YDU

 My 50 Years of Experience and Life-Long Dedication to  Yu Da University of Science and Technology

　　Since 1949 when I first opened the Yu Da Accounting Supplementary School in Taipei, to 1999 when I established the YDU in Miaoli, I have never rested the devotion and mission to education. Education has always been giving tremendous joy and satisfaction to my life. During these fifty years, I have gone through difficult and challenging times to help expand quality education to many parts of Asia. I admit I have some accomplishment in education across China and Taiwan, yet I feel I still have a lot to my mission.

     Standing on these campuses, I recall the sweats and pains as the result of constructing the schools on these once undeveloped lands; each school took a lot of time, effort, and money to build. Yet seeing my fellow faculty conducting their researches, teaching passionately in classrooms, and sacrificing so much of their life for our students, I am profoundly moved; moments such as this, I cannot but only to thank them from heart. And when our students come back and tell us about their adventure in life, how they chose their own paths, and actualized their goals, the sores we get from teaching suddenly disappeared.

     As our society rapidly advances and everybody realizes the importance of education, it has become more difficult to found a school because of the social complexities we face today, and other competitive institutions are beginning to rise as well. But I am not afraid to say that I do have a lot of experiences and knowledge at building schools (at least on the Eastern part of the world). All seven Yu Da education institutions are results of my accumulated experiences and knowledge, which I believe, is unobtainable  but only through a passionate heart and commitment to education. This University is my last founding education institute and I am determined wholeheartedly to shape this University to be a unparalleled school model for Taiwan's private education sector. How? I am planting my fifty-year experience, my whole life, into YDU.

     From past experience, I have learned in order to produce sound teaching and learning environment, the buildings must be thoughtfully (in consideration of faculty and students) designed, and are strongly built with the best materials. Fresh air and lighting are important to me, therefore all the classrooms are well-ventilated and have fine lighting. Our Main Library is really a large computerized and digital resource center, we are investing tremendous amount of money so our faculty and students may conduct their research and learning there. Here at YDU, we are encouraging everybody to engage in sports activities, hence, we have built an indoor gymnasium with various of facilities. Periodically, the University will increase advanced computer equipment and network system to expand faculty's and students' researches, and to maintain the pace with the global village, technologically. To keep our campus nicely green and trimmed, we have professional gardeners all year round to grow and maintain our grasses, trees, and flowers. The University provides many scholarships: to recruit the best students, the school offers full scholarship for four/two years depends on the education program; as rewards to students' performance, the school provides Diligence Scholarships and Improvement Scholarships. Yu Da Times are sent out biweekly to parents, students, faculty, and friends and alumni as a medium to keep them connected with the university. I feel these are important counterparts of any school to become successful. I am eighty years old (as of 2001) and I still travel between Taipei and Miaoli during weekends and holidays (three hour drive round-trip) to oversee the constructions and to ensure every step has met my standard. Moreover, I have contributed many of my lifelong savings and investments to this meaningful project. Why, as anyone may ask, do I devote so much into this institute? My response— I want to make YDU a best educational institution. I feel nothing is any more important than quality education, because not only students' life is affected, but their families, societies, and the people they will meet in the future will also be influenced by the quality education our students receive here.

     YDU is at a young phase, it has much to learn and grow. But I can assure that, it definitely has a strong and firm foundation both in spirit and in infrastructure. During the first three years, the campus has already developed ten hectares of land, with the total building area of more than ten thousand squared meters, this itself is impressive. Moreover, YDU currently has more than 8,000 both faculty and students, this also is an admirable figure.

     In my final word, I would like to say I am sincerely gracious and thankful for all of you who have supported Yu Da and me; I cannot start to describe how appreciative I am for that. For the past fifty years, I continue to receive supports from my friends of various fields, school administrators and faculty, students and parents. They all have helped me to build Yu Da. Lastly, I honestly believe Yu Da University of Science and Technology will carry itself to be what I believe a quality education should be. Base on my fifty years in education, YDU will speak for that.