Taiwan Delegation Visits Colorado to Promote Educational Exchanges at NAFSA 2022 & Launch New US–Taiwan Education Partnerships
Dr. Mon-Chi Lio, Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Lee Yen-Yi , Director General of the Ministry of Education’s Department of International and Cross-strait Education, Prof. Su Huey-Jen, Chairperson of FICHET (the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan), senior officials from fifteen universities in Taiwan, and personnel from Fulbright Taiwan, travelled to Colorado to attend NAFSA 2022 to enhance international academic cooperation and promote Taiwan’s higher education. NAFSA 2022 Annual Conference & Expo of NAFSA: Association of International Educators is being held in Denver from May 31 to June 3.
The Taiwanese delegation enjoyed a warm welcome at a luncheon on May 31, organized by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Denver and hosted by Ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s Representative in the United States. Representative Hsiao and Ingrid Larson, the Managing Director of the Washington Office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) signed the Memorandum of Understanding on International Education Cooperation that launched the U.S.–Taiwan Education Initiative on December 2, 2020.
The dignitaries attending the luncheon included Camille Dawson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Colorado state senator Larry Liston, state representative Matt Soper and his wife Sara.
Deputy Minister Lio explained that the U.S.–Taiwan Education Initiative has launched a new era in comprehensive educational cooperation between Taiwan and the United States with a focus on language education. The focus is on strengthening and expanding Mandarin Chinese and English language programs and increasing exchanges between educational organizations in Taiwan and the US.
This initiative strongly enhances the current language education cooperation and exchanges between Taiwan and the US. More Taiwan-educated language teachers will teach Mandarin Chinese in US schools and universities, and US students will have more opportunities to study Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, and at the same time help teach English and interact with students in Taiwan’s elementary and secondary schools. Such two-way exchanges will deepen the friendship between Taiwan and the US.
As Representative Hsiao said at the signing ceremony for the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, there’s “no better way to strengthen the foundations of this relationship than by encouraging new exchanges and friendships among our students.”
