As JennyBot would say, “over and out”
The last week of our joint university study abroad program was a whirlwind of group work, lectures and constructive criticism. While indeed stressful and time-consuming, the groups worked and re-worked the research projects for a successful finish to the course. This year the program did not have a transportation group, and rather had two separate groups for land use and housing. We were still fortunate to have transportation experts come talk to our class, which was really interesting to hear in the context of an extremely efficient public transit system.
In fact, both speakers told us that the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) has over 99% service performance (punctuality, reliability, etc), and that the MTR is the only mass public transportation system in the world that makes a profit because it is privately held rather than a governmental entity. We had all taken the MTR to get around the city, both as a class and in our individual time, so it was great to hear more about how the system functions as a part of the greater transportation system of Hong Kong.
The stress of the week all quickly came down to group presentations, which turned out pretty well considering the very short amount of preparation time. Our last group academic activity was to hold a poster session in City University’s main building, similar to ASU’s Memorial Union. We chatted with various professors and students that walked by, curious about our posters, and got some really interesting and beneficial feedback that forced us to look hard at the potential faults in our sustainability problem assessment and policy solution recommendation. We also had a few familiar visitors, such as CityU Provost Arthur Ellis, Associate Provost Linda Li and Robert Gibson who had given us an introductory lecture about Hong Kong and sustainability in the first days of the course.
Although we were all relieved that the hard work and crazy schedule was over, it was sad to part ways with our Hong Kong classmates. Many people exchanged gifts and cards, took lots of photos and some of us even made plans to meet again in the near future. This trip would not have been successful without the outstanding organization and leadership of Dr. Rob Melnick, Dr. SHI Han and Jennifer Carter. All three of our fearless leaders constantly kept us in line, gave us feedback on our work and encouraged us to keep pushing forward. Most importantly, they helped us to gain an irreplaceable sustainability education in a different culture, while having fun doing so.
