Participating in Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Program

Cynthia Ho Sin-tung
BBA Business Operations Management student

I joined Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Program this summer. This program aims at inspiring business students to contribute knowledge to non-profit organizations and cultivate our concept of Corporate Social Responsibility. Before having 160-working-hour internship in a local non-profit organization, I had 20-hour pre-internship induction program. I attended different workshops to understand more about the social issues in Hong Kong. The induction program has increased my social awareness; and having a deeper understanding of our society allowed me to adapt quickly to different community projects in the internship.

I spent two months at Kids4Kids, a Hong Kong-based non-profit organization developed to inspire young people in Hong Kong to take action and make a positive impact. In my internship, I was responsible for the promotion and development of the youth empowerment program of the organization. I worked with a team of student interns and we planned and executed a two-month social media campaign. I used concepts learnt from marketing courses to address the message and draw target audience’s attention. Moreover, I had the chance to attend community workshops organized by a group of international school students. They were one of the winners of my organization’s pitching competition. They got funding to execute their projects and brought positive impact to our society. Attending those workshops allowed me to learn more ways to address a social problem.

Joining this intern program is an enriching experience for me. Although I took social entrepreneurship as my minor study at CityU, I did not fully understand how the nonprofit sector in Hong Kong operates and how they serve the local community. Interning at Kids4Kids allowed me to gain knowledge and understand more about the local community. In the past, I thought corporations might only donate money to non-profit organizations and they might not know how the organizations used the money and who the beneficiaries were. However, this internship program has given me a new definition of CSR. Kids4Kids establishes NGO-corporate relationships and allows its corporate partners to join its programs and create positive social impact together.

Lastly, this internship program has better equipped me to face the challenges in the future. I have learnt that being open-minded and humble to learn from others are important working attitudes in a non-profit organization.

(Written by Cynthia, November 2017)