In Taichung, Taiwan there’s a university that has a lot in common with Davidson (my home institution). Tunghai University is a great school with a strong liberal arts curriculum and a Protestant affililation. The campus is lovely, and like Davidson, it’s an arboretum. It’s a lot bigger than Davidson, but it still had a homey feeling when I stopped in last month for a visit.
Davidson was founded by Presbyterians in 1837; Tunghai was founded by Methodists in 1955. It was the first private university founded in Taiwan.
In recent years, we at Davidson have been working with Tunghai to match our students and recent graduates with job opportunities in their International College. It’s been a great experience for Davidson, and I think Tunghai’s been happy with the people we’ve introduced. It was a real treat for me to finally have a chance to see the International College — which has students from Taiwan as well as international students, all learning together in an English-language curriculum — and to meet some of the students there.
After a very full day Tunghai with Natalie, Dr. James Sims (Dean of the International College and parent of a Davidson alum), and professors and students in Political Science and the International College I was honored to spend the evening speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Taichung.
The three of us in the photo above discovered we have something in common: Incredibly enough, all three of us — International College Dean James Sims, AmCham President Doug Habecker, and I all lived, at different times, in the same house in Hualien (on the East Coast of Taiwan). Doug was born at the Hualien Mennonite Hospital; his parents were missionaries and his first home was the house where I stayed with Don and Virginia McCall during my first visit to Taiwan in 1982. James also spent time with Don and Virginia in that house when he was teaching at the Yushan Theological Seminary. Now if that’s not proof of a small world, I don’t know what is!
Leave a Reply