Director General Louis M. Huang with all the volunteers and distinguished guests at the English Camp & Book Donation Project Award Ceremony held on August 5, 2022

An English Camp & Book Donation Project Award Ceremony was held on August 5, 2022. It was organized by the Education Division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles (TECO-LA) to celebrate the vigorous development of education collaboration between Taiwan and the US.

Speaking at the ceremony, Louis M. Huang, Director General of TECO-LA, explained that Taiwan and the United States jointly launched the U.S.–Taiwan Education Initiative on December 2, 2020, as the foundation for comprehensive educational cooperation, with a particular emphasis on language learning and strengthening associated two-way educational exchanges. He continued, “This initiative has connected 17 universities in Taiwan to cooperate with 41 universities in the US on Mandarin Chinese language instruction, recruiting visiting lectures to teach Mandarin Chinese in the U.S. and offering life-change experiences for the students to study abroad in Taiwan.” He also mentioned that 35 Taiwan Centers for Mandarin Learning have been set up in the US to offer Mandarin Chinese learning opportunities to American students, and eight of these centers are located in the Greater Los Angeles area.

The English Camp program for K-12 Education, was launched online with the active support of Professor Shin Liu at Cerritos College after the pandemic started. Hundreds of volunteers have participated in the program, helping students in Taiwan to learn English and get a better understanding of American culture. The students in Taiwan have been benefiting greatly from the program, and the participating American volunteers have also benefitted by experiencing the joy of service and getting a better understanding of the significance of sharing.

The volunteers collected second-hand English books and donated them to Taiwan. This is a vital donation because reading is critical for learning, and more than 7,000 donated English books will be used to establish a bilingual library at Gong Jheng Elementary School in Yilan County (宜蘭縣公正國小). This will be the first bilingual library in eastern Taiwan, and the books will be rotated between the libraries of different schools in the county and be available for students and local residents to read. The county government will also set up a mobile library program to benefit remote schools in different counties in eastern Taiwan.

“We are honored to jointly host today’s ceremony with the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Global Federation of Chinese Business Women to express our gratitude and to recognize your valuable contribution. We are moved by your caring efforts and fruitful achievements. I look forward to witnessing the continuous growth and future endeavors that will support the two-way education cooperation and exchanges between Taiwan and the United States,” said Director General Huang.

Participants in the award ceremony included Rebecca Lan, Director of the Education Division at TECO-LA, Amy Wang, Director of the Press Division, representatives from the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Global Federation of Chinese Business Women included President Sabrina Lin, dozens of board members, and key members. Wei Zhou, Vice President of Cerritos College, and college board member Dr. Shin Liu, Mr. Ernie Nishii, and Ms. Sophia Tse, both school board members of the ABC Unified School District, who took turns to present certificates. The 120 attendees also included two alumni of Gong Jheng Elementary School and their spouses, and 34 volunteers and members of their families.