I spent most of my childhood in a tiny public estate in Hong Kong, but at 18, I finally had the chance to travel abroad, where I participated in a student business competition. What I remember most about the trip was vomiting before the final presentation, as it was my first time pitching onstage to an international audience!
Founder and Managing Director, Hong Kong NGO Development Centre and Co-Founder and Executive Director, ASIA Pacific Youth Development Foundation
Non-profit Organization Management
Although I didn’t win the competition, it changed my life, because I saw how limited my worldview had been. It also made me aware of the importance of expanding one’s horizons, which is why I co-founded the Asia Pacific Youth Development Foundation (AYF) in 2017, to help youths like myself connect to the rest of the world.
During Covid-19 in 2020, the AYF launched several projects to equip youths against adversity. We organised “The Museum of Epic Failure,” where we held a series of activities to encourage young people to embrace failure. This included a hybrid exhibition with in-person and digital elements, where we highlighted stories of failure from ordinary people as well as prominent personalities. For instance, we had a Michelin-starred chef share his personal struggles, because we wanted to drive home the message that even ‘successful’ individuals have encountered obstacles at every turn.
Another of our efforts was to recognise the strengths of our ethnic minority youths, including Filipinos and Indonesians, many of whom have received more education than the general Hong Kong population. We initiated an eight-week mentoring programme where we invited ethnic minority youths to sign on as volunteer tutors for underprivileged local kids, as the lockdown had affected these kids’ academic progress and their English proficiency. For our volunteers, it was a chance to develop their confidence and public speaking skills, and for everyone involved, it was an organic way to foster understanding between communities. It became clear to us that going forward, we should work with different stakeholders in society to build social capital together.
I will continue to focus on narrowing opportunity gaps for disadvantaged youths, with the greater purpose of bridging inequality in Hong Kong and beyond. That is my calling—if you are still unsure about yours, don’t settle but stay curious, and be open to expanding your worldview, because that may change how you define a meaningful life.
On a personal front, I also began on my MPA journey at the LKY School in 2020. My time at the LKY School gave me greater clarity on my work, especially in terms of my ability to analyse pressing social issues. For instance, the Policy Analysis module provided a structure for approaching solutions, from framing a policy problem to evaluating programme outcomes, which is highly applicable to the work I’m doing.
In the immediate future, I will continue to focus on narrowing opportunity gaps for disadvantaged youths, with the greater purpose of bridging inequality in Hong Kong and beyond. That is my calling—if you are still unsure about yours, don’t settle but stay curious, and be open to expanding your worldview, because that may change how you define a meaningful life.
Dan Cheung
Master in Public Administration (2021)
Dan Cheung is an award-winning social entrepreneur who is passionate about social innovation, technology, and youth education for a sustainable future.