Gabbie Lui – An insight into the STC Wellbeing Centre
Recently, Gabbie Lui was offered an internship at the Wellbeing Center at Sha Tin College. Graduating from Sha Tin College in 2021, Gabbie is currently a student at the University of Birmingham, studying Psychology in Education. Having been a student at Sha Tin College for 7 years, Gabbie is very familiar with the well-being services offered by the school. Sha Tin College has always provided a “large emphasis on fostering a supportive and inclusive environment academically”, as said by Gabbie, however, she has only just begun a huge interest in mental health amidst the uprising of the pandemic.
At the peak of the pandemic, “[her] mental health was arguably at [her] lowest, [especially from] the combined stressors of IB, applying to university and thinking about [her] future”. This was when Gabbie began to make an effort towards improving her wellbeing, leading her to take up an interest in wellbeing and eventually, bringing her into the internship she has now.
Gabbie’s role in the Wellbeing Centre is to create “psycho-educational materials for the wellbeing center” to inform students of the available well-being resources. As an alumna, she understands the thought process of students and can present the materials she creates appealingly. Using the skills she learned from Sha Tin College, she created the new Wellbeing hub that can be accessed on SMART and made the infographics on Instagram with details on the Wellbeing Team and opportunities for students. Students who need support to improve their wellbeing or someone to share with concern can now easily access the Wellbeing Team’s contact information and a referral form on the website to book an appointment. This Wellbeing hub gives students easy access to make an appointment, as well as plenty of programmes and opportunities you can sign up for. With the addition of this site, you are now able to contact the wellbeing team more efficiently via the website!
From the flexible work schedule of the internship, Gabbie was able to ”take the initiative on a lot of tasks and come up with [her] own ideas along with the team.” Gabbie shares that she has developed many new abilities during her internship, and “these are all important skills that can help [her] navigate different work environments in the future”.
As an alumna, Gabbie was pleasantly surprised by all the changes in Sha Tin College since the last time she was here as a student. Due to the pandemic forcing her to stay at home in her last two years in STC, even the Senior School Centre (SSC) and Hall-Block (H-Block) concept appeared new to her despite it already having been added in her last year here. Although Gabbie hasn’t been able to explore the school as much as she would like to, she’s been quite stunned by the major shift in layout and new staff. However, aside from all the changes, she’s very happy to know that many things stayed the same as well – such as the climbing wall. Gabbie advises more students to join the rock climbing club, because “it’s a fun full-body sport that challenges you physically and mentally, with lots of room for progression during your first year or two climbing”. She also suggests getting out of your comfort zone and trying a variety of new activities as it is good preparation for university and the future.
From what Gabbie has learned in her years at STC and university, “being aware of and taking care of your wellbeing is an important thing while you’re a student here. The well-being team is here to help mitigate and work through some of those stresses, whether that’s through relaxing workshops or one-on-one counselling sessions; take advantage of that while you can!”.
Written by: Riya Paryani(Year 11) and Zihan Liu (Year 10)
Edited by: Hannah Wong (Year 12)
