Alumni Feature Story

Lesley and Jim: A TAS Love Story

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer Imagine marrying a girl you met in high school forty years later. This may sound like the plot of a Nicholas Sparks novel, but it is the actual real-life story of Lesley Hall ’79 and Jim Smith ’78. Forty years ago, they both lived in Taipei, where they attended TAS. Four years ago, their lives reconverged at a TAS reunion in Virginia. This year, they tied the knot in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Act I: Taipei, Taiwan, 1976

Jim “Smitty” Smith ’78 was a junior at TAS, a young man with a mop of red hair. He was known around campus as a talented artist who drew colorful posters for school events and the yearbook and was a letterman on

the TAS varsity baseball team. Jim’s father worked for Gulf Oil and had moved his family to Taiwan from Japan in 1972, shortly after President Nixon made his historic trip to Shanghai, China. He entered TAS in Grade 7 with Hope Phillips as the middle school Principal and found a culturally dynamic and vibrant school. He loved his experiences in Taiwan and the freedom of traveling in Asia. “It was an absolute adventure that I can’t explain to my children or people who didn’t have the opportunity to live through that time,” recalls Jim. “The oral history of the school is called Ties that Bind, and it’s very true. I still have as my closest friends the people I met when I was growing up in Taiwan. We’ve stayed in touch through the years, and it wasn’t easy pre-Internet and pre-Facebook.” After his first semester of college, Jim flew back to visit his parents in December of 1978, and two days after he landed in Taipei, President Carter announced the derecognition of the ROC on TV. As Jim puts it, “I was there for the unraveling of US-Taiwan relations, from soup to nuts.”

In the summer of 1976, Lesley Hall ’79 had just moved to Taipei from Maryland. Her father worked for the Department of Defense and had moved their family to Tokyo, Japan, then back to Maryland in 1973, and now, to Taipei. The family of five lived in Wellington Heights. The 1977 yearbook shows a dark-haired girl with an open smile next to her teammates on the TAS tennis team. At first, Lesley found it hard to meet people and get into the community, but it all changed for her with Mr. Arnold’s class “Journeys into Asian Culture.” Lesley recalls visiting Chiayi and going up Alishan in an old wooden train: “We had about 30 people. I knew there were parent chaperones, but it felt like we were our own group – not teachers and students, but just people exploring Taiwan. Mr. Arnold knew Taiwan so well and had such a talent for bringing people together. He brought the magic to Journeys, like knowing when to get us up to watch the sunrise from the top of Alishan.” For Lesley, Journeys was among her most lasting memories of Taiwan. “For Chinese New Year, we were assigned to find a Chinese family to have the celebration with. It was such a treat – something you wouldn’t do on your own. He really forced you to get outside of yourself and participate in the country,” remembers Lesley. “You can’t overemphasize the importance of that,” Jim adds. “In those days, most TAS students were DoD [Department of Defense] dependents, and with movie theaters, teen clubs, sports facilities, swimming pools, and even a private beach, it

was easy for kids to become insulated from the full experience of what life in Taipei had to offer. I took a middle school version [of Journeys] called Asia House, started by Mrs. Phillips. They pulled 13-year-olds out of school to venture down island for 10 days, where they stayed in Chinese hotels, ate local cuisine, and caught some Taiwanese opera. It introduced us to what Taiwan was all about.” Both Jim and Lesley loved their brief but exciting time in Taiwan. Did Jim and Lesley ever meet at TAS? Both remember each other by sight, but they never spoke and moved in different social circles. Jim remembers that he had wanted to get to know her better, but never got the chance. “That’s how life works out sometimes,” he says ruefully. But sometimes, you also get a second shot.

Interlude:

After TAS, Jim and Lesley led separate lives. Lesley came back to the US for her senior year in Annapolis, Maryland, which she recalled as a breeze after the rigor of TAS. She attended the University of Maryland, majored in journalism, and after graduation, worked for USA Today. She married her first husband and moved to Germany in the ‘90s, working as a reporter and editor for a US military newspaper. She ended up eventually in northern Virginia, working in editing and advertising. After Jim graduated from TAS in 1978, he attended the University of Houston thanks to a chance meeting with the Dean of the School of Architecture. He worked in architecture in various firms until

2012, traveling all over the world and the US. He married a woman he met in Houston and had three children. Jim not only kept in touch with TAS classmates but also attended reunions voraciously, becoming what Lesley calls “the record holder for the most TAS reunions attended since graduation.” (The current count is at 11, “slightly ahead of Francie Burnet ’78,” with whom Jim has an ongoing, unofficial competition.)

