Annual Graduation Ceremony 2012
The school’s Annual Graduation Ceremony for Forms 6, 7 and A2 students was held on 16th June this year. The Right Rev. Andrew Au-ming Chan, Bishop of the Diocese of Western Kowloon, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and the Honourable Mrs. Regina Ip, GBS JP, Legislative Council Member, HKSAR were the Guests-of-Honour. Mr. Doug Oxley, Dr. Alice Yuk, JP, respectively the Chairman and Supervisor of the School Management Committee; Mr. Evans Mendonca, Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association of the school; Mr. Dion Chen, Acting Principal, and SMC members Mrs. Sheila Chuang, Mr. Ben Lam, Mr. Alex Kwan and Dr. Brian Brumsickle were the platform party.
Mr. Doug Oxley first welcomed all parents, guests and friends to the Ceremony. He impressed upon the graduates the importance of soft skills and urged them to learn and acquire the skills for their careers later in life. Our Acting Principal, Mr. Dion Chen, shared the story of one of our students who started her school life in our school in Form 1, growing to learn the lessons of respect, setting targets and doing her best.
Mr. Chen explained to the graduates the essence of respect, which, to put it simply, is to respect oneself and one another. If a person respects himself, he will accept and even enjoy in what and who the person is, despite of his personal weaknesses, big or small. He will not harm himself, that is, he will not indulge in bad habits, will not be dishonest, and will not get in evil’s way. If he respects himself, he will take good care of himself: he will improve himself, in his health, in his outlook and in his relations with others, and he will have integrity. And when a person respects another person, he will treat the person in these ways as well.
He further stressed the importance of setting oneself targets, and to have the will and determination to do one’s best to get to the targets. The girl he mentioned illustrated wonderfully the importance of one’s will and determination in the process.
The Hon. Mrs. Regina Ip, GBS, JP, spoke and presented certificates and awards to graduates. In her speech, she praised highly of the diverse culture, background, languages and the curriculum of the school. She spoke of the school’s CARES principles, especially regarding Creativity and Critical Thinking. She explained the mis-conceptions of many of us may have on the subject. Instead of looking at Critical Thinking as trying to be “critical” as in “attacking” other people’s points of view and ways of doing things, Critical Thinking should be an approach to think clearly and rationally, and present the thoughts and actions in a similarly clear and rational manner. And for Creativity, it means a belief and thinking of always able to create new things, new possibilities. This is what is needed for the always changing world that we, especially, the graduates are and will be faced with.
Students also celebrated this jubilant event with music performances, including string performance, praise band performance, choir, orchestra ensemble, piano solo and a team of students playing the African drums.
Besides the graduates and teachers, the Ceremony was well-attended by more than 400 parents and friends.
For more photos, please check out at
http://www.ymcacc.edu.hk/en/gallery/school_album/index.php
