We need to look at ways of helping our students understand the complexities of these issues, and how they can play a role in changing the processes that help create many of the issues we face.”

The school has been encouraging students to take the initiative in forming small groups to work on various social issues under the supervision of teachers.

The projects are usually very closely related to what they have been learning at school, ranging from human rights issues and environmental protection, to literacy among underprivileged children both at home, across the border in the mainland, and abroad.

Examples of these projects may involve trips to Hong Kong’s low-income districts, outreach programmes for immigrant families, or overseas trips where they help to build schools and homes.

“It is possible for students to get the wrong idea when they get involved in community service,” Muir says. “It may reinforce stereotypes, or make students think that some members of society are helpless without the aid of privileged people. That is why we always have a teachers guiding them, to make sure the message is not lost.”

The teachers themselves were also conscious of the importance of measuring the “success” of an effort by numerical denominators such as the amount of funds raised and the number of participants in a charity event.

The root cause of social issues always requires qualitative change that could take generations to materialise, Muir says.

“What matters most is to enlighten the students about the larger world, the hidden side of the poverty in an affluent Hong Kong where the homeless and the cage-home population are, by and large, out of sight,” Muir says. “We try and guide them towardsthinking about the role they can play in striving towards a better world.”

Getting involved in supporting others, especially less fortunate members of the community, can really have an impact,” he adds. “It can lead to changes in how we understand ourselves, make us reconsider our beliefs and values, and result in adjustments to our lifestyles.

“It is about more than just giving money. There is too much emphasis on fundraising, perhaps it is because of Hong Kong’s culture, which is dominated by the financial industry,” Muir continues. “We need to educate both students and parents to think differently.”

In order to further empower students as agents of change, ESF and the Australian International School Hong Kong have partnered to form Young Founders School (YFS), a 48-hour start-up boot camp for 12-17 year olds, sponsored by Credit Suisse.

Mentors and coaches who are leaders of industry were present to provide students with platforms to launch their start-up ideas.

The winning team from ESF’s Sha Tin College, was endowed with US$1,000 of start-up funds from Credit Suisse, as well as the support of mentors in the business community, to bring the idea forward. It also joined the other top-performing teams in presenting their ideas at the California Tower in the US.

At American International School, all high school students are involved in the Outdoor Education and Leadership Program, which was launched in 2005.

For a week before the fall break every October, regular high school classes are suspended and all students join this off-campus programme to take part in outdoor education and adventure, community service or leadership training programmes in a variety of locations. The aim is to develop students holistically in a way that isn’t possible in the classroom.

Yew Chung International School has taken a step further to internalise community service as part of its curriculum by requiring all Year 10 and 11 students to take global perspectives as one of the core subjects alongside English, mathematics, and Chinese in their GCSE studies.

Students will be required to spend two years involved in local, regional and global issues, and investigate how they can contribute towards finding solutions.

Stephen Hackman, head of the Christian & community development division at the Yew Chung Education Foundation, says the school stresses the importance of having empahty for others.

“We believe that community service will help develop empathy in our children and will transform the years to come,” Hackman says.

“Many of our students come from a well-off background. It is important to help them realise not everyone has the same blessing, and motivate them to think about how to share their blessing to make the world a better place.”

He recalled a student who signed up for an inner-city outreach programme, helping disadvantaged South-east Asian children learn Chinese and about Chinese culture. She says that while she had begun it simply as part of the academic requirements of her course, she had a change of heart when she saw the real impact her work had on real people.

Students from other years also participate in ongoing volunteering programmes, including the World Classroom, where students travel to different places to learn about their culture while participating in charity work.

Another programme, Seeds of Hope, was set up in 2008, in the wake of the disastrous Sichuan earthquake to partner with local non-profit organisations in the area. The goal is to establish Seeds of Hope schools in rural areas to give educational opportunities to poor and disadvantaged children in the mainland.

It also creates sister-school relationships with the Seeds of Hope schools, with the long-term goal of having on-going cultural exchanges, educational trips and charity projects that will be of great benefit to the student body for years to come.

Hackman says the school is planning to broaden the Seeds of Hope concept to include all the school’s charity work under the same umbrella.

“We want to put all that we do under the same context, which is to bring hope and love to those who are less fortunate,” says Hackman.

The Korean International School (KIS) is another which enjoys a robust culture of inclusion and global citizenship. It was the first educational institution in Hong Kong to introduce the Springboard Project, a scheme for children with various learning difficulties from autism to Down’s syndrome.

Since 1996, KIS has been integrating special needs students in both its primary and middle schools in partnership with Springboard, which worked with the school to monitor the children’s progress and help parents understand the deal with their needs.

“They share the same morning assembly, the same play-time, the same teachers and they participate in the same activities,” says Chris Chadwick, the principal of KIS English section. “It is wonderful.”

“We need to think about what kind of young people you want in the future, and encouraging them right now. We want our students to be really grounded young leaders, and that is why we encourage them to care for others, to be creative and take action.”

Community service is a natural way of life at KIS as both students and teachers weave this element into the fabric of their campus life. The monthly non-uniform day is a regular platform for students to raise funds for a wide range of causes, from an earthquake in Italy to a tsunami in Japan, a typhoon in the Philippines, or a local reading programme improving literacy among disadvantaged children.

The school is also involved with several other charities such as UNICEF, the Red Cross, Orbis, Operation Santa Claus, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Around the corner might be bake sales, quiz nights, the sale of samosas, chai or siu mai to raise funds for a dozen other charities and social issues. The gardening patch also grows vegetables that can be donated to local homes.

Trips to the rural mainland, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia are being organised, to enable students to learn about different cultures, and to contribute to their communities. The KIS campus itself turns into a meeting point for Korean families all over Hong Kong during weekends.

“We challenge our students to be global citizens and leaders. Participating in well-developed community service projects is a strong element of the mission,” says Chadwick. “It makes you a more mature person.

“The message is clear: you are not your exam results. There is so much more in you than you think. It is more important for our students to learn how to relate to people of different abilities, cultures and languages than whether they score an A or B in their exam.”