Act II: District of Columbia, USA; February 2015

Fast forward 37 years: 2015 was a tough year for both Jim and Lesley. Jim’s wife passed away in 2014, and he had moved his architecture practice home to raise their three children. His best friends Jeff Massa ’77 and Michelle Wilson Massa ’79 invited Jim to stay with them in northern Virginia for a much-needed change of scenery as well as – what else? – a TAS reunion at the home of Ken Grant ’77 and Connie Taube. The previous year, Lesley lost her brother and mother to illness within a six-week period and was not getting out much either. Her best friend from TAS who now lives in Maryland, Brigid Donnelly Hughes ’79, persuaded her to attend her first-ever TAS reunion, which just happened to be at the Grant-Taube house. Despite her misgivings, Lesley went, and to her surprise, she ended up talking the night away in the kitchen with a man she recalled very clearly from TAS many years ago: Jim Smith. They got caught up in discovering and sharing common histories of living in Tokyo, moving to Taipei, attending TAS, and many more memories, starting a conversation that continues today. “There’s a great vibe that exists among TAS alumni. It comes from everyone looking back on their

experience years later and having the ability to really appreciate what we had when we were kids.”

Shortly after they reconnected, Jim texted a photo from the 1977 yearbook to Lesley: it was a photo of two women cleaning up at the Shilin campus after Typhoon Vera had flooded the school. It was a well-known photo in Lesley’s family because her mother was one of the two women, and just before the photo was taken, she had fallen down the mud-slicked steps at TAS and broken a bone. Lesley said as much to Jim, and Jim said, “I know – I was standing off to the side when that picture was taken, and I remember your mom telling my mom about her fall.” The other woman in the picture was Jim’s mother.

Act III: Santa Fe, New Mexico; July 2018

For three years, Lesley and Jim carried on a long-distance relationship “enriching Southwest Airlines in the process,” quips Jim. They took a long road trip together in the summer of 2015, navigating remote and dusty roads in the Southwest with only a Rand McNally road atlas, a tradition they kept up in subsequent summers. They traveled to TAS reunions in Nashville in 2015 and New Orleans in 2017. In 2016 and 2018, they fulfilled one of their longtime wishes and returned to Taiwan for the Worldwide Reunions. They reunited with Mr. Arnold, revisited their old neighborhoods in Tianmu and Wellington Heights, and hiked up to Battleshop Rock near Beitou, more commonly known as “Dog’s Head.” After all those travels, they found it so natural to elope to Santa Fe that they barely had to think about it. Lesley calls their relationship something that feels like it was meant to be. “We both enjoy getting out and traveling. We have the same interests and even collect the same things. Jim and I talk about TAS and Taiwan all the time. It is so great to have that shared experience with the person you are married to.” Jim adds another layer: “There’s a great vibe that exists among TAS alumni. It comes from everyone looking back on their experience years later and having the ability to really appreciate what we had when we were kids.” There are many TAS couples who would agree with Jim and Lesley. These days, Jim is in the process of moving from Houston to Virginia, where the couple will combine their enormous libraries (over 7,000 books!), their collection of ‘70s pirated vinyl records from Taiwan (purchased for NT$10 each), their Ricardo Lynn furniture, and dozens of boxes of Taiwan photos and ephemera. Together, Jim and Lesley look forward to many more years of travel and TAS reunions. To echo what Mr. Arnold said when he heard about their marriage, “We wish them every happiness in the world.”

Alumni and Students Find Collaboration through TAS Film Program

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

In spring 2019, upper school film production students had the chance to create short creative videos, mini-documentaries, and video advertisements by working with real-life clients. Upper school faculty Film Production Coordinator Brett Barrus set up three collaborations for his advanced students to exercise their own creative vision. Two of those projects were with alumni companies, providing alumni Brenda Lin ’94 and Jay Cheng ’97 with a unique chance to give back to TAS students. Jay Cheng ’97 is the CTO of WeMo Scooter, the electric scooter-sharing company which was founded by four TAS alumni in 2015.

