Feature Stories

The desire to make a positive impact on society comes instinctively to the youth, the rising next generation of society. Edmond Lai (Year 2 BBA Information Systems), shared the opportunities he found at HKUST Business School to make lasting impacts on the local community, and how his very first internship shapes his present academic and career development plan.

A Tale of Two Worlds - Social Impact Alongside Business 

Edmond, an awardee of the Public Service Internship Scholarships, has a long history with social services. In secondary school, the seeds for creating social impact were planted in a leadership program to launch a social innovation project. However, his passion for social impact took off in his first year at HKUST after joining 180 Degrees Consulting (HKUST Branch) – a student-led consultancy to create social impact with NGOs and social enterprises. As a Consultant and Project Manager, Edmond worked with 3 NGOs to create impactful initiatives, gaining foundational skills in project management, giving professional presentations, and consulting insights. This experience further sparked his passion for bringing together the profit-driven business world and the non-profit social services world to make lasting contributions to society. 

First Steps into the Business World – Internship at Storius

With the passion and motivation from his time at 180 Degree Consulting, Edmond found the perfect program to secure his first internship - The Social Enterprise Internship Program offered by the HKUST Business School. While the Program helps first-year business students secure early internship experience, Edmond had more he wanted to achieve.

Edmond Lai. Awardee of Public Services Internship Scholarships "I undertook the social services (enterprise) internship program because I wanted to take up a role to create the kind of social impact that could only be realized with the power of an organization."

In the summer of his first year at HKUST, Edmond started a 3-month journey as a Business Development Intern at Storius Limited, a start-up that enables people to explore the world via audio with a mobile app. Gaining complimentary skills to his technical background as an information systems student, his role entailed strategic partnership management and pitching the start-up’s business model and value proposition to raise funds. 

He shared a highlight in which he applied his business knowledge and on-the-job insights. “Once, we had to prepare a pitch to an investor on short notice, literally a day before the appointment, which meant we had less than 24 hours to revamp the entire presentation deck. Alongside a fellow intern, we revised the entire business model to create a convincing framework of the value we can deliver and created the presentation decks from scratch. We worked until 9 PM that day to thoroughly validate our work before submitting it to the CEO for the final check. In the end, the investor bought into our ideas and established an ongoing partnership with us.”

Edmond’s and the team’s hard work paid off. Their pitch helped Storius secure a place in the Cyberport Incubation Program. “It was a tremendously fulfilling accomplishment because it was my first time scouting for funding and my first time successfully securing one. This (the success) built my confidence to work in the professional work context and future development.” 

Internship and Study – A Two-way street

At Storius, Edmond did not only get the chance to experience being a part of a real-life business in operation, but also had the opportunity to learn from his peers and the CEO. “I had to learn project management methodologies and immediately apply them in my role. This helped me learn everything quickly. The CEO is an expert in design thinking, so he taught me as I worked on the funding pitches. I then applied these skills in revamping the business model for the investor pitch to show how we bring value to customers while making a social impact.”

Aside from equipping Edmond for the workplace, the skills learned at Storius carried over to managing his academic life. “I wanted to improve my learning style and retain information longer but initially lacked the methodologies to do so. After this first internship, I adopted a clear and logical thinking style. I systematically optimized my learning through the combination of methodology and time management skills.” 

Meeting with the Belgium-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce

Meeting with the Malaysian Tourism Board

Knock-on From The First Internship

Edmond’s time at Storius under the Social Enterprise Internship Program paved the way with more skills to grasp future opportunities. “My first internship showed me the intensity of the professional work environment, where we truly had more responsibility to achieve the tasks set out for our roles. I was initially a bit skeptical about my ability, but through review sessions with the CEO to discuss my learnings and aspirations, I regained my confidence to achieve together with the team.” 

After his time at Storius, Edmond completed two more internships in IT Security and Data Analytics. From this first impactful internship experience, Edmond has begun to pave his desired career development in project management, which he enjoys for its technical and people-facing components, and ultimately plans to enter the consulting industry. For now, he’ll start his fourth internship at financial services firm doing digital transformation in July. 

His advice to students seeking to achieve high while taking on internships is time management and advanced planning. “Carefully evaluate the opportunity before pursuing it, communicate with your prospective employers about your time in the office and academic schedules, and know your limits well to optimize your time and energies.”

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