Listen to Elderly Life Story, St. John’s University Work with CYCU to Practice Local Care

St. John’s University worked with CYCU and won the Practice Award in the “Youth Service-Learning Dream Practitioner Competition” organized by Ministry of Education, and engaged in the Service-Learning in Tunshan Community in Tamsui to listen to the elderly life stories

The students of St. John University and CYCU Service-Learning Center press group students interviewed the elderly together and listened to the stories told by the elderly

They listened to the life experience told by these grandparents, practiced the local care, and learned the experience which they could not learn from class. All of the students felt benefited a lot from them

The students of St. John University designed the sweater hat and decoration ornament production activity to share the fun in DIY with the elderly, and stayed with the elderly to share their own life stories under the relaxed atmosphere

(CNA Message Service 20180110 09:31:26) Ministry of Education organized the “Youth Service-Learning Dream Practitioner Competition” to encourage various schools to engage in the interdisciplinary cooperation and extend the cooperation to the community caring. St. John’s University worked with CYCU to win the Practice Award in the Competition and engage in Service-Learning in Ben Gang Community, Xinwu Township and Tunshan Community in Tamsui. They did the DIY and ate meals together with the elderly, and also listened to the life stories told by the elderly through the interview. As a result, the students had the chance to listen to the life experience told by these grandparents, practiced the local care, and learned the experience which they could not learn from class. All of them benefited a lot from them.

Director of St. John University’s Service-Learning Center, Chia Da-Ling, indicated that Youth Development Administration, Ministry of Education organized the “Youth Service-Learning Dream Practitioner Competition” for the first time this year, in hopes of extending the learning to the community caring and enabling the students to fulfill their civil responsibility by virtue of the opportunity of designing Service-Learning programs. The University has worked with the neighboring Tunshan Community, Tamsui in the congregate nutrition services for the elderly since May 2015, in order to enable the students to interact with the elderly. The plan was well recognized and the students established sound relations with the elderly in the Community. By taking chance of the Competition, the University invited CYCU students to participate in the congregate nutrition services for the elderly in the Community to enable the two schools’ students to practice their profession and specialty with what they learned from classes and interact with the elderly. Once, the students of St. John’s University have headed for Ben Gang Community, Xinwu, Taoyuan together with CYCU students to engage in exchange and interaction in the same manner.

Director Chia Da-Ling said that during the interdisciplinary cooperation project, director of CYCU Service-Learning Center, Teacher Lu Yung-Fu, and four campus reporters attended the congregate nutrition services to the elderly in Tunshan Community, and also interviewed the elderly in the Community to verify the stories and cultures of the Community. They hoped to prepare some publications for the interview about the elderly life stories to have more young people share the life experience told by the elderly, and being inspired and grow therefor. The interdisciplinary cooperation not only made the elderly in the Community make more friends but also enabled the university students to experience different community cultures.

The student of St. John’s University participating in the interview with the elderly, Sun Po-Chun, considered that the extraordinary life experience accumulated by these grandparents made him admired greatly. The environment in which they were living then gave them the courage so that they would admit defeat and submit themselves to fate. Instead, he was always thinking too much and acted very pessimistically, and felt all the times that he could only follow others’ order and dared not to express his own thought, even if he had it; however, these grandparents were living in a more rigid environment, but they still acted optimistic and aggressive. A grandpa said that “trying” was the only way to be successful; you have to “try” and then you may have chance; you should not let the chance go away easily. The grandpa encouraged him, saying that “you own the fortune of “20 years” and should pursue your dream bravely.” He was confused at that moment. Then, the grandpa pointed to his limbs, and he realized that he had already owned everything. Therefore, he expected himself to deal with issues optimistically and affect others’ life with his own life. Another student, Ko Ming-Hsin, shared her own experience in interacting with the grandma and realized how parents worried about their own children, because they have already experienced so much and hoped that their children could avoid committing the same mistake as they did before. After engaging in the service, she learned how to think like parents.

Director Lu Yung-Fu of CYCU Learning Service Center said that the students hoped to know the honorable and happy stories of the elderly. By collecting the stories told by the elderly and understanding the local cultures and characteristics of Tunshan Community in Tamsui, the students could have the chance to record what they saw and heard and present the same on the school’s newspaper and journal, and we believed that such observation and interview about the community’s needs would benefit the student’s community introspection and ability to solve problems. Just like what was shared by Sun Po-Chun, “I would say that they provided service to me, rather than I provided service to them”.

Source: http://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/Detail/227116.aspx#.Wlayv66Wbcs