Six student teams with proposals from National Chung Cheng University were recognized for their vocational actions to embrace local communities in Chiayi
Jul 23, 2022
Being the members of local community who reside in Chiayi, students of National Chung Cheng University (CCU) do not just focus on enriching their knowledge on campus, they also take practical actions outside the campus to demonstrate their concerns for the local community. In a recent event, six CCU student teams with project proposals were awarded a total of NT$840,000 from the Chiayi Youth Soul Lab: Local Community Vocational Actions Learning Program by the Chiayi City Government, that says a lot for these outreach services. This year, the CCU teams proposed a series of promotional activities on the aspects of intergenerational care, local cultural features, Fintech education, new immigrant issues, etc. Also, in order to praise these student teams for their outstanding achievement, before the end of the learning program, the special award money was given out to these teams in the meeting held by the Association of CCU Distinguished Alumni on the 23rd of July, to support and recognize their dedication to the care of local community.
The Startup Land at CCU indicated that the annually held \"Chiayi Youth Soul Lab: Local Community Vocational Actions Learning Program\" encourages youths to take local caring into action in Chiayi. Every year, many students will join in to contribute ideas to help elevate local communities. And this year, the CCU students are no exception. Despite the record-hitting number of submissions, the six CCU teams still managed to pass the competitive selection and won the recognition of the event organizer. Starting from local issues, the proposals generated by CCU teams helped them receive a total of NT$840,000 award prize.
Among the six CCU teams, there is the team \"Green Care (綠照顧)\", which is concerned about age people’s long-term care issues and will create the intergenerational theater to invite people of all ages to participate and show their concerns for long-term care issues. And there is the team \"Story Thief (偷故事的人)\", which will pay visits to local groceries and often design quiz games that allow people to participate and learn about the local stories and characteristics. Besides, the team \"Guo-Ran: the flavour of home in Chiayi (粿然！是嘉的味道)\" explores stories of Kuih (equivalent to 粿 pronounced in Taiwanese Southern Min language), a kind of local sweet treat that is made of rice. And the team \"Investable\" plans to start a business with educational seminars focusing on providing Fintech education to the public. Whereas the team \"TWENTY (貳拾)\" and the team \"Art Company Workshop (移世移嘉)\" are concerned about issues of new immigrants, aiming to organize various activities and camps to help people understand new immigrants\' cultures.
CCU Startup Land stated that owing to the winning from the Chiayi Youth Soul Lab, a special prize was given to these teams in recognition of the student\'s achievements and efforts. In the ceremony on the July 23, 2022, Lily Chien (簡麗環), the president of the Association of Distinguished Alumni, presented special awards and scholarships totaling NT$60,000 to the teams. The Association of Distinguished Alumni hoped to make it an opportunity to raise awareness of student\'s abilities in business innovation and entrepreneurship, and call on the full support from interested agencies of the private and public sectors to help further discover students’ potentials, so as to create a positive cycle in industry-academia collaborations.
Last year, there were nine CCU teams passed the selection of this annually held government project. This year, CCU Startup Land integrated the resources of the Division of Extra-Curricular Activities from the Office of Student Affairs and the Center of General Education to join hands with the Chiayi City Government to design a series of expositions during the proposal drafting phase of the competition to help participating students. Additionally, in order to promote the sense of mission on the campus, the CCU Startup Land also constantly organized diverse activities and workshops to cultivate students\' ability to identify and solve problems, encourage them to attempt without the fear of failure, and help strengthen the bonds between CCU students and the local community.
Professor Shin-Yuan Hung, the director of CCU Startup Land, remarked on that believing in students\' unlimited possibilities and providing opportunities such as resources integrations, curriculum designs, talent cultivation, etc., are the key factors to help students reach their full potentials. And with the collaboration between CCU and Chiayi City Government in promoting the CCU Startup Land, Professor Hung expected that this will allow students to fully leverage the value of on-campus resources and expand the influence of their vocational actions.
