Summer 2010 - Berkeley.
I was visiting Prof. Aihwa Ong's office at the University of California, Berkeley to ask a very stupid question about research topic while trying to convince myself about the idea to go back for a PhD degree. Four years of commitment is a long time and if it is not something worth of the effort then there is no point of continuing my study. At that moment, I started to hate myself of having too many diverging interests in different things instead of focusing in one thing. I was glad that Prof. Ong did not laugh at me and instead encouraged me to follow my passion.
Winter 2010 - Hong Kong
At the turning point of giving up to pursue a PhD - if I couldn't find any research topic that actually can combine both of my interests in architecture and education - I visited Prof. Nirmala Rao's office at the University of Hong Kong and expressed my frustration to her. She was very kind and brilliant that not only she understood this struggle, she even gave me a great inspirations to combine these two fields by enlighten me with an ECE model embraced by Reggio Emilia: "Environment as the Third Teacher". Having this initial conversation and idea of combining the two disciplines, I went forward to apply for a PhD study in HKU in year 2011 and started this study in year 2012.
Autumn 2012 - Bali
My visit to Green School, Bali brought another turning point of my research that is to add the element of "Sustainability" which turn out to create another layer to my research that makes it more exciting for me to do and add to the significant of this research. Simultaneously, I begin to learn that sustainability is at the fore-front of ECE research today and many international bodies such as UNESCO and OMEP are promoting ESD (Education for Sustainable Development).
Here I would like to present to you:
"Your Research is Where Your Heart Belongs" - do follow your passion & be excited about your research because if you do, your PhD life will never be long, boring, and lonely instead it will be an exciting opportunity to discover something new that hopefully can benefit society by the end of you finish it - I hope the new PhD students will enjoy their research as much as I truly enjoy mine.
I was visiting Prof. Aihwa Ong's office at the University of California, Berkeley to ask a very stupid question about research topic while trying to convince myself about the idea to go back for a PhD degree. Four years of commitment is a long time and if it is not something worth of the effort then there is no point of continuing my study. At that moment, I started to hate myself of having too many diverging interests in different things instead of focusing in one thing. I was glad that Prof. Ong did not laugh at me and instead encouraged me to follow my passion.
Winter 2010 - Hong Kong
At the turning point of giving up to pursue a PhD - if I couldn't find any research topic that actually can combine both of my interests in architecture and education - I visited Prof. Nirmala Rao's office at the University of Hong Kong and expressed my frustration to her. She was very kind and brilliant that not only she understood this struggle, she even gave me a great inspirations to combine these two fields by enlighten me with an ECE model embraced by Reggio Emilia: "Environment as the Third Teacher". Having this initial conversation and idea of combining the two disciplines, I went forward to apply for a PhD study in HKU in year 2011 and started this study in year 2012.
Autumn 2012 - Bali
My visit to Green School, Bali brought another turning point of my research that is to add the element of "Sustainability" which turn out to create another layer to my research that makes it more exciting for me to do and add to the significant of this research. Simultaneously, I begin to learn that sustainability is at the fore-front of ECE research today and many international bodies such as UNESCO and OMEP are promoting ESD (Education for Sustainable Development).
Here I would like to present to you:
"Your Research is Where Your Heart Belongs" - do follow your passion & be excited about your research because if you do, your PhD life will never be long, boring, and lonely instead it will be an exciting opportunity to discover something new that hopefully can benefit society by the end of you finish it - I hope the new PhD students will enjoy their research as much as I truly enjoy mine.
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