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By The China Post, Taiwan/ Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network
According to The China Post, second-generation new immigrant Chang Chia-chun (張嘉淳) was a recipient of National Taiwan University’s (NTU, 國立台灣大學) scholarship awards ceremony held on Dec. 17, and shared with the crowd his inspiring story of overcoming the past and building a better future.
As a student in the Department of Computer Sciences and Information Engineering at NTU, Chang revealed that when he was three years old, his Indonesian mother led the escape from their home after suffering domestic violence at the hands of his father.
He remarked that the violence started when his mother married to Taiwan, and three years after he was born, his mother came to realize that enough was enough. One day, in the middle of the night, his mother shook him and his sister awake, put jacket after jackets on them, and fleed their home together.
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Second-generation new immigrant Chang Chia-chun was a recipient of National Taiwan University’s scholarship award. (Photo / Provided by NTU)
However, they were soon rendered homeless as even though his mother had a college degree, she couldn’t find a high-paying job after her divorce, leading the family to seek solace in shelters.
Chang revealed that he had slept in shelters, on the second floor of a canned foods factory, and in the basement of a breakfast shop before they finally found a fixed residence when he entered elementary school.
During this tough period, Chang recalled that they received help from social groups who extended a helping hand, lifting them out of the darkness.
In light of his experience, Chang decided early on that he would do whatever he could to give back to society, whenever. When he was in high school, he and his classmates raised funds to adopt underprivileged children.
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National Taiwan University holds "Various Scholarship Awards Ceremony" every year. (Photo / Provided by NTU)
In college, he also went to the Philippines as an international volunteer, and under the guidance of professors from NTU, he used cow feces to improve the local soil and help local residents build houses.
The experience of childhood displacement led Chang to pay special attention to the issue of “homelessness” after entering NTU, joined the homeless service agency, and regularly collected winter clothes for the displaced every year.
He paid tribute to the kindness of strangers when he was little and expressed his hopes that this warmth can be passed on through practical actions so that other people who have similar experiences with him can experience the same warmth.
NTU awarded 11 types of scholarships to 297 students this year, and Chang was chosen as a representative of the students.
Authorization of this article from【The China Post】By Vivian Hsiao
