The Education Division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston, which represents the Ministry of Education, invited the visiting students and their teachers to celebrate the Lunar New Year on February 1. Cynthia Huang, the Director of the Education Division, told the students that there are many top universities in the New England region and she encouraged them to pursue further education in the United States. The Ministry of Education has established several different scholarship programs for students in Taiwan who are interested in studying abroad, and study and internship programs to assist students to develop a broader cross-culture perspective.

Each student was assigned to a different host family. They took classes with Pingree School students during the day, and stayed with their American host families in the evening and on weekends. They ate traditional American food, watched football games, went skiing in the winter snow, and visited historical sites around Boston.

Mr. Wu from Taichung Municipal Hui-Wen High School said that the students participating in the student exchange program not only learned about and experienced different studying practices and made progress with their English, but had also an opportunity to adapt to the local American culture.

The program has turned out to be very successful with the great support and assistance provided by Ms. Lu Sheng-Chu. Ms. Lu is a Mandarin teacher at Pingree School who has promoted Chinese language learning and Taiwan culture in Massachusetts for many years.