To start with, “Jay gave the students a lot of creative license and met with them at school. The students were able to take the lead on pitching ideas during a presentation, and then adapting it to the feedback they received,” says Brett. With the help of WeMo Scooter’s marketing team as well as Jay himself, the team of two students shot footage at 6 different locations in Taipei over the span of twelve hours, aiming to create a video that describes a day in the life of a WeMo scooter. Now they are editing the footage down to a 90-second promotional video and a shorter promo for use on social media.

For Brenda Lin ’94, alumna and parent, les enphants is a family business.

Founded by her father in 1971, the company is one of the largest children’s wear and accessories retailers in Taiwan. One group of students is creating a micro-documentary of 2-3 minutes on the les enphants textiles, an exhibition of children’s textiles and maternal handicrafts collected by

Brenda’s mother on display at the Beitou Museum. Another group of students is creating a 16 second Instagram ad to showcase the spring and summer collection for les enphants. Of the collaboration, Brenda comments, “My task for them was to use ‘their’ language – Instagram and video – to tell the story of my family business's brand value.” Applying their skills toward a very specific purpose was a new challenge for students. “These companies invest a lot of time and effort into their branding and design, so wrapping your mind around all of that is very important,” explains Brett. “Our students had to do a lot of research to get up to date on that. Brenda helped our students zero in on the mission statement and vision of the company, so we really felt like we got a real client, not someone who simply let the students do whatever they want.” Jay also saw that as being a valuable lesson for the students. “Working with a business is very different, because businesses are a lot more directed,” remarks Jay. “Our marketing team knows what we need or don’t need, so we can point them in that specific direction. For example, we were looking at three different color palettes for the video, and two of them did not work with our logo, so that really shaped their decision on it. They get to see that it’s really different to shoot for a client versus doing a purely artistic or creative project.” For both alumni, these projects gave them the chance to see their companies and brands from a different point of view. “We’re used to working with local college students who like to shoot videos for WeMo, but we found that TAS

“There is a lot of value students really have a different, more international perspective,” says Jay. to these collaborations Brenda agrees with Jay as well, saying, – it’s a win-win for everyone, from the “I've been incredibly impressed with the students' professionalism and independent thinking. Our company is almost 50 years students to the program old, so for me, it was a really fun way to to the community,” get a fresh take on a traditional business.” Adrian Town ’13, who is joining the TAS faculty as a film studies teacher next year, sees special value for students in working with alumni. “While working with real-life clients can be a daunting task, doing that with someone who shares common values and a common background makes it easier for the students. They get to work on it in a more controlled environment, but the alumni still expect quality results, so they are real clients.” Both videos are still in production, as is the third collaboration, a 45-second promotion for Saffron 46, a restaurant which recently opened in downtown Taipei. Next year, the film program will continue looking for collaborations with alumni and other brands. In its fifth year, the program now has 60 students in the Upper School. “There is a lot of value to these collaborations – it’s a winwin for everyone, from the students to the program to the community,” says Brett. Adrian also has his own reasons for supporting these collaborations. “Our alumni collaborators have been able to model life after graduation for our students,” explains Adrian. “When I was a student, I had no idea who our alumni were, so it’s helpful for the students to see our alumni as working professionals, who have followed different paths in life and made different choices.”

Alumni Board Members 2018-2019

Elizabeth Wang ‘91 Gayle Tsien ‘87 Joseph Hwang ‘87 Paul Hsu ‘94 Vera Wu ‘87

Thank you for serving the TAS community!

Juliana Chang ’15 Pens Original Screenplay

Many Names

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

Have you ever had to explain to someone how to pronounce your name? Many TAS alumni can sympathize with this experience, but Juliana Chang ‘15 has literally elevated it to an art form in her screenwriting and directing debut Many Names. In this five-minute short film, Juliana explores nonWestern names and “the daily labor of deciding how to present yourself” through a handful of humorous scenes from the life of a young woman named Euna Kim. Juliana teamed up with two friends to create Many Names for the AT&T Createa-thon filmmaking competition in the summer of 2018, between her junior and senior years at Stanford University. Beating out hundreds of competitors, Juliana’s original screenplay was selected as one of sixty-four scripts to be produced this summer, and ultimately finished third in the nationwide competition. Many Names expresses Juliana’s fascination with the themes of language and identity, which come from her dual cultural backgrounds, growing up in the San Francisco Bay area and attending middle and high school in Taipei at TAS. Her strongest memories of school are from Student Government as well as Speech and Debate. “I mainly remember all the time I spent in school when I wasn’t technically supposed to be there!” she quips. For current TAS students and fellow alumni interested in getting into screenwriting, Juliana emphasizes the importance of the collaborative process in creative writing: “Find friends and mentors who are interested in the same thing, so they can read your poem drafts, support your interests, and ask you to enter competitions with them!” Juliana’s next film project will center around the messaging app LINE and how Taiwanese-American families use it to stay in touch. Follow Juliana’s career and watch Many Names at www.julianachang.com. Juliana (left) and Da Eun, writer and director for Many Names

