Caritai Events
The Caritai Model
The Caritai Model
Caritai provides three types of resources – economic, cultural, and social – for first-generation college students who are self-motivated and service-minded.
These resources are critical in determining whether a student can afford their living expenses, engage in social activities with their peers, and find meaningful mentoring opportunities. First-generation students unfamiliar with urban collegiate culture often lack one or more of these resources. We recognize that the accumulation of economic, cultural, and social capital requires time and intentional effort to foster. Supplementing these resources is therefore instrumental to help students adapt to collegiate culture, fulfill their potential, and contribute to society. Caritai has designed a program which nurtures students by systematically providing these three sources.
Caritai Talk
We invite exceptional individuals from all walks of life to share their thoughts and experiences in our Caritai Talks. These online workshops aim to help students broaden their horizons and deepen their thoughts on topics relevant to today's society. We empower our students to interview the speakers, create marketing materials to advertise upcoming talks, and summarize the key points of speakers' talks as learning resources for future students. Our speakers' talks are recorded and made publicly available at the speaker's request. Since our first Caritai Talk in December 2016, we have invited speakers from a wide spectrum of industries, including education, finance, linguistics, media, telecommunications, architecture, law, data science, entrepreneurship, consulting, and many more. Our speakers have joined us from all over the world.
Caritai Home
At Caritai, we have created an organizational framework for our students to manage and develop, with leadership roles designed for our students to flourish in. We provide individualized coaching to help our students design and execute projects, cultivate their communication skills, develop junior members, and realize their leadership potential. We strive to foster self-reflection and a growth mindset in each and every one of our students.
Caritai Drift Bottle
We strive to provide venues for students to engage their academic and professional communities. At the beginning of each academic year, with Caritai's Drift Bottle, students can submit questions anonymously to members of the Caritai community, who in turn share their own experiences and views on these questions via our online forum. Students have praised this outlet as a way to see the world from multiple perspectives.
Caritai Local Activities
We host a variety of activities to help students develop sincere and meaningful relationships, participate in community events, and discuss topics of mutual interest. Signature events include monthly gatherings where students strengthen relationships by sharing life experiences and reflections, an end-of-year party where students celebrate the birthdays of all members symbolically, and a summer celebration party to honor and congratulate Caritai graduates.
Caritai Read
Each year, we purchase three thought-provoking books for every student based on their expressed needs and personal interests. We encourage students to discuss their takeaways and reflections at meetings held throughout the year.
"Caritai Go" Civic Engagement Projects
As a part of Caritai Go, students team up based on their areas of interest to investigate issues that are relevant to society. Each student-led team develops a project idea, designs a research agenda, and executes their research objective. Through their Caritai Go projects, students nurture their critical thinking skills, develop their resource and project management abilities, and gain hands-on team leadership experience.
Caritai Talks and News
To date, we have held 74 Caritai Talks, and our students and alumni have benefited from the stories and insights generously shared by speakers from a variety of fields. Caritai students have conducted and presented projects on topics that contribute to societal development, such as AI's impact on the landscape of human-based translation, the status and effectiveness of the rising garbage classification movement in China, the conception and utility of the new integrative Student Center at HUST, and reflections on one-on-one interviews with professors emeritus from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
Here is a small selection of past Caritai Talks:
Ying Zeng — Product Manager, Shopline (Shenzhen, China)
Tianyue Zhang — Master student, University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China)
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