Annual alumni meeting & scholarship orientation

The Education Division of TECO in Chicago held an online meeting, combining its annual orientation session for recipients of the MOE Taiwan Scholarships and Huayu Enrichment Scholarships, and the tenth annual meeting of the Taiwan Alumni Association Chicago Chapter.

The orientation session is designed to help the scholarship recipients to prepare to travel to Taiwan, and then adjust smoothly to live there. The outgoing director of the Education Division, David Dong, and the new director, John Lin, both congratulated the students, promising to provide any assistance possible, in the US or Taiwan. 

This year’s scholarship recipients were selected from among outstanding students recommended by universities in the region: Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University at Bloomington, Yale University, and Princeton University.  

The recent COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Taiwan has aroused concerns among the scholarship recipients, who are trying to decide whether to go forward with their original study plans or give them up for some alternative. Wendy Chen, the scholarship program manager, provided them with a lot of details about many preparation procedures that have been developed, including a RT-PCR test three days prior to their departure, quarantine hotels, the online register for entry to Taiwan, and the many procedures after arrival at the airport. The information helped to ease their concerns.

David Dong told the participants that although Taiwan had recently closed its borders to all foreigners, he still remained optimistic about the current outbreak of a Covid-19 wave in Taiwan. He thinks that the situation will turn out well, because the government, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control, and city mayors have worked well identifying cases and the numbers of confirmed cases have dropped a long way since June 8. In addition, many foreign countries are supporting Taiwan by offering more vaccines. He thanked those countries, including the US, for their good will, and he expressed his hopes that the scholarship recipients will all be prepared and ready to go! 

The Taiwan alumni also reassured the scholarship recipients and answered questions they asked. Taiwan is waiting for them to explore but they should all get fully vaccinated before their departure.