Model United Nations Through the Decades

Thirty-four students all dressed in their business best are crammed into a small classroom on the campus of the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin, Germany. It is midNovember 2018, and outside, Berlin is in the grip of a wet autumn with yellow and orange leaves decorating the slim birch trees surrounded by clumps of bicycles. Inside, the desks are utilitarian, the walls are peachcolored plaster over concrete, and the lights are fluorescent. This is the room where the Security Council of the Berlin MUN Conference (better known as BERMUN) is meeting, and negotiations are in full swing. Delegates from each country are walking around to pitch their clauses and resolutions on the situation in the South China Sea to each other. A delegate from the UK requests that France take a look at the proposed clause in Google Docs on her laptop and type the country name if in agreement. A young man representing Kazakhstan in a bow tie and cufflinks pessimistically wonders aloud if anyone knows what China is up to this time. A representative from the Russian Federation asks in a heavy British drawl if the representatives of Equatorial Guinea need their backup on any clause. Suddenly, there are a few loud raps on the door and all the heads in the room turn around to focus on the intruder, a young man wearing pink and purple shorts and a horse’s head mask. He loudly asks for the representatives of China and delivers to the two bemused students a pizza in a cardboard box, “courtesy of President Trump.” When he cheerfully exits the room, students break out in laughter.

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

What is Model UN?

This is a glimpse into Model United Nations, better known as Model UN. “At an MUN conference, you participate in debate in different committees, from environmental to human rights to international security. Before attending, you write up resolutions, and during the committee session, you lobby for those resolutions together in allied groups or blocs of countries. Resolutions only pass by consensus, which means the majority agree on it, which means there ends up being constructive debate,” explains Si Yun E. ’19. “MUN is all about: how can we change things so that we can all agree to it?” For thirty-five years, students at TAS have taken part in this simulation of the UN, which has kept its enduring appeal because it changes with the times. “Model UN is a fine blend between current events, drama, and public speaking, and current events doesn’t necessarily mean politics or social science or economics. It can be climate change, science, putting people in space, how to resolve global poverty, not just about Taiwan or the US improving,” reflects Angela Pan ’93, who participated for three years. “It’s important for students to graduate from TAS with a perspective beyond their own home.” In keeping with that global perspective, TAS students now travel locally and internationally to participate in MUN, visiting Berlin, Qatar, Singapore, Taichung, The Hague, and everywhere in between.

World Council Club from 1983 TAS Upper School Yearbook

Modest Beginnings

In the 1983 TAS yearbook, there is a black and white photo of the first World Councils Club whose faculty advisor was Mr. John Dankowski. Mr. Dankowski had taught at TAS before working at the United Nations for two years. After returning to TAS, he combined his experience at the UN and his social studies classes. “I had heard about Model UN clubs, but I had never seen one. This really emanated from my own work experience at the UN,” Mr. Dankowski explains. “When we first did it as a classroom activity, the kids took it so seriously that after class on Senior Island, they carried it on arguing in person with each other.” Beginning in 1984, EARCOS held yearly regional Model UN conferences in Manila, Singapore, and Bangkok, which proved to be very popular and were eventually formalized into an IASAS event. “The EARCOS events were done very well, and they were so much fun because the kids were really into it and took their roles seriously,” comments Mr. Dankowski. “Students loved it and wanted to do it several years in a row. We had a real difficulty choosing the students. The kids would have to make speeches in front of a selection committee of teachers, and we voted on who could come.” One of those students was Holger Baeuerle ’86, who joined because he wanted to study international relations at university. “At that time, it was the Cold War, so a lot of topics involved the Soviet Union and its role at the UN,” Holger recalls. “I remember representing the USSR either in Manila or Singapore and having to justify the various conflicts around the world the Soviet Union was involved in. It taught me to look at all points of view, even those you do not agree with.”

