This is the Community that We Built Together

By Vienne Lin
Dating back to October 2017 when I first joined CoP – ITL, I was thrilled to be a part of the team. Tracy told me that it was a half-event, half-research internationalisation project by design. It was about building a community of practice. Plus, the project was inter-disciplinary and cross-institutional. Wow, that meant I would have plenty of opportunities to meet people from different backgrounds! That sounded perfect to me.

But in practice, growing a community of practice is not always easy. On campus, there you see busy teachers and colleagues. We understand that we are not indefatigable. And so we are wired to prioritise things that matter to us. This reminds us that flexibility is key to our community building. Over the past three years, CoP – ITL is delighted to have received numerous positive feedback saying that you like us as a supportive, adaptive and knowledgeable host who strives to develop a living repository for the community good. We think the fact that so many of you were there at our events, be they workshops, Join-the-Conversation meetings, or symposia, is a vote of confidence for our concerted efforts.

This year, CoP – ITL is honoured to be selected as one the Team Award finalists for the Professional Services Award 2019 (PSA). PSA is an annual award programme at the University level to promote and reward excellence in professional services at the University of Hong Kong. PSA recognises colleagues and teams that have made a significant contribution to modernising professional services and delivering positive changes to the way we work.

This award belongs to everyone in this community! Without your active participation and valuable contribution, we cannot keep the community humming. In particular, we would like to extend our deep gratitude and appreciation to Prof. Grahame Bilbow, Dr. Susan Bridges, Dr. Stacey Cherny, Ms. Jessie Chow, Dr. Chui Chun Kit, Prof. Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Dr. Peter Lau, Ms. Alice Lee, Prof. Alice Wong for their continuous support and constructive advice. We would also like to thank our community members, Dr. Li Ling Hin and Dr. Janet Chan for their nomination. Last but not least, I am proud to be a part of the tribe. Thank you, Tracy, Lisa, Beatrice, Tiffany and Nicole for all your commitment and guidance. This is the community that we built together.