To broaden students’ horizons and promote exchanges between youth in Hunan and Macao, the Student Affairs Office organized a delegation of 26 student leaders and 3 staff to visit Hunan in April. This is the first university student delegation to visit Hunan after the pandemic. The exchange activity not only enhanced the understanding and friendship between the students of the two places but also gave the students of UM a deeper understanding of Hunan and a lot of benefits.

During the exchange trip, the student leaders visited Hunan First Normal College, Yuelu College, Orange Island, Zoomlion, Yueyang Tower, Shaoshan, and Longping Rice Museum, covering a wide range of cultural attractions, high-tech enterprises, and media organizations. They also had a great discussion and exchange with the leaders of provincial Hong Kong and Macao Office and the board member of the Hunan University Students’ Association.

Wu Yibiao, Deputy Director and Inspector I of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of Hunan Province said that the relevant departments will continue to create favorable conditions for young university students from Hong Kong and Macao to study, practice, and develop in Hunan, to help them integrate into the overall development of the country and experience the effectiveness of Hunan’s high-quality development; at the same time, he also hoped that the students would be determined to pass on the spirit of patriotism and love for Macao and make new contributions to promote the cause of ‘one country, two systems’. 

During this national visit, the UM student leaders established a deep friendship with the Hunan University Students’ Association and Graduate Students’ Association. The UM student leaders introduced the leadership structure of the UMSU and exchanged views on organizing academic activities and developing student organizations during the visit. Through the discussion and exchange with the Hunan University Students’ Association, the UM student leaders also gained some useful experience in organization management, which will have a positive effect on the future development of the student organizations at UM.

The President of the General Assembly of the UMSU, Zhong Xiaoyu, said that this exchange activity is a very successful attempt not only to enhance the understanding and friendship between students of the two places but also to broaden the horizons of UM students. She said that she will continue to strive to promote exchanges and cooperation between students, to provide a broader development platform for students, and at the same time to promote positive thinking among young people, embrace patriotism and love for Macao, and integrate into national development. We will continue our efforts to promote exchanges and cooperation among students and provide them with a broader development platform.

With the support of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region and the Student Affairs Office of the University of Macau, a delegation of 26 student leaders of the University of Macau Students’ Union (UMSU) and the Standing Committee visited Shanghai from May 27th to 31st. This trip aims to further the vision of student leaders and promote exchanges between Shanghai and Macau.

The UMSU student leaders visited several sites, including the location of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the site of the Sihang Warehouse Battle, the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Shanghai Electric, Xiaohongshu, the Shanghai Center Building, the City God Temple, the Wukang Road historical and cultural district, and Tianzifang.

The UMSU student leaders held discussions and exchanges with student leaders from Fudan University’s student union and the graduates’ student union. Zhong Xiaoyu, as a representative of the student leaders, briefly introduced the leadership structure of the UMSU and exchanged views on organizing academic activities and developing student organizations. Through this exchange visit, the University of Macao and Fudan University student unions established a deep friendship.

Zhong Xiaoyu, the President of UMSU, expressed her appreciation of Shanghai’s outstanding economic and social achievements. While learning from the hard work and dedication of her predecessors, she also hoped to have the opportunity to intern and work in Shanghai.

In order to cultivate students’ sense of homeland and patriotism, members of the Student Leadership Training Programme (SLP) planned a knowledge-filled and entertaining booth activity with Macau’s great man, Kou Ho Neng, as the theme. The aim of this activity was to enhance students’ understanding of this modern Macau figure, and for them to learn from his spirit of perseverance, courage, love, and sharing, and apply it to their daily lives.

The Patriotic Sentiment Activity “Footprints of Eminence in Macao- Kou Ho Ning” was mainly divided into three parts. The first part, “Overcoming Difficulties” allowed students to learn about Kou Ho Neng through a Q&A game and win game props to exchange for prizes later on. The content of the game was progressively deeper, allowing students to gradually understand Kou Ho Neng’s life. The second part, “Sharing Love” involved scenario questions for students to answer, allowing them to experience Kou Ho Neng’s life and learn about the spirit of love. They also won game props to exchange for prizes. The third part, “Dang Dang Dang” allowed students to exchange the game props accumulated from the first two rounds for corresponding gifts.

During the games, students actively participated and said the booth game was designed both informative and entertaining. Through the Q&A part, they accumulated relevant background information about Kou Ho Neng, which they then applied in the second booth game. Finally, they redeemed the game props accumulated from each game for the prizes.

After the activity, students said they had a deeper understanding of Macau’s great man, Kou Ho Neng. They found the activity meaningful and engaging, and it drew them in. SLP members interviewed some of the participants, and Kuang stated that helping others as a generous and caring person was a meaningful thing to do; Sami said that he could understand Kou Ho Neng’s spirit of dedication, love, and greatness. Through the vivid and interesting booth games, the students came to know Kou Ho Neng and experienced his life, which helped deepen their respect for Macau’s great man and understand his value and importance to Macau society.

Once again, we thank the students for their active participation. We hope that they will share their experiences with their family and friends so that more people can understand the meaning of homeland and patriotism.

Student Leadership Training Programme was established in 2020 with the aim to nurture and develop students’ leadership qualities through different activities and training, enhance their self-confidence, communication and independent thinking skills. Programme members are required to organize theme-based activities by the end of the semester. For details about the programme, please browse https://go.um.edu.mo/pc7aglzv. 

In recent years, pressure encountered by university students has become a common phenomenon. Therefore, members of the Student Leadership Training Programme (SLP) organized an activity “Stress Fly Away! No more emotional breakdown in UM”. It aimed to bring out the message of mental health and provide the correct way to relieve stress, as well as promote the resources of mental health on and off-campus. 

The activities took place on April 13 and 20, 2023. It began with ice-breaking games in which participants get to know each other and expressed their opinions about stress, and also shared their own experiences. Then, participants watched three videos presenting the stressful scenario of university students. The host led the participants to think about the stress caused by each scenario, and discuss some healthy, feasible and safe ways to relieve stress. Afterwards, participants used some cards to share the difficulties and pressures they encounter in their daily lives, and discussed with others to come up a solution caused by these difficulties. At the end of the event, in response to the name of the event “Stress Fly Away!”, participants wrote down their stress and unhappiness and folded the paper into an airplane and fly it away, refer to the meaning of throwing troubles and stress out.

After the event, most participants said that they could learn some ways to reduce their stress and acknowledged some supporting resources related to mental health in this event. Some participants also said that the games were interesting, and the overall atmosphere made people feel relaxed and happy, cheering them up and relieving their own stress. We thank them for their participation. We hoped that the participants could actively apply the knowledge they learned in this activity, so they could relieve their own pressure in the correct way and help people around them who have mental health needs.

Student Leadership Training Programme was established in 2020 with the aim to nurture and develop students’ leadership qualities through different activities and training, enhance their self-confidence, communication and independent thinking skills. Programme members are required to organize theme-based activities by the end of semester. For details about the programme, please browse https://go.um.edu.mo/pc7aglzv