CIEE Taipei 25th Anniversary: In Retrospect and Prospect

Written by Andrew Maxey

On the night of October 25th, current and former CIEE students, cultural ambassadors, staff, and supporters gathered for a banquet in the Taipei World Trade Center Club to celebrate the 25th anniversary of CIEE in Taipei. I was honored to be one of the alumni invited to the banquet and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening’s program and menu. A particularly interesting aspect of the event were the cultural displays organized by the current CIEE students, cultural ambassadors, and staff, which included traditional music and dancing, and culminated in everyone leaving their seats to join in an aboriginal dance. As a student who went through the program in Spring 2017, it reminded me of my time in Taiwan back then and the things I experienced while at CIEE.

The greatest thing I appreciated during that time was the organization of the CIEE Taipei program in a way that provided more than simple language and university classes, with opportunities and impetus to gain a greater cultural understanding of Taiwan. For example, our cultural ambassadors, local students at National Chengchi University, helmed many diverse events and excursions for us that provided this. For me, the 25th anniversary banquet was a great reflection of this, and I’d like to join all the alumni and people involved with CIEE in wishing CIEE Taipei many more years of outstanding performance in shaping future leaders, thinkers, and innovators.

Video by Angeline Chang, Gary Chang, Lane Lin, Etta Chang

Photo Credits: Annie Hsieh, Jennifer Lau, Carol Chen, Frank Tien