Negotiation, Diplomacy, Drama, and More

Model UN engages participants at many different levels, appealing to a wide range of students. Angela Pan enjoyed it because “It’s a multi-step game. You might plan something out, and then someone on stage in plenary session says something different, and then you give tit-fortat. Here, you’re responsible for what you say and there are consequences.” Heejo Kang ’14 also sees the complexity behind the negotiations. “MUN is not meant to be about winning or losing; it’s not a zero-sum game. Rather, MUN trains students with an eye for common ground strewn with differences and obstacles, and it’s meant to challenge and push those involved to arrive at the best possible common solution to a shared problem.” Preparing for those negotiations and compromises requires research and careful thinking. “I had opportunities to represent many countries and organizations, and it took a great deal of research to make sure I wasn’t misrepresenting a country or miscalculating my stance,” remembers Kathy Chang ’01. “It meant that I spent a lot of time forming my own opinions on questions asked in committees, ranging from religious freedom to nuclear missile capability. Being able to think in someone else’s shoes — in fact, a whole government’s and those of the people it represents — is a very valuable skill I learned from MUN.” TAS faculty also saw Model UN as an excellent pedagogical tool. Mr. Jim Soja taught at TAS for nearly three decades and credits MUN for helping students develop confidence in public speaking, sound research and writing skills, to learn the value of listening and compromising, and much more. “It certainly promotes at the individual and group level the very TAS values of honesty, respect,

responsibility, courage, and kindness. These are universal values regardless of the specific TAS demographic.” Students also recognized the realworld implications of participating in Model UN. “During my senior year, it was very interesting to be Secretary General at a time when Taiwan was not recognized by the UN, which is still the case,” recalls Kathy Chang. “For our speaker in 2001, we had the Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu, whom I personally admired a lot. For me, participating in Model UN is connected to the Taiwanese struggle for recognition.” Last but not least, it gave a chance for many students to show their dramatic flair. In Model UN, Clifton Yin ’03 found his calling: representing controversial countries, including China, Cuba, and Israel. “Being Israel is very tough, because every year, Palestine wants a vote instead of just being an observer,” Clifton remarks. “No matter who they are, you really have to embody that country and that country’s interests.” Angela Pan agrees, remembering, “The creativity that came out in MUN was phenomenal. The drama was not to be underrated. One year, I remember Palestine and the Vatican both came in full regalia outfits, mimicking distinguished world leaders.”

A Path After TAS

For some alumni, their MUN experience marked the beginning of a career in international relations and government. Clifton Yin went on to work in the California legislature and eventually earned his Master of Public Policy at Georgetown. Today, Clifton works as a government consultant supporting the U.S. “We started TASMUN to give younger students in Taiwan a chance to develop the skills around MUN and also to give our upper school students experience in leadership roles like committee chairs and the Secretariat.”

Mrs. Darby Sinclair

Energy Department and working on industrial efficiency. “Model UN helped me get started in diplomacy and managing personalities,” says Clifton. “In my job as a consultant or contractor, you’re the middleman between different government point people, going between different offices, workers, and agencies. Frankly, it’s always compromise and negotiation and problem solving.” For other alumni, their paths after Model UN did not lead them to work in international relations or politics, but they carried with them to university the passions and skills that they cultivated through Model UN. “Model UN and participating in IASAS, those things taught me to get out of my comfort zone and meet different people. When I went to Harvard, I appreciated being able to start random conversations with people,” says Angela Pan. After graduating from Penn, Kathy Chang pursued a career in finance and investing, and then attended business school. She recently moved from working at Twitter to Stripe, a technology and finance company, where she works in product management. “MUN taught me that it’s a lot harder to come up with ideas than it is to tear them down,” reflects Kathy. “It’s always easy to say this proposal doesn’t make sense, because everything will have holes. But I would encourage students to think about how they can create proposals and build coalitions to solve issues. That’s a skill set that is important in my role now as a product manager to come up with things people like and will solve their needs. Every product has flaws and issues, but I have to be confident enough to say that we’re not perfect but we’re moving forward no matter what.” Holger Baeuerle went on to study economics, earn an MBA, and credits MUN with helping him get out of his introverted shell. “Having to speak in front of a crowd is a humbling experience but an invaluable experience at any age,” Holger remarks. “I still do not enjoy giving speeches but the MUN helped me overcome some of those inhibitions early on.” What also endures for many alumni is a global network of friends made through Model UN and IASAS. “My best friend, who went to ISM, told me to apply to Harvard. We made so many friendships that we kept up through pen pals, gift exchanges during Christmas,” recalls Angela. Kathy concurs, “In college, people would come up to me and tell me that they graduated from ASIJ and that they remember me from being in MUN together. So it was really neat to me that there was this diaspora of MUN alumni.”

