The Hāwera High School 100 year centennial is taking place on Labour Weekend this October.
The Hāwera High School 100 year centennial is taking place on Labour Weekend this October.
Hāwera High School is holding its centennial on Labour Weekend in October this year. Below are profiles of two previous Hāwera High School students, James Fung and John Harris.
James Fung- Consultant and Honorary Associate Professor at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong
James Fung.
Best subjects at High School? Maths and sciences
Achievements since High School I am currently a consultant and Honorary Associate Professor at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong,specialising in gastroenterology, hepatology and liver transplantation.
After leaving Hāwera High School I studied medicine at the University of Auckland, and graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. I was awarded the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology Research Scholarship in 2005.
In 2011, I attained the Doctor of Medicine degree studying the use of transient elastography in liver diseases. I was awarded the Young Investigator awards for the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (2010) and International Liver Transplant Society (2012 and 2014), and the Distinguished Young Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (2013).
As a clinical researcher, I have written over 180 scientific papers and several book chapters. I regularly speak at international conferences, and am actively involved in teaching and examining medical students. Currently, I am the Honorary Secretary for the Hong Kong Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, and the only transplant hepatologist in Hong Kong looking after all liver transplant patients in a city of 7 million people.
Best subjects at High School English. I got by in all the others because I could write well.
Achievements since High School
That's a lot of years in a few words.
I skipped seventh form to go to uni, secured a lacklustre arts degree, worked in a cheese factory, bummed around the world, cooked in an Israeli kibbutz for six months, did a hitch-hiking tour of Spain and Portugal, avoided arrest in Morocco, failed a hitchhiking test by getting run over on a London freeway, healed back in New Zealand, became a journalist, made my dad proud by working for NZ Truth, moved to Adelaide and have spent the past 34 years explaining to the world in simple language what computer geeks are up to.
Along the way, I've managed to keep my children happy and make my (ex) wife unhappy, so I think that counts as a draw.
What are you most proud of? On that London freeway, I survived and the car was a write-off.
