Carmen Kan graduated with a bachelor's degree in linguistics in 2004. After that, she worked as a research assistant at a university. She was so touched by the earthquake that devastated Sichuan in 2008 that she made up her mind to switch careers.
'I decided that I should do something related to health in my future career,' the third-year student says.
After evaluating her options, she applied for admission to the preregistration master of nursing programme at the Polytechnic University (PolyU). It is targeted at graduates who have majored in disciplines other than nursing.
'As soon as I graduate, I will look for a job in acute care,' Kan says. 'In the long-run, I am interested in pursuing a job as a worldwide volunteer. If there is a tragedy or a disaster, I would like to go and help.'
Before she can realise that dream, she will have to work full-time for several years, living as frugally as she can. 'I would like to save enough money to do volunteer work full-time,' she says.
If Kan was motivated to become a nurse by the compassion she felt for the victims of a tragedy in a distant province, Ida Chan, who had studied marketing at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, had wanted to be a nurse since she was a little girl.