MUN for the 21st Century

In April 2019, the school held the 10th Annual TASMUN Conference, which is a juniorlevel conference aimed at Grades 7 to 10 students. Upper School faculty and MUN Coordinator Mrs. Darby Sinclair created TASMUN in 2009 with fellow faculty member Mrs. Kristen Rowe. “We started TASMUN to give younger students in Taiwan a chance to develop the skills around MUN and also to give our upper school students experience in leadership roles like committee chairs and the Secretariat.”

This year, the rigor and quality of the TASMUN Conference have drawn a crowd of 26 schools and 600 participants. Mrs. Sinclair uses this as an opportunity to bring in unique guest speakers which have included students from Afghanistan, a youth activist from Palestine, and a Rwandan genocide survivor. This year, TASMUN welcomed a paraplegic North Korean refugee as its keynote speaker. Si Yun E. is one of the students who has responded to Mrs. Sinclair’s approach. “I started participating in MUN since Grade 6,” remembers Si Yun. “I was very shy, but I really loved politics and international relations. If I wanted to learn more about those fields, it required me to be able and willing to speak publicly, so I went ahead and decided I had to conquer this fear, otherwise, I couldn’t do what I wanted to.” In 2018, Si Yun served as the SecretaryGeneral for the 9th annual TASMUN Conference and anticipates attending a total of 21 conferences before she graduates in May 2019. About 10-15% of upper school students participate in Model UN, but as TAS moves toward its fourth decade in Model UN, the program seeks to grow in impact and not simply numbers. “MUN students are eager to use their communications skills and knowledge to create an impact on the world, especially by helping to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” Mrs. Sinclair observes. “How do we support students in engaging with those goals on a greater level as they move through TAS and enter university?” While the problems of the 21st century may be daunting, Model UN is giving students the skills and opportunity to grapple with them from an early age. To sum up the impact of Model UN, Heejo Kang reflects, “It equips us with the understanding, and with it, a sense of responsibility, that no problem is isolated and that the world is smaller than it may seem.”

David Chang ’99 Brings Taiwan to Crossroads

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

Where is Taiwan headed in the 21st century? Who will come here to live, work, and invest? How will Taiwan stay relevant on the world stage? Many people in Taiwan may debate these weighty questions, but David Chang ’99 is actively working on an answer. Through Crossroads.tw (www.crossroads. tw), David hopes to make it easier for companies and individuals to move to Taiwan. “Communication is the Achilles’ heel of Taiwan,” says David. “If you’re a smaller country, that’s a weakness you can’t afford to have. You need to communicate well to seek support from other countries, so language is the common element that can bond us all.” To cross barriers of language and knowledge, David has launched Crossroads, which “aims to be a one-stop shop which will allow everyone to know about services they can use to relocate, resettle, and invest in Taiwan.” Any foreign business that might want to set up in Taiwan will have questions about setting up a business, accounting, relocating and finding office space, etc. Individuals will need to know how to apply for work permits, residence visas, and ARCs. David believes Crossroads can ease the transition into Taiwan, connecting the dots for people who may not even know where the dots are. “Our beta website went live in July 2018 and is focused on simplifying government processes. We break down the entrepreneur visa application into five easy steps, and we will hopefully expand to covering other government programs that encourage people to come to Taiwan,” explains David. Eventually, Crossroads aims to work with the Taiwanese government to make it easier to apply for residency, work permits, and dependent visas, and more. What motivates David to focus on these issues? “Taiwan is such a special place in the region, it’s a passionate place,” David says, using the Chinese term 熱情.

“You keep hearing stories about how to come back and help Taiwan with what you learn overseas, and that stuck with me. Coming from my background with a place like TAS, if we have all these resources at our fingertips, can we think about how to use that for something that helps everyone?” Crossroads seems like a good place to start.