TECO-Chicago 2014 Joint Conference of Taiwanese Student Associations
Calvin Ho, the new Director General, took the opportunity to present Rose Chen, with a plaque honoring her four years of service in Chicago as the Director of the Education Division. Helping look after these more than 5,000 students far from home counted among her many tasks. The plaque read Heroic Woman, Profound Gratitude: 巾幗英雄,情珍意厚. Rose had just completed her posting in Chicago and was set to depart for Taiwan the very next day.
Two guest speakers were invited to address this year’s participants. Chicago attorney Kyle Lo shared his legal expertise with the students, explaining updates to US immigration law which might directly affect them. Jia Osiel, a globalization strategy manager at McDonald's Corporation, then gave a talk titled “A Blueprint for your Professional Life.”
A sad note at this otherwise happy event was a report from Lee Tsung-Hsin, president of the Ohio State University Taiwanese Student Association. In late august, a Taiwanese Ph.D. student there had gone to the hospital emergency clinic because of stomach pain. Doctors found that he had a liver tumor, and soon after, he fell into a coma and was put on life support. His parents and girlfriend hurried to his side, with the help and support of the Education Division, and decided that it was best to take him off life support. He had been in the hospital less than a week, a tragic passing of a dedicated young scholar, far from home, deeply loved by family and friends.
Calvin Ho expressed everyone’s sympathy and care. He asked everyone to always pay attention to taking care of their health and personal safety during their time studying abroad in the United States, and to cooperate and care for and help each other, and other students from Taiwan in America. He urged these office-bearers to provide social activities for such students, and to encourage them to participate in social clubs. He also asked everyone to always consider TECO-Chicago and the Education Division like a home away from home for them, and assured everyone that if they had difficulties, TECO-Chicago and the Education Division would always be ready to try and assist them.