July 2019
Established in 1998, the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) Scholarships are dedicated to nurturing local talent. This year, five HKU undergraduate students were awarded a Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship in recognition of their academic excellence and commitment to serving community. In addition, five of the six awardees for overseas postgraduate scholarship are HKU alumni and they will be pursuing postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford or Harvard University in the coming academic year.
Kony KWONG (BBA, International Business & Global Management, Year 2) believes in “knowledge can change one’s destiny”. Two years before he entered the University, he established a social enterprise to provide low cost or free tutoring classes to less privileged students.
Born into a grass-roots family, Kony came to Hong Kong at the age of 12 and worked exceptionally hard since the day he arrived, particularly in learning English. His efforts and perseverance paid off when he got his HKDSE result slip two years ago – he was one of the top scorers that year. He was very grateful for the opportunities and the support he received. That summer, he decided to pay it forward and, together with a few friends who shared the same mission, he set up a tutoring centre in Fortress Hill for students from low income families.
He mentioned that setting up a tutorial centre was not without its challenges, but he managed to solve the problems one by one. Currently, there are about 100 students enrolled at his centre. He is hoping to render more support to these students and help them thrive.