Hilary Chong Hiu Lam

The future won’t be shaped by technology alone, but by a community that excels in technological literacy without losing the crucial skills of foundational literacy that make us empathetic humans.

My own path towards this balance began with the external events I participated in, including the World Scholar’s Cup and Model United Nations, but it was in the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Life Sciences Course that I truly realised how science lives at the intersection of the foundational and technological. The course required me to read physical scientific investigation papers and write clear lab reports. At the same time, I had to use digital databases to research genes and interpret visualisations of cellular processes. Science is everything we do, and success wasn’t about choosing between physically writing in a notebook and reaching out for a laptop to surf the internet; it was about using both together to understand life at a deeper level.

I joined Inkoders because I want to help construct a community where people can grow into both foundational and technological literacy. In today’s world of AI, we cannot prevent technology from weaving itself into our lives, but we can choose how we engage with it. We simply cannot take away the reading and writing that shaped our childhoods – the storybooks we read before bedtime, the handwritten lesson notes and essays. Those foundational skills are not relics; they are the roots that keep us grounded as we reach for new tools to integrate them into our lives and strive for success. Inkoders empowers minds to explore the new technological era while preserving the literacy that made us who we are.