually being
bullied by their classmates today how
horrifying is that that means that
majority of us sitting in this room have
been bullied once in our life and not by
somebody who was older than us by our
peers what does that tell you about the
way that we are learning from each other
and the way that we are interacting with
each other and the way that we’re
getting information from one another
maybe what we’re doing is we’re bullying
others in order to get information for
ourselves
maybe we’re putting down other people so
that we can do better or get better more
information for ourselves now I know
that it’s very difficult to think about
ourselves in this honest way but what if
we’re able to learn
and be open as much as possible to be
supportive of one another to be to be
open to share what you know to others so
that others can also share to you to be
kind to others so that others can also
be kind to you and from that first point
of knowing your own strengths and
knowing your own weaknesses moving then
to interacting with other people in that
very honest and very true way your true
self and your capacity within starts
coming out I want to share a story maybe
coming back a little bit to Hong Kong
I’ve had the privilege working in Hong
Kong with a lot of extremely talented
young people a lot of these young people
probably don’t get into university like
yourselves they go through and suffer
through DSCs
like many of you might have but they
don’t end up getting into university but
they are very very happy and I want to
share a story of one young man with you
because I believe that he not only
thought about the realities of his
situation dreamed a big dream and then
made very positive steps to what
something for his future I met Jay maybe
about six years ago it’s probably still
about 14 15 at that time so he’s now
graduated and he was part of one of our
programs that we went to the school to
teach circus performance arts just as a
hobby now Jay was just a young man who
really was trying to figure out what was
happening in his life you know was
really focused on trying to study
because there’s a lot of pressure
everything that I talked about in the
previous slide was a reality for him and
he took he took this class because it
was something that he could relieve
himself it was a hobby that he could
learn from it was a hobby that he could
just do something else with and Jay was
with somebody who just was just ordinary
Jay he didn’t think about wildlife in
Africa he didn’t have the chance to
but what he wanted was he actually
really wanted to help people that are
around him and when he started playing
with the juggling stuff he started doing
a lot of performances he started going
into a lot of a community through the
program and trying to starting to
connect with lots of different people
and when he graduated he made a very
conscious decision he made a decision to
use what he had learned through his
hobby and actually make it into a career
for the purposes of helping other young
people and reaching other young people
that were exactly like himself
we asked him oh conventionally in Hong
Kong you if you want to help other
people if you want to go into youth work
what would you do you go into social
work right or you go and get a
counseling degree or at the very least
just go get a degree right so that
you’ll be credible so that you can work
in an NGO so that you can make money and
you can support your family Wow yes
helping people and Jai was very clear in
his answer he said you know I would like
to work for you guys because that’s
gonna be my job because I know already
for a fact that I don’t need to go
through this conventional route that I
can take a different way and I can still
achieve the things that I want to do
with my strengths and with the talents
and with the desire that I want to do so
Jay today is one of our key trainers he
goes to about five to six schools and he
trains 32 well every school has about 20
kids so it was six kids sorry six
schools he’s going to about he’s
reaching about a hundred kids just on
his own and he’s somebody who’s
fulfilling this dream way bigger than if
he had decided to go to the convention
route and wait until he studied through
social work and then try and get some
work experience but he’s already doing
what he wants to do right here and right
now and you know I I think that one of
the best things that we can do in this
community and in this day and age is to
actually try and do try and take the
risk that we don’t have to go the
conventional route we don’t all have to
be entrepreneurs and start our own
organization but there’s so many ways to
be non-conventional in your route
it’s just a matter of really digging
deep as the other speakers have been
saying and really finding and
appreciating where you are and where
you’re starting points and then moving
forward in that and I just want to take
a minute and look around look around you
look around the people that are next to
you yeah the people that are around you
are the people who are your best
supporters because you’re all in this in
a lot of ways you are here you are here
in the same boat you’re all looking
forward to the same things you’re all
wanting to develop you’re all wanting to
go somewhere you’re all wanting to make
