The REAL Project: Incubating Local Talent Pool in Hsinchu
During the pilot period of the University Social Responsibility (USR) project in 2017, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) conducted the SPROUT project in Hengshan Township in Hsinchu county, attempting to resolve local issues with 300 teachers’ and students’ participation. The project, however, did not really make difference in terms of teachers’ researches and teaching as well as students’ learning and career development. After lessons learned from this experience, NTHU has recognized the necessity of full considerations and detailed planning of the partnership between teachers, students, and local residents. Since 2020, NTHU thus has been expanding a series of actions that aim to become the incubator of local talents in Hsinchu.
After the frustrated pilot USR project in 2017, NTHU established the Regional Innovation Center to organize all local practices about regional issues of Hsinchu. Also, the center set up “the program of the revitalization of urban and rural regions” for students to explore regional issues. To relieve students’ burden, the program not only offers specialty courses, but also the mechanism for credits waiver and transference that recognizes credits from students’ respective academic departments. In the first stage, to trigger students’ interests, two required courses about fieldwork provide students a chance to enter both urban and rural areas in Hsinchu and to discover relevant issues without too much pressure. The second stage encourages students to resolve local problems by means of their knowledge and skills learned from academic departments. In the final stage, students equipped with local knowledge and professional skills will conduct a capstone project to respond the local problems.
To launch the plan, the Regional Engagement Assistant Laboratory, Hsinchu (REAL) was established in 2020. REAL recruits a team with local knowledge, academic training, and local connections to build a matchmaking platform between teachers, students, local organizations, and residents. The project targets the issues of the old town of Hsinchu as well as rural areas along the Provincial Route 3. It involves teachers to run related courses and students with interests in particular issues and local organizations to assist both teachers and students. The mechanism plays a role for teachers to get familiar with new fields efficiently. Meanwhile, REAL organizes guided tours, workshops by local organizations, and consultation services for students’ proposals, etc., encouraging students to integrate their academic learning into local issues.
The REAL project with the program of the revitalization of urban and rural regions offers two required courses of “Exploring Locality and Fieldwork” to get students ready before they enter the urban and rural fields. Moreover, REAL takes part in some courses’ redesign. For instance, the REAL team members and the lecturer of the course of “Understand Art: Music” discussed the possibility of taking local issues into account. It turned out that students were capable to integrate local religion culture of Hsinchu into their project and even filmed music videos blending the sound from Hsinchu commuting tram. Another case is that the students who took the course of “Designing Application of Glass Art I” collected disposed glass, like glass bottles and tableware, from the shops of the Tomgmen market in Hsinchu. They applied what they learned from the course to reuse disposed glass and to make new customized products for the shops. The course of “Social and Cultural Analysis” carried out a project to analyze how COVID-19 affects the local business that successfully matchs students and local merchants to make a documentary. What is more, some students joined a local film crew after the course.
Through everyday participation, REAL expects to enhance teachers’ students’, local organizations’ and residents’ efficiency in the development process of USR and ease the tension among all parties above. Aside from the experimental courses mentioned above, REAL also invites an awarded documentary director as the instructor to hold a “workshop for visual narrative”, holds a workshop for board game design in accordance with the issues of local innovation, and starts a study group of street fieldwork. All the practices of REAL aim to provide more opportunities for teachers and students of NTHU to take part in everyday issues in Hsinchu, beginning to incubate the local talent pool.
Let’s Study and Experience the Locality of Hsinchu at the Same Time!
After the frustrated pilot USR project in 2017, NTHU established the Regional Innovation Center to organize all local practices about regional issues of Hsinchu. Also, the center set up “the program of the revitalization of urban and rural regions” for students to explore regional issues. To relieve students’ burden, the program not only offers specialty courses, but also the mechanism for credits waiver and transference that recognizes credits from students’ respective academic departments. In the first stage, to trigger students’ interests, two required courses about fieldwork provide students a chance to enter both urban and rural areas in Hsinchu and to discover relevant issues without too much pressure. The second stage encourages students to resolve local problems by means of their knowledge and skills learned from academic departments. In the final stage, students equipped with local knowledge and professional skills will conduct a capstone project to respond the local problems.
To launch the plan, the Regional Engagement Assistant Laboratory, Hsinchu (REAL) was established in 2020. REAL recruits a team with local knowledge, academic training, and local connections to build a matchmaking platform between teachers, students, local organizations, and residents. The project targets the issues of the old town of Hsinchu as well as rural areas along the Provincial Route 3. It involves teachers to run related courses and students with interests in particular issues and local organizations to assist both teachers and students. The mechanism plays a role for teachers to get familiar with new fields efficiently. Meanwhile, REAL organizes guided tours, workshops by local organizations, and consultation services for students’ proposals, etc., encouraging students to integrate their academic learning into local issues.
How about a REAL play?
The REAL project with the program of the revitalization of urban and rural regions offers two required courses of “Exploring Locality and Fieldwork” to get students ready before they enter the urban and rural fields. Moreover, REAL takes part in some courses’ redesign. For instance, the REAL team members and the lecturer of the course of “Understand Art: Music” discussed the possibility of taking local issues into account. It turned out that students were capable to integrate local religion culture of Hsinchu into their project and even filmed music videos blending the sound from Hsinchu commuting tram. Another case is that the students who took the course of “Designing Application of Glass Art I” collected disposed glass, like glass bottles and tableware, from the shops of the Tomgmen market in Hsinchu. They applied what they learned from the course to reuse disposed glass and to make new customized products for the shops. The course of “Social and Cultural Analysis” carried out a project to analyze how COVID-19 affects the local business that successfully matchs students and local merchants to make a documentary. What is more, some students joined a local film crew after the course.
Creating Everyday Participation Softly
Through everyday participation, REAL expects to enhance teachers’ students’, local organizations’ and residents’ efficiency in the development process of USR and ease the tension among all parties above. Aside from the experimental courses mentioned above, REAL also invites an awarded documentary director as the instructor to hold a “workshop for visual narrative”, holds a workshop for board game design in accordance with the issues of local innovation, and starts a study group of street fieldwork. All the practices of REAL aim to provide more opportunities for teachers and students of NTHU to take part in everyday issues in Hsinchu, beginning to incubate the local talent pool.
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University characteristic Startup Stage Project
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Hsinchu City
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國立清華大學
436votes
Further reading
Measures for Leaving a Message to Enter the Draw for the Live Streaming of the Opening Ceremony
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Event Period
From 13:00 to 14:00 on December 12 (Saturday), 2020
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Event Measures
Log in to your personal Facebook or Google account to proceed with leaving a message; each account with a successful message of #2020usrexpo left before the end of the live streaming of the opening ceremony will have an opportunity to enter the draw, and each account is restricted to winning the prize once only.
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List of Winners
On December 14 (Monday), 2020, the list of winners will be announced on the event official website https://2020usrexpo.org/) Announcement of the list of winners
Event Prize Content
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1st Prize
“Huei Yeh” Power Extreme Massage Gun 1 winner
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2nd Prize
Nestle Dolce Gusto Genio 2 1 winner
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3rd Prize
KINYO Bluetooth 5.0 Wireless Speaker 2 winner
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4th Prize
7-11 Gift Voucher valued at NT$200 27 winner
Announcement of the list of winners
The various prizes are expected to be notified via email and also announced on the event official website on December 14 (Monday), please will the prize winners pay attention to the prize-winning information, and send back the relevant documents according to the notices & explanations; no separate notification will be issued.
Notices
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