Li Po Chun United World College

The CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) program is one of the three core elements of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.[6] It requires a set number of hours in each of the 3 areas. Li Po Chun UWC's adaptation of this system is called the "Quan Cai" program ("全才" in Chinese, meaning "development of the whole person" ). The program has 4 components, namely community service, creativity, activity, and campus service. A student is required to officially participate in at least 2 Quan Cai per year. [7]

There is a great emphasis on community service at the College. They include a variety of projects ranging from helping asylum seekers, to visiting nursing homes and aiding the elderly, helping underprivileged children with schooling and the lending of facilities to services outside of Hong Kong, such as Initiative for Peace. The school also competes in most of the sports available as Quan Cais. This includes football, basketball, athletics, volleyball and badminton. The flexibility of the Quan Cai program allows students to start new activities (called an "initiative") at any time, and if successful, the school adopts the activity, making it official. Li Po Chun UWC offers more than 70 Quan Cai activities for students to participate in every year, including Playback Theatre, Coral Monitoring, Lion Dance etc.[8]

Within the academic timetable, which works on an 8-day cycle, the last block of day 8 is reserved for Global Issues Forum. The entire student body and members of the staff gather to listen to a presentation, given by fellow students, on a global issue, and then participates in an open discussion. Past topics include democracy and censorship, unsustainable fishing, the future of the EU, the impacts of migration and cultural immersion, sexism, the value of education etc. Not only is it a chance for community members (students and staff) to learn about events and issues worldwide from invaluable sources, but it is also a venue for the sharing of diverse political perspectives.

Cultural evenings are annual highlights for the Li Po Chun UWC community. The aim of cultural evenings is to promote international understanding and appreciation, as well as to celebrate diversity. There are five cultural evenings each year, starting with an International Cultural Evening prepared by second years for incoming first years as part of the orientation programme.

The Chinese Cultural Evening takes place every year, while the other evenings, namely the North American Cultural Evening (NACE), Caribbean and Latin American Cultural Evening (CLACE), Middle East, South and Central Asia Cultural Evening (MESCA), Asia-Pacific Evening of Culture (APEC), African Cultural Evening (ACE) and European Cultural Evening (ECE) take place once every two years. In these student-led cultural evenings, students from the same region come together to prepare a week of pre-cultural evening events that highlights their cultural characteristics and a dinner of regional cuisines before the final performance.[9]

Unlike other United World Colleges, first year students travel to Mainland China in their first term to engage in different community services.[10] Annual China week projects include: Teaching English to children of the Yao Tribe in China, visiting an elderly home and helping mentally and physically handicapped children in Guangdong province, working with lepers in Yunnan province and working with the Amity Foundation, China, and Habitat for Humanity. A popular trip involves hiking, cycling, kayaking and rock climbing in the Yangshuo area.

Annual project weeks last nine days in March and are for students to lead and work on projects in East, South, and Southeast Asia. Some recent projects have included: Helping rehabilitate a tsunami-struck school in Sri Lanka, performing plays for children in Bangkok, working with children at the Christina Noble Children's Foundation in Ho Chi Minh City and travelling to North Korea to learn about life and affairs in a country that much of the world knows little about, and working in several children's orphanages run by the Happy Tree Organisation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Some students also take on other challenging projects during this time such as travelling to Vietnam overland from Hong Kong and human rights evaluations in Philippines. Some students also stay in Hong Kong, where there are opportunities to do service locally.

The Café team organizes performance evenings that consist of the College community sharing dances, songs and poems with each other at the Principal's residence. It is an event that works to boost morale on campus and bring together the College for one night. The Café team also cooks a wide variety of baked goods that are sold throughout the show with the proceeds going to different charities. Café is considered one of the most popular activities on campus.

Li Po Chun UWC is a 100% boarding school with both students and all full time teachers residing on campus. Among the two classes, a total of 256 students share 4 residential blocks with their teachers. Each room comprises of 4 students representing 4 different nationalities; 2 second year students and 2 first year students. [11]

All teachers who live on campus play the role of tutors, mentoring around 10 students each. Tutor groups meet at least once a week and is an important support network for all students. Li Po Chun UWC is supported by 2 part time school counselors, 2 school nurses, and peer supporters who are second-year students who have been trained in mental health to support their peers. [12]