Photo：NCCU students with Director General Calvin Ho & Lin Yih, Interim Director of the Education Division at TECO in Chicago

Chicago hosted the 25th annual American Model United Nations (AMUN) International Collegiate Conference from November 22 to 25, 2014. Over 1,400 students and educators from around the world gathered to participate in a simulation of the United Nations proceedings.

A delegation of eight students from Taiwan’s National Chengchi University (NCCU), led by Associate Professor Chiang Chia-Hsiung and student Chang Yu-Chung, participated in this year’s AMUN conference. This marks the tenth time a NCCU delegation has done so. This year, the Taiwanese student delegation represented Panama. They participated in the General Assembly, Human Rights Committee, World Health Assembly, and Security Council sessions, as well as other conference activities.

Professor Chang was very pleased with their efforts, remarking that the students are improving every year. They conducted extensive research before the conference to accurately represent the policies and positions of the Panamanian government during the conference proceedings.

Calvin Ho, Director General of TECO-Chicago and Lin Yih, the Interim Director of the Education Division welcomed the delegation on November 26. They were joined by Ms. Hsu, the president of the NCCU Alumni Association’s Chicago chapter. Calvin Ho shared his own experiences in international organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the students. He urged them to nurture and strengthen the friendships that they forged during the AMUN experience. He also expressed his hopes that these enterprising students would continue their involvement in international events like AMUN so that one day they would be well-prepared to represent Taiwan on the global stage.

This was the first major overseas experience for most of the students, and they were pleased to find that their American peers were interested in learning more about the current social climate and the recent student protests in Taiwan.