5/5-A Debriefing Event for the Third Year Students before Their Study Abroad

2018-05-05

All the third-year students on Lanyang Campus should go abroad to study at one of the sister universities at their own expense for one year which they have applied for successfully. More than 1,920 students have fulfilled their overseas dreams. To assist the students to execute their third-year study-plans overseas, the college set up a series courses of “Project Management of Third-year Students Abroad”. A variety of counselling services are offered to the students in the first semester of their second year at college. The notification system of overseas study has been developed. At the same time, advisors for sister-universities and those for third-year students are assigned in order to establish a far-reaching counselling network. The exchange students go to their destined sister universities one after another in summer vacation. To smooth the management of the affairs before and during the overseas study of the students, the college held “Induction for Third-year Exchange Students Before Going Abroad” for the students and their parents to attend the interactive schemes and to have a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of the schedules of the project of “All the Third-years Go Abroad”.
    Due to the transport issues of Freeway No. 5, some parents arrived the campus as early as at 7 a.m. If they had arrived later, they might have been stuck in the Snow Mountain Tunnel. This is the usual scene taking place whenever an event is held on Saturdays—no matter the participants arrive early or late, they surely do come. The registry session was held at nine o’clock at the front porch of Clement Chang International Conference Hall. Everyone received a brochure of introduction to going abroad in the third year. In total, there were 227 students who will go abroad this year along with 305 parents who participated in this event. Because there were so many participants, they were accommodated at Clement Chang International Conference Hall and there was a live stream service at classroom CL328. As soon as the parents were settled down at the seats, they could not help starting to read the materials, and their doubts were much relieved. On the screen, videos of SUNY Cortland filmed by students themselves and films about the exchange experiences in recent years were played. They helped the students and their parents gain an initial understanding of the exchange in the third year and look forward to the overseas study in the coming year.
The orientation started with Secretary Wu JieXiong’s introduction of the professors and the assigned counselling advisors of the universities involved. Next, in order to make the students and their parents have a deeper understanding of the relevant matters of the third-year exchange through this orientation, Dean of College of Global Development Liu Ay-hwa briefed on the progress of preparation and notices prior to the third-year exchange. Since some students have received the certificates of admission successively, the dean reminded the parents to look into some issues regarding visa, purchase of flight tickets, overseas accommodation, medical insurance, personal documents, allowed items, etc. To keep abreast of the situation of the overseas students, the dean also introduced the “Counselling and Notification System for third-year Students”. The students should log in the online system according to assigned time slots. Their parents can also know their children’s whereabouts abroad through the system. Besides, if there is an emergency, the app “Travel Emergency Guidance” developed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be quite helpful. He believed the students and their parents are fully prepared for the study and life in the coming year. Finally, the dean said considerately, “the dreams you have dreamed will come true with the help of the Lanyang Campus”. He wished a fulfilled study for each exchange student.
    After some refreshments were served, the LanXing ambassadors ushered the parents to different venues to start the group discussions for each university. There are fourteen students who passed the selection for exchange students this year, who count for 6.16 % in the total number of students going abroad. Because the exchange students will be located in different countries, the Office of International and Cross-Strait Affairs on Tamsui Campus especially sent Miss Yen Chia-hui to explain the details of the operation of exchange. In different venues, the teachers responsible for the universities explained the expected life at each university and gave advice on the selection of courses. Q & A session was held, and the questions asked by the parents were all answered in detail by the teachers and senior students.
    As for students applied for The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management (EAHM) in Dubai, Southern Cross University of Australia (SCU), International College of Hotel Management in Australia (ICHM), William Angliss Institute (WAI) in Australia, because they will need to serve their internship in hotels or in tourism-related industry in the latter six months of the academic year, the Department Chairperson of Department of International Tourism Management Yeh Chien-Mu arranged video connections and invited some fourth-year students to participate in the introduction. In the relaxed conversation, the senior students assured the parents that there would be nothing to worry about either in the adaptation to the school curriculum or in the phase of internship. After the internship, they would even bring back some deposits!
    The personal experienced shared by the senior students much relived the parents’ concern. Besides, the excellent system designed for the third-year students could see into the situation of the life and study of the students overseas. In addition, the advisors could offer consultation for the third-year exchange students when needed. The debriefing finished at 11:40 a.m. successfully. The students were confident to face challenges abroad, and their parents felt relieved and ready for their children to study abroad.