a difference you’re all wanting to learn
and that process of really being honest
with yourself of thinking through your
thoughts of how to interact and be kind
and be somebody that’s influential with
to somebody else in your life and trying
to take the non-conventional route
without having to you know have the
kickback to that all of it is so much
easier if you’re doing it with a friend
if you’re doing it with somebody else
that’s around you so support one another
talk to each other and you know when you
actually graduate out of school and
you’re coming out and you’re doing work
our generation can be a good example of
collaborating well with one another and
I hope to see more of that in the coming
years thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
is the one I’d like to start off with um
kind of hard to talk about people after
you’ve seen such a riveting and deep
emotional tie with animals isn’t it
right I was sitting there thinking how
am I gonna continue on that talk when my
heart is going out to all these animals
I don’t even want to think about myself
anymore but the reality is I do want to
share one thing and it starts with this
picture again coming back to nature what
do you see when you think about this
picture what are some emotions that come
with it freedom
excellence that’s like the first thing
that came to my mind – what else
Photoshop true it could be Photoshop in
our generation that can definitely be
sure to put Photoshop it is also
something for me it represents deep
satisfaction contentment an absolute
moment of joy when you are able to
connect with nature when you are able to
be on top of a mountain when you’re
connecting with animals that feeling in
your stomach that emotion that churns
out its absolute indescribable and I
wanted to share this because and before
I even continue maybe a little bit about
myself I am Chinese I look Chinese don’t
I maybe a little bit but I grew up in
Ghana in West Africa so we have a little
bit of a African theme going on down
there I think sean has probably seen
more wild animals live close to him than
I have in 16 years of living in Africa
but I grew up living in slum areas my
parents were educators they went over to
Africa in the 80s and they decided to
live as the poor do if you work with the
poor and so live like a poor person we
did but it was very humbling and it was
extremely inspiring because people that
we met the things that we do and the
experiences that I went through have
shaped the decisions and the way that I
think and have really allowed me to
doing the work that I do today now ten
years ago I moved
to Hong Kong and that’s where I realized
that we are more on this now how many of
you have seen this raise of hands a
version of this some sort of cartoon
version of this I think that this is a
reality for most of us young people in
Hong Kong we can talk a lot about you
know dreams and we can talk a lot about
being inspired to do a lot of great
things but the reality and we see this
every day because we work with young
people the reality is this the whole
concept of winning at the starting line
because a lot of the young people that
we work with will look at something like
this and it defines that where they are
well my parents didn’t weren’t able to
afford the fact that I could have an
amazing education to go to overseas and
so therefore I’m nor reading I’m already
starting last or you know my parents
weren’t really able to allow me to do
this or that and so therefore I didn’t
I’m not able to do what I can do or
maybe I didn’t have as many life
experiences growing up I just grew up in
Hong Kong I’m just you know you know
Andy you know who was born in Hong Kong
grew up in Hong Kong and everyday
anything else oh so I I’m definitely way
at the back of the line in fact I think
this site type of societal pressure is
so high for every one of us you and me
sitting here and I think we can all
pretend and just smile and you know let
it roll off our backs but the reality if
we ask ourselves deep inside we’re all
going through this and we’re all asking
the questions about this and the reality
also is that when we look at a situation
like this in Hong Kong most of us didn’t
really have a choice because when we
were born we were already born into a
society that looks into this we are
already living in a society in fact I
was talking to a friend the other day
she’s not married she has no children
and she was saying you know when I have
a kid I’m gonna do this and this and
this I’m definitely enroll them and this
and this and this and you know they’re
definitely not gonna be doing these
things that I’m doing now why because I
think there’s a better thing that they
can do and I looked at her and goes you
don’t even have a kid yet
but you kids not even born and I just
started thinking well if I was her kid
that hasn’t even been born yet
I’m definitely sitting on this and
looking at this and saying this is my
reality but the reality is also that
this doesn’t have to be your reality a
famous New Zealand Mountaineer Sir
Edmund Hillary once said you know the
mountains are not the things that we are
conquering it’s actually ourselves
ourselves are the ones that we are
conquering and that is actually you we
talked about the untapped potential we
