- Karndeep Singh has always wanted to serve his fellow students and realised his dream when he became president of the student council
- He and his teammates gave back to their school during Covid-19 and helped ‘act as a bridge between teachers and students’
Karndeep Singh won the Student of the Year award for Best Devotion to School. Photo: Edmond SoKarndeep Singh was excited in Form One when he saw his schoolmates running for the student council election.
Even though he was still a newcomer to his school at the time, he already had dreams of serving his fellow students.
“When I saw them promoting the election in the classroom, I got excited. I was like, ‘oh my God, this is so cool’. They can lead the whole school,” he said.
Karndeep, an 18-year-old who graduated from HKMA David Li Kwok Po College earlier this year, won the Best Devotion to School category of the Student of the Year (SOTY) Awards for the 2021-2022 academic year.
He finally got his chance in Form Four when his friend ran for a council seat and recruited him as a publicity officer.
They won the election, but the pandemic prevented them from organising any school activities.
With the suspension of classes, he felt guilty about not being able to do anything for his fellow students. Therefore, he decided to run for the student council himself in Form Five. “It was important to give back what I missed out the last term,” he said.
He and his teammates put up posters in classrooms and engaged with students on Instagram. Their efforts paid off, and they won the election.
But the school did not accept many of their proposals because of stringent Covid-19 restrictions that were still in place. So they took a different route – they live-streamed esports competitions on Zoom, organised online riddle games during Easter, and even held a talent competition, both online and face to face.
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They also used social media platforms to collect students’ opinions, hoping to act as a bridge between teachers and students.
Karndeep, who is studying economics and finance at the University of Hong Kong, is now the president of his former school’s alumni association.
“I studied at the school for six years. It is like a second home … They gave me opportunities, so why not give something back to them?” he said.
The SOTY awards is organised by the South China Morning Post and sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.