The Graduates

Hong Kong

JADEN YUEN

Age: 17

School: Harrow International School Hong Kong

Looking through my graduation yearbook, the class photos taken over Zoom are only one of the many reminders of the bizarre year thus far, but most of all they are a reminder that I will be graduating into a world that has changed in ways previously unimaginable.

As the world clamps into lockdown to combat Covid-19, nations have closed their borders one after the other, in turn raising concerns about the future of globalisation and perhaps signalling a general shift towards increasingly individualistic lifestyles.

“In the end, it is up to us to decide how to make the most out of our situation, and to demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity”

Despite this, with the nature of Covid-19 as a global crisis, the communal solidarity it calls into action has presented an opportunity for improvement by bringing attention to some of our most neglected issues. For instance, as more and more schools and workplaces migrate to online platforms, I have really come to realise the potential of digitisation and the online world; whether it be implementing online healthcare systems, accessible ‘home learning’, or even applying artificial intelligence in transportation, research, manufacturing … the potential of digitisation is