talked about the unknown capacity I
think the biggest barriers to us as
young people to really tap into the
potential that we’re able to do to dream
is actually ourselves because we’re
wrapped up into the society and the way
that everyone thinks that we have even
we haven’t even started walking and
we’re already doing this we’re going
backwards why and so I think it’s really
important for us to think about how
we’re thinking about things first of all
how we interact with the rest of the
world with these thoughts and finally
when we’ve processed our thoughts what
we’re actually gonna put in action to do
and I’m a pragmatic I’m a pragmatic
person so bear with me I think the first
and most important thing that I’ve
learned is actually being very honest
with yourself and saying who are you I
am so take a minute well maybe 10
seconds and think about it how would you
how would you answer this in all honesty
are you gonna say that I’m a daring
person or I gonna say I’m somebody who’s
still learning are you gonna say I’m an
entrepreneur or are you gonna say oh I’m
somebody who has ideas I’m not really
sure where to put them yet but you know
what either one of those things is okay
I want to share a story of a young young
guy that I met a couple years I went
back to Ghana to visit my parents
we’re going into this village probably
about ten hours north of Accra which is
the capital city after a really long
bumpy road we get into this village and
we sit down with the village chiefs this
is the conversation we’re having my dad
was trying to figure out whether or not
we could start a vocational training
school in this village in northern Ghana
so you have all the Chiefs sitting
around in a circle everyone is you know
talking about the pros and cons and from
nowhere there was a voice that said well
I think that you really should be going
to the next village because there’s
really nothing to educate over here and
my dad and I look at it we’re like first
of all where is this voice coming from
and second of all what is this person
talking about do you know who it was we
looked down we were sitting on benches
we looked down at the benches and there
was a little young man he was completely
paralyzed from the waist down in fact it
looked like he had cerebral palsy
because his legs were all deformed I
didn’t take a picture of him because I
thought it would be disrespectful so
sorry no images here we found out later
that when he was three years old
he was placed into a boiling pot of
water by a mistake and so because of
that he lost all function from his lower
her legs down he was tossed aside and he
spent most of his life his key
developmental years crawling out around
the village on his two hands and the
only place that he could really hang out
was under the benches of the Chiefs
where they sat and had their key
conversations I looked at this young man
and I thought to myself this guy has a
voice he has a he has such a great mind
and he has such so much confidence
especially in the way he talked and I
went to up to him with a translator
unfortunately I don’t speak the local
tribe language there and I an asked and
later I was like what gave you such
confidence you know to be able to have
this conversation and even chime in when
there is a foreigner coming in to talk
to your Chiefs and he said I’m a realist
I spent my entire life on the floor
under these benches and I know where I
am
but I also know because I have spent my
entire life under these benches I know
exactly what I’m saying
and those Chiefs don’t know what they’re
saying they just want your money so they
want you to build your school in this
village and not the next one this kid
had so much had so much capacity because
he knew exactly who he was he knew what
his limitations was and from that point
onwards he made very decisive steps to
be a part of this community that he was
actually shunned on and basically not
really looked at but because of his
ability to know where exactly he stood
he became a very integral part of this
community
so selfic self acknowledgement and
knowing where you are and being
realistic are and what your abilities
are and being really real and honest
about you know what it is that you want
that is a first step so I mentioned that
the second thing is not just thinking
about yourself but also how you interact
with honk with with others did you know
that in Hong Kong 70% there was a study
that was done 70 percents of secondary
school students are actually being
bullied by their classmates today how
horrifying is that that means that
majority of us sitting in this room have
been bullied once in our life and not by
somebody who was older than us by our
peers what does that tell you about the
way that we are learning from each other
and the way that we are interacting with
each other and the way that we’re
getting information from one another
maybe what we’re doing is we’re bullying
others in order to get information for
ourselves
maybe we’re putting down other people so
that we can do better or get better more
information for ourselves now I know
that it’s very difficult to think about
ourselves in this honest way but what if
we’re able to learn
and be open as much as possible to be
supportive of one another to be to be
open to share what you know to others so
