The Ministry of Education has revealed the results of an entrepreneurship initiative for academics and university students that was organized to boost rural economies and help elementary schools in danger of closing create viable business models.
The project, organized by National Sun Yat-sen University, solicited proposals from 12 universities for collaborative projects with rural elementary schools.
By identifying the strengths of local industries and creating unique business models for underdeveloped areas, the teams have over the past two years managed to prevent several elementary schools from closing and curbed workforce drain common in such areas, the ministry said.
Nanya Institute of Technology assistant professor Chen Chi-yi (陳啟益) said that when he first arrived at Hualien County’s Wenlan Village (文蘭), he was stumped by the village’s business potential, as the products being sold were either brought from other places or handcrafted and therefore had limited production volume.
As he learned more about the community, he found that Wenlan Elementary School had been designated a key member of a ministry program to promote educational and sightseeing tours.
He said he had the idea of transforming unused classrooms and school buildings into bed-and-breakfast accommodation, providing guests with convenient access to the village’s rustic charms.
The elementary school received investment from a venture capital firm, Chen said, adding that he hopes blending local attractions with additional features would create job opportunities so that young people who left Wenlan to look for work can return.
I-Shou University assistant professor Chang Heng-yan (張姮燕) said that when she arrived at Pingtung County’s Sandimen Village (三地門), she found only small areas of red quinoa cultivation, as the crop was largely destroyed by Typhoon Morakot in 2009.
Chang, who teaches hospitality management, said she came up with a plan to bake cakes with red quinoa filling.
Under an Academia Sinica project to revive the crop at Maer Settlement (馬兒部落), where the Shekou Elementary School is located, Chang signed a contract with red quinoa farmers to ensure a steady supply of ingredients.
She set up a bakery at the school and asked her students to create a Web page for people to order quinoa cakes and cakes made from walnuts and locally farmed taro.
The project has not only created job opportunities for parents, but also allowed students to learn how to bake, Chang said.
Her team launched a fundraising campaign to create a brand which, if successful, would be run by her students, Chang said.
National University of Tainan associate professor Lee Yun-ping (李芸蘋), who was assigned to assist Miaoli County’s Shuang-Lian Elementary School, said her goal is to promote a brand of high-quality pears unique to Jhoulan Township (卓蘭) producers.
Using the school as a marketing center, Lee detailed her mission on local fundraising platform flyingV, where her team raised NT$580,000.
By marketing the pears as gift packages, the team earned a net profit of NT$400,000, from which it took NT$210,000 after splitting the proceeds with local pear farmers.
A number of her students have established start-ups to market the fruit, while others landed teaching jobs at the school, which is the outcome she had hoped to achieve, Lee said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods