UHM in Taiwan

In the summer of 2023, I applied to and was selected for the UHM in Taiwan study abroad program. This program was a collaboration between the University of Hawaii at Manoa and National Tsing Hua University. Along with students from UHM, students from 5 other esteemed colleges attended as well. Within the program, we were fortunate to visit many cultural and historical sites while working on improving our language proficiency. More in-depth information and documents about the program can be found in the newsletters, detailing our first and second month, as well as the closing ceremony.

The 8-week program consisted of classes Monday through Friday, from 8 to 4 as well as 2 excursions per week. Among some of the excursions were trips to Sun Moon Lake; a site of importance for the indigenous Thao tribe, the National Palace Museum; home to over 700,000 preserved artifacts and artworks, and the TSMC Museum of Innovation; housing the story of one of the world’s largest semiconductor factories. The program was nothing short of rigorous. With 2 Chinese essays and a presentation a week, exams every week and a half, the schedule taught many of the students, including myself, to maximize material retained per amount of time spent and setting up an efficient work plan. Learning a language by itself is not an easy task, much less if it were to be taught in 2 months.

As a culmination of our studies and work, our final project broke us off into randomized groups with a select topic to research. My group and I analyzed the local environment and food culture and contrasted it with the norms of American society. With myself in charge of conducting interviews with locals and other international programs, we organized and drew conclusions from the data before presenting it for the directors of the program and colleges.