The Cupertino Courier
News
Students will take Taiwan trip in April
By Crystal Lu
The Cupertino Sister City Association is planning to send 14 to 18 middle school students this spring to Hsinchu, a city known as Taiwan's Silicon Valley.
It will be the first official visit of Cupertino students to Hsinchu since that city and Cupertino became sister cities in March 2007. The program used to operate as a private nonprofit.
"The exchange program was founded four years ago to increase Cupertino students' understanding of Taiwan, where many Cupertino residents came from," said Janice Sung, vice president of Cupertino-Hsinchu Sister City Association.
"We send our students to Hsinchu during spring break, and receive students from Hsinchu in late October for them to get a Halloween experience," she added.
The exchange students will visit Hsinchu April 12-20. They will stay with host families and attend public schools where they will learn to make traditional Chinese crafts, do Chinese folk dance and play Chinese folk sports.
The students will visit a famous temple, a glass factory, a beach in Hsinchu and take day trips to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. They also will tour Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world, and the Palace Museum, which displays treasures the nationalist government brought from the Imperial Palace in Beijing to Taipei when it lost Mainland China to the communist regime in 1949.
Thus far, seven students have applied for the exchange program.
"I've met some exchange students from Taiwan. They said school is really
hard there. I want to see if it's true," said Ashton Krajnovish, a seventh-grader of Kennedy Middle School.
"I have a friend from church who went as an exchange student. He said it was really fun. So I want to go, too," said Stephen Ting, another seventh-grader at Kennedy Middle School.
"I want to see how lifestyle in Hsinchu is different from the way we live in Cupertino," said Rebekkah Scharf, an eighth-grader at Lawson Middle School.
"I'm glad Cupertino and Hsinchu are now officially sister cities, so we are sure that the exchange program will be permanent," said Sung.
Cupertino and Hsinchu didn't establish official ties until a California state law was changed, according to Sung. The state used to allow each city to have only one sister city. Cupertino became sister cities with Toyokawa, Japan, in 1978.
Since Cupertino and Hsinchu will have student exchanges annually, the Cupertino Sister City Association has decided to accept year-round applications for exchange students or host families.
To apply for the exchange program, students must write a short essay, explaining in 100 to 200 words what they would like to experience in Hsinchu. Each student must obtain two references from current teachers. The completed reference forms must be submitted through Jeremy Nishihara, communications manager of the Cupertino Union School District, by Feb. 29.
The sister city association will interview applicants in the conference room at Cupertino City Hall, 10300 Torre Ave., on Feb. 25 from 7 to 8 p.m.
For application materials, call Sung at 408.343.0149.