Ryan greatly appreciated his time at HKUST, and in his third year decided to do something to give back to his university. He and several classmates came up with Y-Talk, a platform for student speakers to share their university experiences with their peers in order to help fellow students make the most of their campus life.
In just three years, Y-Talk has evolved from a campus-based student project into an established social business that serves not only HKUST students but also the public, secondary and primary schools, universities and the professional industry of Hong Kong. One of their current key programs is the STREAM program which is a combination of the STEM and OLE Education targeting at the local secondary school students. This program has also involved a three-tier mentoring, where university students would mentor secondary school students, who would then in turn mentor elementary school students. As for the original project that started at HKUST, it was rebranded as Campus Y-Talk and expanded to encompass students, staff and faculty from universities across Hong Kong. Y-Talk also offers programs for the wider community as well as professional industries.
Ryan has always been passionate about startups and contributing to the community. Outside of his work with Y-Talk and his own full-time engineering job at an Australian firm, he is involved in Litre of Light Hong Kong, which aims to bring environmentally-friendly solar bottle light bulbs to communities with no access to electricity. As one of nine protégés from the 2014 Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) President's Protégé Scheme, Ryan also contributes to the industry by helping to nurture the next generation of engineers in Hong Kong. More recently, he was selected as one of 150 young entrepreneurs to join the Hive Global Leadership Program at Harvard University. He was also awarded the Tshung Tsin Spirit Award 2016 in Malaysia in recognition to his achievement, passion and contribution as a Malaysian.
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