that others can also share to you to be
kind to others so that others can also
be kind to you and from that first point
of knowing your own strengths and
knowing your own weaknesses moving then
to interacting with other people in that
very honest and very true way your true
self and your capacity within starts
coming out I want to share a story maybe
coming back a little bit to Hong Kong
I’ve had the privilege working in Hong
Kong with a lot of extremely talented
young people a lot of these young people
probably don’t get into university like
yourselves they go through and suffer
through DSCs
like many of you might have but they
don’t end up getting into university but
they are very very happy and I want to
share a story of one young man with you
because I believe that he not only
thought about the realities of his
situation dreamed a big dream and then
made very positive steps to what
something for his future I met Jay maybe
about six years ago it’s probably still
about 14 15 at that time so he’s now
graduated and he was part of one of our
programs that we went to the school to
teach circus performance arts just as a
hobby now Jay was just a young man who
really was trying to figure out what was
happening in his life you know was
really focused on trying to study
because there’s a lot of pressure
everything that I talked about in the
previous slide was a reality for him and
he took he took this class because it
was something that he could relieve
himself it was a hobby that he could
learn from it was a hobby that he could
just do something else with and Jay was
with somebody who just was just ordinary
Jay he didn’t think about wildlife in
Africa he didn’t have the chance to
but what he wanted was he actually
really wanted to help people that are
around him and when he started playing
with the juggling stuff he started doing
a lot of performances he started going
into a lot of a community through the
program and trying to starting to
connect with lots of different people
and when he graduated he made a very
conscious decision he made a decision to
use what he had learned through his
hobby and actually make it into a career
for the purposes of helping other young
people and reaching other young people
that were exactly like himself
we asked him oh conventionally in Hong
Kong you if you want to help other
people if you want to go into youth work
what would you do you go into social
work right or you go and get a
counseling degree or at the very least
just go get a degree right so that
you’ll be credible so that you can work
in an NGO so that you can make money and
you can support your family Wow yes
helping people and Jai was very clear in
his answer he said you know I would like
to work for you guys because that’s
gonna be my job because I know already
for a fact that I don’t need to go
through this conventional route that I
can take a different way and I can still
achieve the things that I want to do
with my strengths and with the talents
and with the desire that I want to do so
Jay today is one of our key trainers he
goes to about five to six schools and he
trains 32 well every school has about 20
kids so it was six kids sorry six
schools he’s going to about he’s
reaching about a hundred kids just on
his own and he’s somebody who’s
fulfilling this dream way bigger than if
he had decided to go to the convention
route and wait until he studied through
social work and then try and get some
work experience but he’s already doing
what he wants to do right here and right
now and you know I I think that one of
the best things that we can do in this
community and in this day and age is to
actually try and do try and take the
risk that we don’t have to go the
conventional route we don’t all have to
be entrepreneurs and start our own
organization but there’s so many ways to
be non-conventional in your route
it’s just a matter of really digging
deep as the other speakers have been
saying and really finding and
appreciating where you are and where
you’re starting points and then moving
forward in that and I just want to take
a minute and look around look around you
look around the people that are next to
you yeah the people that are around you
are the people who are your best
supporters because you’re all in this in
a lot of ways you are here you are here
in the same boat you’re all looking
forward to the same things you’re all
wanting to develop you’re all wanting to
go somewhere you’re all wanting to make
a difference you’re all wanting to learn
and that process of really being honest
with yourself of thinking through your
thoughts of how to interact and be kind
and be somebody that’s influential with
to somebody else in your life and trying
to take the non-conventional route
without having to you know have the
kickback to that all of it is so much
easier if you’re doing it with a friend
if you’re doing it with somebody else
that’s around you so support one another
talk to each other and you know when you
actually graduate out of school and
you’re coming out and you’re doing work
our generation can be a good example of
collaborating well with one another and
I hope to see more of that in the coming
years thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
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