2016
If not us, who? If not now, when?
It’s the time of the year to show our appreciation to you. Indeed, Taiwan is at a critical low, where improvements politically, economically and socially are not as dynamic as we might have hoped. Despite so, The Alliance Cultural Foundation (ACF) is on the right path, thus we see the silver lining!
In 2016, ACF is more focused on education, moving its focus beyond rural areas to island wide. In terms of experimenting with rural education, the Junyi School of Innovation has elevated itself with the Waldorf model. To overcome rote learning, the school prioritizes real-life experiences in the youths’ process of learning, helping them to develop critical thinking, exploration and expression skills as they make sense of the world they live in and prepare for the future.
For children in the rural area, mastering English can be a difficult task. Junyi places great emphasis and resources in this aspect in hope of enabling the children to communicate with the world. We are also actively exploring possibilities for the youths who have set their sights, hearts and minds on greater goals for themselves, to attend two-year community college program abroad. ACF is committed to support such endeavors, especially in nurturing bright and deserving financially underprivileged and rural indigenous youths to be engaged with the world beyond Taiwan. By investing in these youths, we hope that they can be the agents of hope for change and improvement of their hometowns in future, especially with income gaps widening more drastically now.
As Chairman of the Anthroposophy Education Foundation, I would like to applaud the efforts of Ms. Su Chang, Founder of Ci-Xin Waldorf High School in Yilan and her team. Firstly, there is steady growth for the senior high school section while the elementary and secondary school sections still faces high demand each year. In addition, at least five hundred educators undergo some form of training in Ci-Xin and Junyi annually. Su is now a National Policy Advisor to the President, with her appointment being the first for someone in the rural education field to be engaged at the central government level. In implementing a nationwide education reform, ACF is non-partisan and open to all prospective partners for this endeavor.
The Hour of Code in Taiwan is also growing steadily with the strong partnership of the Junyi Academy, generating almost monthly media coverage on the learning of coding. As for promoting the Sharestart teaching model, Teacher Chang Hui-cheng now has the support of the community, and backed by the Junyi Academy along with ACF, who see synergies in this education model. For the inaugural annual Sharestart Asia Conference, ACF provided invaluable administrative support. We celebrate the accomplishment of our colleagues and the inspiration for teachers and volunteers at the event.
We achieved another breakthrough by supporting 14 education reformers – principals and leaders in education in attending the annual US-based conference “Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) School Summit”. Junyi Academy and the ACF has invited mission-driven leading educators in Taiwan to join in the conference for the past two years. I made my first visit to the school in 2013 and attended the conference in 2014, and am confident that the KIPP model provides useful reference in paving the way for charter schools in Taiwan.
As for grooming indigenous youth, we have striven for a more comprehensive approach. The fourth selected indigenous youth is now undergoing skills and leadership training at the Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYUH) and Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) through the Asian Executive Management Program (AEM). This allows Taiwanese youths to gain a better understanding of cultural development at a tourism site, which brings Polynesian cultures under one roof. The program been expanded to include a learning tour for promising youths from indigenous communities and official cultural organizations. These would not have been possible without the generous support and belief of Mr. Quentin Wu, Ms. Sun Wei-wei and General Manager Wu Ji-ru.
In the face of globalization, Taiwan must find its own direction and position to capitalize on our strengths wisely and address possible shortcomings, so that future generations may pursue a sustainable future. Time and manpower is never enough but with the unrelenting support of our volunteers and donors, our plan is being carried out, far exceeding expectations more often than that. We will continue this race against time as long as we have the resources. Thank you all for the support in this journey and we hope to grow and improve the Taiwan little by little, step by step! If not us, who? If not now, when? Dear partners, let’s together work to make a better future for our youths!
It’s the time of the year to show our appreciation to you. Indeed, Taiwan is at a critical low, where improvements politically, economically and socially are not as dynamic as we might have hoped. Despite so, The Alliance Cultural Foundation (ACF) is on the right path, thus we see the silver lining!
In 2016, ACF is more focused on education, moving its focus beyond rural areas to island wide. In terms of experimenting with rural education, the Junyi School of Innovation has elevated itself with the Waldorf model. To overcome rote learning, the school prioritizes real-life experiences in the youths’ process of learning, helping them to develop critical thinking, exploration and expression skills as they make sense of the world they live in and prepare for the future.
For children in the rural area, mastering English can be a difficult task. Junyi places great emphasis and resources in this aspect in hope of enabling the children to communicate with the world. We are also actively exploring possibilities for the youths who have set their sights, hearts and minds on greater goals for themselves, to attend two-year community college program abroad. ACF is committed to support such endeavors, especially in nurturing bright and deserving financially underprivileged and rural indigenous youths to be engaged with the world beyond Taiwan. By investing in these youths, we hope that they can be the agents of hope for change and improvement of their hometowns in future, especially with income gaps widening more drastically now.
As Chairman of the Anthroposophy Education Foundation, I would like to applaud the efforts of Ms. Su Chang, Founder of Ci-Xin Waldorf High School in Yilan and her team. Firstly, there is steady growth for the senior high school section while the elementary and secondary school sections still faces high demand each year. In addition, at least five hundred educators undergo some form of training in Ci-Xin and Junyi annually. Su is now a National Policy Advisor to the President, with her appointment being the first for someone in the rural education field to be engaged at the central government level. In implementing a nationwide education reform, ACF is non-partisan and open to all prospective partners for this endeavor.
The Hour of Code in Taiwan is also growing steadily with the strong partnership of the Junyi Academy, generating almost monthly media coverage on the learning of coding. As for promoting the Sharestart teaching model, Teacher Chang Hui-cheng now has the support of the community, and backed by the Junyi Academy along with ACF, who see synergies in this education model. For the inaugural annual Sharestart Asia Conference, ACF provided invaluable administrative support. We celebrate the accomplishment of our colleagues and the inspiration for teachers and volunteers at the event.
We achieved another breakthrough by supporting 14 education reformers – principals and leaders in education in attending the annual US-based conference “Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) School Summit”. Junyi Academy and the ACF has invited mission-driven leading educators in Taiwan to join in the conference for the past two years. I made my first visit to the school in 2013 and attended the conference in 2014, and am confident that the KIPP model provides useful reference in paving the way for charter schools in Taiwan.
As for grooming indigenous youth, we have striven for a more comprehensive approach. The fourth selected indigenous youth is now undergoing skills and leadership training at the Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYUH) and Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) through the Asian Executive Management Program (AEM). This allows Taiwanese youths to gain a better understanding of cultural development at a tourism site, which brings Polynesian cultures under one roof. The program been expanded to include a learning tour for promising youths from indigenous communities and official cultural organizations. These would not have been possible without the generous support and belief of Mr. Quentin Wu, Ms. Sun Wei-wei and General Manager Wu Ji-ru.
In the face of globalization, Taiwan must find its own direction and position to capitalize on our strengths wisely and address possible shortcomings, so that future generations may pursue a sustainable future. Time and manpower is never enough but with the unrelenting support of our volunteers and donors, our plan is being carried out, far exceeding expectations more often than that. We will continue this race against time as long as we have the resources. Thank you all for the support in this journey and we hope to grow and improve the Taiwan little by little, step by step! If not us, who? If not now, when? Dear partners, let’s together work to make a better future for our youths!
Stanley C. Yen
Chairman
Chairman
