Inspiring students to make a difference
Whereas good universities create career-ready professionals, the world’s most interesting encourage college students to develop into world-changers. The Hong Kong Polytechnic College (PolyU) belongs to the latter class.
PolyU is an progressive, world-class college with a robust sense of social duty. It’s ranked fourth in THE Younger College Rankings 2023, twenty third within the QS World College Rankings: Asia 2024 and sixty fifth within the QS World College Rankings 2024. Constantly ranked among the many world’s prime 100 universities, its distinction is not any accident. This establishment is rooted in an loyal dedication to excellence and fuelled by its motto: “To be taught and to use, for the good thing about mankind.”
Merely put, at PolyU, college students aren’t simply learners; they’re world residents, pioneers, innovators, architects of transformation, and stewards of a world in want. Irrespective of their majors, everybody has a task to play in contributing to the College’s legacy, which is written within the tangible impression it leaves on communities. It’s seen in breakthroughs that make impacts on industries, concepts that reshape norms, and options that higher lives.
PolyU college students of all backgrounds and aspirations discover their calling to make a distinction. It’s a rare journey because the tales of scholars Anastasia Rudakova from Russia and Jina Ham from South Korea present:
Former mannequin Anastasia Rudakova finds PolyU’s professors “actually caring” and “inspiring” and the amenities and high quality of the whole lot in her programme as wonderful worth for cash. Supply: The Hong Kong Polytechnic College
A mannequin turned clothier impacting lives
Anastasia Rudakova spent nearly a decade travelling the world as a mannequin earlier than deciding to discover the inside workings of the style world from a unique perspective. Changing into a clothier has lengthy been a dream of hers, however she was conscious she lacked the fundamentals.
Her subsequent step, Rudakova knew, was to get a level and be taught – one that might empower her to attain her objectives. PolyU instantly stood out.
“I’ve spent the final decade in Asia and modelled for a number of graduate reveals all through the continent, however the remaining 12 months mission high quality of PolyU’s College of Vogue and Textiles was at all times higher,” she shares. “I used to be shocked that 4 years of examine might produce one thing like that. So, I regarded via the programme, and it undoubtedly appealed to me.”
Regardless of her educational background qualifying her to take the grasp’s route, Rudakova was extra involved in complete data than she was in one other qualification. Most significantly, she needed the time to construct a stable basis within the main actions of the style and textiles industries. That’s exactly what she did throughout her first three semesters, which solidified her calling to someday reintroduce herself to the style world as a designer.
In preparation, Rudakova had fruitful conversations along with her professors, labored on her collaboration expertise alongside like-minded friends, and leveraged state-of-the-art amenities housed throughout the College of Vogue and Textiles. With each interplay, she believes she’s one step nearer to turning into a designer, or as she calls them, an artist of contemporary instances.
And, this being Poly U, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Rudakova received to use all she’d discovered to the true world via her love for volunteering, which was exactly why she jumped on the probability to show youngsters from deprived households in Cambodia.
“At PolyU, it’s unusual for first-year college students to take part within the Service-Studying journeys, however I actually needed to,” she says. “It was actually fulfilling.” The expertise entailed creating instructing plans and making ready workshops previous to the journey.
From day one, Rudakova and her friends spent round seven hours a day instructing, but it was hardly tiring. “We developed connections with these youngsters and received to see what life was like for them,” she says. “On the final day, you bought to expertise 100 children hugging you directly and expressing immense gratitude. It makes you realise that in a brief period of time, you may make constructive impacts on many lives.”
As an enthusiastic member of PolyU’s related neighborhood, Jina Ham goes above and past educational pursuits to contribute to the College’s vibrant atmosphere. Supply: The Hong Kong Polytechnic College
Scholar, dancer, cultural ambassador and future maker of significant merchandise
Two elements influenced Jina Ham’s determination to depart South Korea and examine in Hong Kong. First, the colourful metropolis is a beneficiant place for budding designers in want of each inspiration and alternatives. PolyU’s College of Design – twentieth within the QS World College Rankings by Topic 2023: Artwork & Design – sits at a strategic intersection that bridges the East and the West. It’s a geographical benefit that permits its college students to develop their design strengths with a uniquely worldwide cultural consciousness at each skilled and social ranges.
Most significantly, the College of Design has a stellar fame for producing standout job candidates. True sufficient, the personalised consideration Ham obtained from her well-connected tutors performed a key function in serving to her land a fruitful four-month internship with Landor & Fitch — one of many greatest model administration firms on the planet.
“My academics have been at all times there after I wanted them. They gave me suggestions and finetuned my portfolio,” says the fourth-year Communication Design scholar. “The truth that lessons at PolyU are small ensures we get to develop shut and intimate connections with our professors.”
Backed by unwavering help, Ham developed the arrogance she wanted to discover the broad area of design and pinpoint her distinctive place inside it. She took varied programs at PolyU, participated in a number of studios, recognized her strengths, and slowly realised the impression she might make by specialising in branding. Ham by no means felt restricted in what she might do and the place she might go to grasp her imaginative and prescient right here. There are absolutely geared up modelling workshops within the College that permit college students to have conceptual and bodily area to experiment with supplies (comparable to garment, ceramic, wooden, plastic, metallic and fine-metal), instruments (comparable to pictures and knitting), processes and concepts. “I realised the way it was typical for designers to be fairly business, and I needed to make extra significant merchandise,” she says. “As a graphic designer, that was the problem. However I like that now we have our scholar studios and different kinds of workshops. We will meet new folks from various cultural backgrounds who’re pleased to share new expertise with us. They impressed me quite a bit on creating modifications.”
With broadened horizons, Ham ensured her subsequent initiatives championed minority teams, the atmosphere and society. Her most up-to-date packaging design caters to the visually impaired and interprets features into tactile patterns. “Skincare merchandise are likely to share comparable shapes of the bottle, so by translating the features into a visible graphic system that can also be embossed, the visually impaired can contact it and really feel it to distinguish which product is which,” Ham explains of her design, which gained Gold on the MUSE Inventive Awards 2023.
When she was striving to do her finest in her programme and profitable awards, Ham was collaborating in PolyU’s Dance Society and selling the College’s strengths to future college students as certainly one of its cultural ambassadors. Balancing the whole lot was initially difficult however Ham is grateful that she had loads of help. Immediately, she’s thriving, with boundless power to do extra and be extra.
As Rudakova and Ham’s tales present, “dynamic” and “rewarding” are the becoming descriptions of their programmes, colleges and PolyU. To embark on this life-changing journey and take step one in the direction of a vibrant future for your self, apply to PolyU right now, the proper place to start. With beneficiant scholarships accessible, it’s by no means been a greater time to use. For potential enrolment within the 2024/25 programmes, we encourage you to use on-line right here or click on right here for PolyU’s programme record as quickly as attainable for being thought of for conditional affords and securing your spot within the College’s 2024/25 programmes.
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