fulbright Taiwan online journal

Month: February 2023

Taiwan Adventures: Reflections from a Second-Generation Fulbright Scholar

From September 1963 until August 1964, my father was part of a team of scholars from Stanford University who came to Taiwan to help establish the National Taiwan University International Chinese Language Program (ICLP). My two sisters, my mother (Barbara) and I joined him that year in Taipei.  My oldest sister (Margaret), was 4 years old, I was three years old, and my youngest sister (Susie) was only one.  I have a few memories of that year and a stack of letters that my father wrote to my grandmother.  While my father was primarily funded by Stanford University during his time in Taiwan, he applied for and received a travel grant from the Taiwan Fulbright Foundation. As I complete my six-month appointment as a Fulbright scholar at National Tsing Hua University, I take this journaling opportunity to weave together a few of my thoughts and with quotes from letters written in 1963 and 1964. Traveling from San Francisco to Taipei with three young children was difficult.  As my father reported: We got to Taipei in really bad shape; the kids fell asleep (all three of  them) about 10 minutes before the CAT [China Air] flight landed. The change of weather

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Reflections On My Time in Taiwan: Cultivating Gratitude

The pursuit of self knowledge is important to me, but it has some fierce competition from the more pressing needs like eating, exercising, and showering regularly. It’s one of those things which is always on my list of priorities, but rarely tops it. Introspection can help identify the little lies we tell ourselves and the unrepresentative experiences that tinge our memory, but it is hard. I do try to “see the forest beyond the trees”, but the trees usually get in the way. In writing this reflection, I want to share the bigger picture of my time in Taiwan. Specifically, I want to share the ways that life here has helped me to cultivate gratitude. My Journey To Taiwan When people ask why I am studying in Taiwan, I often explain that in 2019 I was inspired by an economics professor while studying abroad in Switzerland. When I realized that I would need additional qualifications in order to participate in the type of applied research which made me passionate, it was only natural to seek out a masters program overseas where I could also indulge my wanderlust. Taiwan, the program, and the funding were all aligned to my goals. When

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Irreplaceable Experience for Being a Debate Coach in Taiwan

Debate provides a unique educational opportunity that emboldens students to  speak up for themselves and others. In 2018, the Executive Yuan set the goal for the  island to be bilingual by 2030. The desire to create a populace that can fluently  communicate in English and Mandarin is quite ambitious. To aid the island reach this  goal, a Fulbright grant was created to bring debate coaches from the United States to  Taiwan to train high school teachers and students how to compete in US style debate.  This grant is the first of its kind and I am very honored to be involved.   As a debate coach and lecturer, I have introduced thousands of students and  many adults to the benefits of debate. I believe that the skills it teaches are useful  for all individuals at all stages of life. I was extremely excited when I learned that I  would be working with students and teachers all over the island of Taiwan and not   just one class. In a semester at my university I work with 26 students at a time, so  getting to work with almost 100 students I knew that I was going to be in for a unique  challenge.

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疫情下的美國行,足致豐裕

訪問機構及該機構特色: 本研究訪問單位為位於美國北卡羅萊納州溫斯頓-塞勒姆(Winston-Salem)的威克森林大學醫學院(Wake Forest School of Medicine)癌症生物學研究所林慧觀教授(Prof. Hui-Kuan Lin)研究室,進行一年期的短期研究。威克森林大學是一所

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Revisit and Create New Memories: Bring Complementary Alternative Therapies to Minnesota

The Beginning I am honored and grateful to be awarded the Fulbright Program Scholarship. Through the Fulbright Senior Research Grants, I got a chance to return to the University of Minnesota after more than 20 years of Ph.D. I feel inspired and moved by my alma mater again. Looking back over the past 20 years, after graduating with my doctorate, I returned to Taiwan to teach right away and immediately took over as the head of the department. Next, I continued to hold various administrative positions without interruption. At the same time, I had to take into account teaching, research, and service. I felt like a spinning top. Suspended, life is busy and full, but these years of consumption have made my heart extremely eager to absorb new nutrients. Although I have had the opportunity to come back here over the years, I just came and went in a hurry and did not stop there. Finally, I was able to apply for a sabbatical leave last year. I was very fortunate to receive the Fulbright Senior Scholars Grant (August 2022-October 2022), which allowed me to return to the campus to concentrate on research exchange and explore many cultural landscapes that

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fulbright taiwan online journal