Eight Taiwanese graduate students and their teachers will embark on a trip to Tanzania tomorrow on a 22-day mountaineering challenge that will see them climb the two highest mountains in Africa.
The students, who hail from the Graduate Institute of Recreation and Leisure Industry Management at National Taiwan Sports University, will test their limits by climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya, university president Chou Hung-shih (周宏室) told a press conference yesterday.
Calling the adventure course a “breakthrough” for Taiwanese higher education, Chou said more than 50 students from the school have participated in similar activities since 2005, including a successful scaling of the 6,189m Island Peak in the Himalayas last year.
“I am always worried to death when they go on these trips ... but encountering danger is part of the learning process,” said Moh Chi-Yung (莫季雍), chairman of the institute.
Hsieh Chih-mou (謝智謀), one of the professors leading the students, said the objective of the course was to shape the vision of the nation’s “future leaders” by helping the students develop empathy, a global perspective, team spirit, communication skills and powers of execution throughout the preparation for the trip.
Before leaving, the students were responsible for raising funds to build school toilets in Tanzania to help improve sanitation conditions, Hsieh said, adding that the students would also do community service during their stay in Tanzania.
“We are taking learning outside the classroom,” Hsieh said.
Lai Yu-chen (賴妤甄), 23, said she took the course because she wanted to break the stereotype that Taiwanese children born in the 1980s and 1990s are as weak as “strawberries.”
Chang Ya-chi (張雅期), a 29-year-old student who previously went through one year of chemotherapy for treating lymphoma, said she insisted on joining the adventure because she needed to seize the opportunity.
“If I don’t do it now, I probably won’t have the opportunity to do it in future,” she said.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS