OCSA New Graduates Present Stage Play Looking Back at College Days, Receiving Heart-warming Blessings from Homelands
NCUE Overseas Chinese Student Association (OCSA) performed a stage play and held a farewell party during the graduation season. The stage play Trivial Moments, Invaluable Memories performed by new foreign graduates tells their stories of studying in Taiwan in a detailed manner. Those stories considered trivial are precious memories of their lives when they looked back at those days at NCUE. Students' families and friends in their homelands surprisingly sent their blessings via video clips demonstrated after the play, creating a touching vibe for the event. The 2022 farewell party named Take-off and Landing represents the sorrow of parting, as well as the good and bad times in study by the metaphor of an airplane's ups and downs.
Every year, OCSA hosts a graduation exhibition in the evening after the commencement. This year (2022), the stage show Trivial Moments, Invaluable Memories was presented with various forms of performance arts including drama, dance, music, and diabolo show, telling stories about how the new graduates grew up and be more mature over the years in Taiwan. Apart from common difficulties college students face, they were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic so that they failed to go home, meet family, or organize regular OCSA activities, being forced to reschedule future plans or even giving up what they dream of doing. The challenges resulting from the pandemic are unprecedented. However, what they went through in the past few years, which were interpreted in the play, became precious memories and emotionally engaged the audience.
OCSA also prepared a surprise present for the new graduates. It is a video of blessing clips collected from students' families and friends in their countries. The video was shown after the stage play. Students were surprised by the unexpected presence of their beloved people on the screen and were touched by the heart-warming blessings and earnest advice on their next chapter. They could not help but shed tears over it, and neither did the audience.
NCUE Vice President Chien-Hui Lin, Dean of Student Affairs Chuian-Fu Ken, and Dean of International Office Hon-Man Lee were present at this event. Having earned a Ph.D. in the U.S., Vice President Lin can relate to the difficulties foreign students have, such as language barrier, cultural shock, schoolwork pressure, and particularly, the pandemic. She praised those students as "life warriors", and wished them all success, smoothness, and happiness in life. She added that they are always welcome back home at NCUE. The graduate representative Ji-Rou Wu stated that she is glad to choose NCUE where she gained great experiences of studying and living in Taiwan, and made friends with people from all over the world. Though it is hard for them to gather again after graduation, they have created precious memories that can be kept for life.
The farewell party held by OCSA is to express appreciation to the senior students for helping the freshmen from abroad get used to college life in Taiwan. OCSA designed a series of party games to recreate the happy moments in their school years at NCUE. OCSA also presented a video that records the wishes of the new graduates' junior schoolmates at the end of the party, making the event filled with emotions.
Dean Lee of the International Office pointed out that students may be haunted by the fear of the next unknown chapter of life. However, he believes the new graduates have the capability of tackling challenges and are ready to stride forward to brave the risks ahead.