HONG Ming

Student of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Exchange to Monash University, Australia

Before getting this Award, I had never imagined that I could actually do so many incredible things and travel to so many fascinating places—in merely six months. It was like getting my bucket list checked one item after another, with absolute excitement filled in between.

As a PhD student awarded the Research Fellowship, I visited Monash University in Melbourne, where I had the fortune to work with a close collaborator of my home university supervisor. I was able to continue my PhD work at Monash, meet different people from all backgrounds, walk into interesting seminars, talk to professors and experts of various disciplines, and get new perspectives on my research.

It may have sounded like an academic exchange, but it means way more than that to me.

For example, before I left for Australia, I accidentally found this general aviation airport just a stone’s throw away from Monash (at least it was, on Google maps). Being a mechanical engineering major, I have always wanted to fly but really hadn’t the opportunity. So on the first weekend after arriving in Melbourne, I went to the flight school there and officially became a student pilot. My instructor Daniel was an exceptional pilot, who asked me to take over the control when we were 3,000 ft. above the ground in my very first lesson. It was a sundrenched afternoon of Melbourne, up in the air I was literally holding my breath partially because of the amazing view of Port Phillip Bay with the city skyline looming in the distance, and mostly due to my overwhelmed nervous system. Yet, it was one of the best moments I have ever had in my life, though at one point I almost “killed” my pilot in command (in his words) during an unintended hard landing. In the following months, I went for training a dozen times, thanks to the generous financial support from my Award, and learned everything from flight mechanics and meteorology to how to talk to air traffic control.

There are a lot of unforgettable memories and moments like this from my exchange experience, and I truly appreciate the opportunity given to me. Australia is such a beautiful country with an incredible cultural spectrum that a single trip could never suffice. I could have continued to write about the brilliant street performers on Bourke Street in Melbourne, the shoals of pink jellyfish I dived with at the Great Barrier Reefs, the young and vigorous surfers off the long beaches of Surfers Paradise, or the sheer tranquility of the vast pasture land speckled by sheep and adorned by the distant blue sky of northern Victoria. But I would rather stop here, and leave the excitement for you to uncover, preferably with your own Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards.

© Copyright 2018 CK Group. All rights reserved.