Mr Thomas Kilian is the Associate Director of the Whole Person Education Office (WPEO). Growing up in Dresden, the capital city of the German state of Saxon, he developed a passion for football and volunteering, which he later brought to UIC.
Mr Thomas Kilian
By education, Thomas is a Diplom-Kaufmann, the German equivalent to Master of Business Administration, which he obtained from the Dresden University of Technology. After graduation, he was trying to find decent employment, but it wasn’t going to plan. He began to freelance as a financial consultant and worked various temporary jobs; taking a gap year seemed very attractive during this time.
Thomas looked for volunteer work and saw a chance to come to China. His curiosity for Asia began earlier when he travelled to Canada and made some Korean friends. Therefore, when the opportunity came to choose between volunteering in Africa, India and China, he was already tempted by China.
Thomas touched Chinese soil for the first time in 2004 in Yunnan province in a place called Yuxi. He began volunteering for an organisation where he would be involved in projects working with the minority community in the area. After completing six months of training, he dived more profound into the local culture by living in one of the villages located in the mountains. His role there was to monitor the village pre-schools. There was no transportation, so he would wake up early to walk to the other villages to meet with the teachers every morning. He would inspect the pre-schools, sit in the classes, and observe the teachers. Later on, he would be accompanied by other Chinese volunteers, offering training to the pre-school teachers as well as workshops on topics such as health and hygiene.
Father Ray drop-in centre for street children during UIC's Thailand volunteer summer programme (2008)
Thomas at Banteay Daek village school during the UIC Cambodia volunteer summer programme (2018)
During this time, Thomas met the Director of WPEO, Prof Haipeng Guo, who accompanied a batch of students during the UIC summer programme. After meeting each other, Thomas was invited to join UIC. “He put a lot of trust in us”, Thomas said when talking about Prof Guo.
According to Thomas, Whole Person Education (WPE) helps students to build up their character. “To push through some difficulties, build their confidence, and develop team spirit. To learn more about themselves, their potentials, strengths and weaknesses, and understand their surroundings, and learn to give back to the community, to become a more well-rounded person.”
High Table Dinner (2008)
For his first two years at UIC, Thomas’ main focus was setting up the WPE Voluntary Service module. He worked with a small team of staff to develop the Voluntary Service course and design the Voluntary Service summer programmes. “Our programmes are different from travelling as a tourist. Instead, we stay in one area for two weeks. We live in a local guesthouse, have close contact with our hosts, our partners and the children, and spend many hours with them every day.” As a result, students get an authentic experience, better understand the people they encounter, and better understand themselves.
Thomas with the staff of UIC's partner, SCADP, during the UIC Cambodia volunteer summer programme (2019)
Today Thomas’ prominent role is to look after the WPEO administration while still being involved in the Voluntary Service summer programmes. He has also done teaching at UIC and taught major core courses for DBM as well as German language and WPE courses.
Thomas started playing football at an early age and played for the youth and men’s teams at his hometown club VfB Dresden in Germany. He is an active member of the UIC staff football team and has represented the team in many UIC internal football tournaments and friendly matches.
Thomas playing in a UIC student-organised internal football tournament (2013)
Thomas preparing the UIC student football team before their match (2018)
During a reshuffle, the Coordinator of the WPEO Physical Education Centre, Prof Tony Shi, invited Thomas to take over the UIC student football team. Building on his wealth of knowledge and experience, Thomas began to train the students and has been the manager and coach of the UIC Football Team since 2015.
Thomas as part of the UIC staff football team (2019)
Thomas remembers he would see students filling the basketball courts, but the football pitches would be empty when he first came to China. However, times have changed. “Football is much more popular now. There are more football pitches and more people watching football on TV. Our new UIC football pitch has created a lot of excitement, and you can always see people playing football there.”
From MPRO
Reporter: Samuel Burgess
Editor: Deen He
