Roundup Reporter / Mu-long Chen

In the words of Vice President Lai, during “the 2022 Youth Career Mentor – appointment with the Vice President” at NIU on the afternoon of April 28^th, “the path towards success is not a hard one, it is not a jammed one either”, and that by holding the spirit of perseverance, students would have their competitiveness and eventually achieve success.

Ching-te Lai, accompanied by Po-ching Wu -- President of National Ilan University and Tsung-yuan Chiang --the mayor of Yilan, attended the forum. He came to the fact that started from its predecessor “Taipei State I-Lan Agriculture and Forestry School” which was built in 1926 during the Japanese occupation, after more than 90 years of efforts from all the former presidents, teachers and alumni, was finally accredited as a university in 2003.

Vice President Lai said that he admired President Po-ching Wu’s vision of school management which spells “deeply dedicate to the local, widely connect to the world.” On one hand, President Wu actively creates high-quality learning environment on campus. On the other hand, he also cooperates with teachers to implement excellent teaching -- with purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of each student. This manoeuver includes the establishment of the Maker Center with Industry 4.0 to stimulate students’ creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. promoting international volunteer services, strengthening cross-border connections, to make NIU shines on world stage..

He also mentioned that in the past few years, Ilan University has been outstanding in various evaluations, including receiving subsidies from the Ministry of Education's “107-111 Higher Education Sprout Project;” selected as “one of the best universities in Taiwan” by Vision Magazine in 2021; “one of the best universities in the world of THE 2022” in 2020 by British Times Higher Education special issue; it is also ranked second in “the company's favorite public medium-sized university” by Cheers magazine in 2022. It's admirable for an institution, just as it is an achievement for its students to be proud of.

He also commended Tsung-yuan Chiang, the mayor of Yilan City, for setting up “Jimmy Bus,” Juan I-Jong's Gallery of Taiwan Story, and Yilan Story Museum in the past few years. In 2017, when Mayor Chiang visited Kansas in the United States, he served as the kickoff guest in the Major League Baseball game between Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles, being the first mayor of Taiwan who showed up on the MLB field.. He believes that both President Wu and Mayor Chiang are making their way to the international platform, via deeply devoted to the their local community. Therefore, when students consider their future careers, they should also uphold this spirit, to enhance their personal competitiveness.

Vice President Lai told the students that there is a formula to enhance personal competitiveness, which is "passion x expertise", in addition of 10,000 hours of hard work. He believes that if one can give full play to his talents in the field he is interested in, and be happy for it every day, then it is considered a success. On the other hand, for the people from all walks of life who have achieved their dreams, they must have spent a lot of time in training. He emphasized that the path towards success is not a hard one, it is not a jammed one either. The most important thing is to uphold the spirit of perseverance, so that one could possess his/her competitiveness to achieve the goal of success.

He also indicated that the future that students face is very different from the era he grew up in: there will be more challenges but also more opportunities. He hoped that students have the five competencies known as EAGLE, that is, having an eco-friendly mindset (Earth), in touch with smart new technology (AI), global vision (Global), interdisciplinary learning (Learning), and cutting-edge competitiveness (Edge). No matter how crowded the world is, as long as students uphold these concepts, they can transform into the “eagles”, flying far, and eventually succeed.

He further pointed out that since the era of Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, blockchain, etc., have completely changed the world. Artificial intelligence is a required ability in the future. It has the potential to make every line of work easier yet more powerful.

Vice President Lai encouraged students to have an international perspective. Facing the international situation, they should also have the ability to learn across different disciplines. Although the major that everyone is currently studying is not necessarily the one they like, there is its own professional knowledge and logical thinking in every field, and all part of learning will definitely have its value and will certainly serve in the future.

Then he played a role of a career mentor, discussed and responded to the questions of current affairs raised by students one by one. The students actively asked questions with varied topics, including the development of tribal youths returning to their hometowns, youth mental illness issue, energy issue, etc. The situation was warm and lively.