Written by Cici Shum and Priscilla Tsang
Organised by Danielle Au, Tony Chow, Cici Shum (Group Leader), Priscilla Tsang, Fiona Wong and Timothy Wong

After the activities in Phase 1 jointly organised by the older adults and the secondary school students in the project, we held a Graduation Ceremony for the older adults. The purpose of the ceremony is to bring them special memories — the older adults wearing graduation gown mark the perfect ending of the many activities.

Before the graduation ceremony, the older adults visited the HKBU Museum of Chinese Medicine. During the graduation ceremony, we first invited Prof. Adrian J. Bailey, the Dean of Social Sciences, to give an opening address. Then, the older adults performed and sang. Lastly, graduation certificates were awarded to the older adults and they took their graduation portrait with their gowns and caps.

The graduation ceremony was the last event of the project. In hope that the ceremony could be a perfect one, we spent a lot of time on the preparation. Graduation Ceremony was allotted with only limited time, but it involved a lot of procedures, we needed to complete all the processes within limited time. Fortunately, with support from teachers, university students and secondary school students, the ceremony was brought to successful completion.

When the graduation ceremony was brought to an end, older adults, in their graduation gowns, have expressed their feeling of excitement, because a lot of older adults said they had studied little, and had never imagined wearing graduation gowns and taking graduation portraits. In the end when the group photo was shot, the older adults hugged us and were unwilling to part from us.