Tales provide inspiration

Eight tales of hope and courage - and one brilliant idea - have helped TWGHs Lo Kon Ting Memorial College scoop the first runner-up prize in the DIY - A Fuller Life Youth Project.

The team was only beaten to the top spot by DMHC Siu Ming Catholic Secondary School at the competition organised by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

However, the panel of judges was impressed by the way TWGHs Lo Kon Ting Memorial College students expressed their positive values towards life.

They found stories of hope and courage inside and outside their school through the Internet, newspapers, books and students' writing. Then they selected the most interesting cases and made them into short films as well as posting them on the Web site www.lktmc.edu.hk/=moral and in the school magazine, titled Stories of Hope and Courage - Right at Our Doorstep.

The project aimed to provide an opportunity for Form Four to Form Seven students to examine and share with others notions of a fuller life.

Teacher Lo Ki-shun, who supervised the TWGHs Lo Kon Ting Memorial College project, said he was pleasantly surprised by the award.

He said his students did not have as much time as they had wished since they had to cope with their examinations as well. But the competition had helped them to develop positive values from ideas that were right under their noses.

'There are many negative values and ideas in our society that affect [the thinking of] students. This project has helped them to be more positive,' said Mr Lo.

Life Fighter, for instance, is a short story about a HKCEE candidate who continues to excel in his studies despite having been diagnosed with cancer.

Ip Chui-wa, 15, a member of the school team, said: 'I think it was an impressive story and it made me feel so lucky.'

Mr Lo said his students would continue to work on the project and find more real examples that expressed a more positive attitude towards life.

'We did not initiate our project just to win prizes,' he said.

Team leader Hui Tung-ching, 15, said she too was surprised by their achievement.

It was the first time she had designed a Web page. The Form Four student said the exercise had taught her valuable lessons in interview techniques and enhanced her computer skills.

Fellow teammate Lui Cheuk-wai, 15, said he had learned to draw ideas from everyday experiences.

Jacky is a summer intern from Hong Kong Shue Yan College