Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) yesterday met two female senior-high school graduates who have been at the center of media attention because both wanted to attend the National Defense Management College, but one of them had to give up her dream due to the quota on the number of women students.
The two students are Chang Ying-hua (張穎華), a graduate of National Taichung Girls' Senior High School and Lei Chia-chia (雷家佳), who graduated from the National Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High School.
Lei, who hoped to enter the college's law department, yielded her position to Chang.
Chang, who is from a 921 earthquake-affected family, received top scores in the Joint College Entrance Examination and was admitted to the nation's top law school at National Taiwan University.
However, Chang chose to study at the defense college because of her family's financial concerns and a desire to join the army.
To help Chang accomplish her dream, Lei gave up her position to allow Chang to fill the vacancy.
The incident highlighted a change in the intake of military academies which used to be mostly students who failed to get into civilian universities.
Tang met with Lei and commended her on her generosity in assisting Chang to achieve her goal.
"Lei's gesture sets an example for all the servicemembers in Taiwan," Tang said. "I hope she considers taking the exams again next year to join the Chinese Military Academy. I believe she could become an outstanding leader in our army."
In the meeting with Chang, Tang encouraged her to learn from Lei's generosity and be grateful for her help.
However, reacting to calls for creating another opening for Lei in the law department, Tang said it was not possible as the recruitment policy for this year had been finalized and any alteration now would spoil the fairness of the system.
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