8th NTU-PKU Community Outreach Program Goes to Hsinchu County

A National Taiwan University, Peking University, and Yunnan University Community Service Team took their outreach services to Hsinchu County’s Tunan Elementary School (秀巒國小) on Jan. 21 for the 8th NTU-PKU Community Outreach Project activity. The team went on a mission that served to send stationery and other essential supplies to the indigenous students of the remote mountainous area. NTU and PKU signed a memorandum of understanding in 2011 upon which official collaboration was established. The two schools then set up the Community Outreach Project to facilitate exchange while giving the students an opportunity to give back to society. The project was exemplary of a new milestone for student services in the two countries.

The 8th NTU-PKU Community Outreach Project activity was facilitated through the joint efforts of NTU, PKU, and the Hsinchu County Government. This includes NTU’s Executive Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ching-Ray Chang (張慶瑞), Vice President for Student Affairs Tsung-Fu Chen (陳聰富), Section Director of Student Activity Division Hsiu-Ling Wu (吳秀玲), as well as PKU’s University Council Deputy Chair Jing-Yi Ye (葉靜漪) and Office of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Affairs staff member Pei-Hong Xie (謝佩宏).

The event also featured a four-day winter camp filled with fun and informative classes for the students of Tunan Elementary School. The camp, which included lessons of science, medicine, culture, and personal development, aimed at opening the window to the vast variety of knowledge around the world while proving the young children with memorable experiences. The event also promoted interaction between the participants from the three schools across the Taiwan Strait in which through personal involvement, enabled the students to learn and reflect on their different cultural backgrounds.

The Community Service Team also engages in community programs focused on ecological preservation. In the past, the team’s work has taken them to such places as New Taipei City’s Jinshan mountain trails, the Keelung Badouzih Fishery Harbor, and the Yilan Wuweigang Waterbird Sanctuary. Whether it is rebuilding the trails or cleaning up the harbors, the students’ hands-on contributions to the environment hopes to attract more people to give back to the island that we call home.