Hong Kong connection

KC Sin, Derrick Yip and Gigi Pang.
Alumni KC Sin, Gigi Pang and Derrick Yip were at U of T Scarborough together in the 1980s and belonged to the Chinese Students Association. They shared with UTSC Commons what inspired them to become who they are today.

Elaine Smith

Alumni KC Sin, Gigi Pang and Derrick Yip were at U of T Scarborough together in the 1980s and belonged to the Chinese Students Association. They now live in Hong Kong and still keep in touch. We asked them what inspired them to become who they are today.

INSPIRED BY SPORT: KC Sin

Sin is now a human resources executive with JPMorgan Chase. He says that sport inspired him to become the person he is; that he is motivated by learning and challenges; and that his family inspires him to continue doing what he loves, to be a role model for his children.

“I was very involved with the U of T Scarborough volleyball team and played every single sport on campus,” Sin says. “I developed friendships through sport that still continue now, even though we are scattered all over the world. The bond that pulled us together was the hard work of sports.

“The effort you put in on the court is something you take with you, and the competition is good because you need to be competitive to survive.”

UTSC gave Sin a chance to pursue his passion for sports, along with a degree in business and French. He sends a donation every year, in thanks.

“I was fortunate to benefit from a scholarship,” he says, “and I want to pay it forward.”

WORLD CITIZEN: Derrick Yip

After graduating from UTSC, Yip returned home to help run the family business, which currently provides real estate advisory services.  

“I had a pretty clear mission when I went to university,” he says. “Since fathers traditionally pass their businesses to their sons, my father wanted me to get an accounting degree. It gave me useful exposure to top-tier investment banks and firms.

“UTSC taught me to think critically, and that is very valuable in this era of increasing globalization and new challenges. University wasn’t just about textbook learning, but about handling problems.”

Yip looks to his father as a major source of inspiration. From him, he learned “how to be a good gentleman and how to do business.”

His father, he says, came to North America with no money and didn’t speak English. “But he learned and earned his way through university. I want to be a role model and want my son to understand his father and grandfather.”

A GENERATIONAL ROLE MODEL: Gigi Pang

Pang now serves on the board of many charities (her family helped found the Evergreen Education Foundation, which won the Gates Foundation’s Access to Learning Award in 2004). Pang is Chair of the charitable foundation of the Golden Bauhinia Women Entrepreneur Association, which raises university-scholarship funds for economically disadvantaged Hong Kong girls. She wants them to have the same opportunities that she had at UTSC.

“My family immigrated to Vancouver in 1986 and I attended high school there,” she says. “U of T was my only choice for university, because it is the best in Canada.”

Pang draws inspiration from her parents, who were among the first athletes to represent Hong Kong in the Olympics when it began to participate as a distinct entity. But she also credits UTSC with giving her the confidence to pursue her goals.

“U of T Scarborough has given me the platform and trained me to be a responsible world citizen.”

“Every bit of the Scarborough campus made me who I am: the natural sunlight that shone through the glass when we studied in S Wing; the smell of the woods; and the friends I made from different cultural backgrounds,” says Pang, who studied management and geography. “U of T Scarborough has given me the platform and trained me to be a responsible world citizen.”