Prospective service leaders enhancement project

In this chapter, we elucidate the experiences of service leadership development at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). Adopting the vision and missions of the Fung Service Leadership Initiative, EdUHK launched the “Achiever” project in September 2012. The project aimed to develop service leadership qualities in students. In September 2015, this “Achiever” project was completed, but the learning achievements generated from it will sustain. “Achiever” was developed in a co-curricular context and its development was based on three core beliefs of service leadership as well as a road map which comprised a three-phase training framework and a five-level student leadership development model. In the three-year duration of project development, over1,000 students from different disciplines accumulated 73,698 learning hours in 13 designated co-curricular activities. Over 90% of the participating students reported that through “Achiever”, they enhanced their self-understanding, goal-setting skills and their abilities to appreciate others. Meanwhile, over 70% of students believed that caring and compassion were essential personal qualities of a service leader. We believe that the recognition of such qualities by our young generation will be beneficial to societal development as this shows their compassion to serve. The project aimed to be student-oriented by nature. EdUHK built a peer learning environment and an active sharing platform so that students could share their thoughts and experiences openly and freely. The development of supportive learning environment encouraged students to actively apply newly-acquired service leadership knowledge and skills to community development when they engaged in community service projects. Copyright © 2017 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.