It’s great to be of assistance again to the Service-Learning team from Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei.
The team, led by my friend, Prof. Tseng Shengyi (Paul), arrived on Saturday for its 11th season of civic engagement in Negros Occidental. It has seven members and will stay in the province until Sept. 2. Prof. Paul has been organizing and bringing the Taiwanese S-L team since 2012 (except for the COVID years).
The S-L group is called the Wenhua Volunteer Team, which is a non-profit service club composed of students of FJCU students from various academic disciplines.
Explaining the name of the volunteer team, Prof. Paul said it is focused on “service to others as service the core of human existence as ‘wen’ refers to humanity and ‘hua’ to existence.”
The team is being hosted by the Catholic Ming Yuan College in Murcia.
The Taiwanese students’ exposure in Negros is anchored on the principles of Service-Learning, which enable them to share their knowledge with Filipinos, particularly students, and, at the same time, gain insights from their local experiences which become valuable in their growth as students and as citizens of their country and the world.
Specifically, the summer visit aims to:
• Conduct cultural exchange in the Philippines
• Engage in educational services, especially on language education and culture
• Help young Taiwanese understand the Philippines and, at the same time, to let Filipinos understand Taiwan.
Ultimately, it mutually provides the visiting Taiwanese students and their hosts a better world view and promotes global understanding and peace.
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The team arrived on Saturday with Rev. Fr. Yongxing Cui, CYMC president for administration, welcoming the group at the airport along with teacher Ma. Venus Lorraine Villarosa, student leaders Regie Mialen and Philip Sadje as well as college paper editor Christine Ortiz.
Ma’am Villarosa has been designated as coordinator of the newly-organized Service-Learning unit of the college.
The visiting students are scheduled to start their activities on Monday.
These activities will be held in various elementary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the province.
The team members are Rain (張芯瑜), 19; Olivia (蘇郁惟), 18; Mako (吳韋亭), 20, all majoring in Chinese Literature;
Rowen (朱子芸), 19; and Jane (施珍妍), 19, both under the Humanities and Community Innovation program;
Dora (顏嘉樂), 21, Library and Information Science; Jim (梁青宇), 21, History; and Browden (楊俊弦), 22, Philosophy.
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I had the privilege to arrange the campus and other visits along with Ma’am Venus.
My first-hand knowledge of the Fu Jen Service-Learning program started when a group of students and their teacher joined the Post-Typhoon Yolanda civic engagement activities in Suyac Island in Sagay City in 2014.
I helped organize the Post-Typhoon civic response, which was spearheaded by the Hong Kong-based United Board for Christian Higher Education. The international engagement drew more than 150 students and faculty from Indonesia, India, Macau, China, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
I learned more of the FJCU Service-Learning program when I attended the 2015 Asia-Pacific Regional S-L Conference which Fu Jen hosted. At the gathering, I presented a research paper, with my then student Karla Panganiban, on the experiences and insights gained by the international students during their post-typhoon community engagement in the Philippines.
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My ties with the Wenhua Volunteer Team remain strong and I am glad to have another opportunity to help them again.
Welcome back, Prof. Paul and your team. We trust it will be another fruitful season of learning for both the Taiwanese team and the different Negros groups in their itinerary.
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Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4) | NWI
