Ever since I returned to school with my doctorate degree from Australia in the 94th academic year, I was inspired by the experience shared by then Secretary General Mr. Wu Zhao-Ming. He told of how the faculty and students of the Department of Information Management used e-commerce to sell peaches in Fuxing Township. I started introducing service-learning into my professional courses in Business Design, regularly leading students to participate in related service projects using their design expertise. Over the years, we have worked on a variety of projects ranging from recycling and redesigning carpenter’s homes to re-designing banners for the Beautiful Taiwan Foundation. These projects were all related to public welfare, environmental issues, and circular design. In recent years, we’ve also participated in Ministry of Education projects, such as the Miopu and USR plans, which have broadened the scope of design service-learning to rural communities.

I am grateful for this recognition. Having served as the Deputy Head of International Affairs, the Head of the Creative Design Institute, the Director of Business Design Department, and the Head of the Student Affairs Office, I deeply feel that the school provides abundant resources for students. Unfortunately, not all students are aware of these resources. I would like to express my special thanks to Director Lee, Chun-Yao and colleagues Jung-Hua, Yu-Ju, Yung-Fu, Jing-Ying, Shiang-Yun, and Jui-Chu of the Service Learning Center. Their enthusiastic assistance, providing funding for students’ transportation and material costs, allowed me to take students away from their computer screens. They were brought into real-life settings to use design thinking to identify problems and apply their professional design skills to attempt to solve them. The aim is to gradually guide students to apply what they’ve learned at school to society. They are encouraged to involve themselves in product packaging design, production of promotional materials, creative product marketing, and so on. This stimulates participation from serviced organizations or community brands, and sparks cross-professional exchanges and future possibilities through interactive dialogue.

As we transition from teaching Generation Y to Generation Z, value systems are constantly changing. I want to take the opportunity provided by service-learning to not only help students develop the habit of starting from the meaning and research behind the design, and to avoid designing for design’s sake, but more importantly, to help them see their own value from the needs of others. This will build their confidence and allow both themselves and the entire environment to enter a cycle of positive energy.