Even though international mobility is restricted due to the global pandemic, the SYA Project initiates a new international collaboration titled “Internationalization-at-home” (IaH) Project. It gave Senior Year Admitted students to connect with overseas students through an instant mobile messaging application in their limited spare time to broaden their international exposure.

Four higher education institutions namely Humber College from Toronto in Canada, University of Turin in Italy and City University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University participated in while Each Participating city recruited 20 undergraduate students for this project.

In this virtual exchange lasting for a month, each student was randomly assigned a foreign partner. Participants in different groups exchanged their university lives, cultural differences and opinions on global issues. Some have even developed a sustainable friendship carrying the communication over the project period.

Both local and overseas students see themselves growing in various areas, as reported in the reflective journals and focus group interviews after the project period. They observed themselves that they expanded their worldview and appreciated the cultural diversity. Their improvements indicated that the ultimate goals of the IaH Project is achieved.