Every year in October, Tamsui becomes enveloped in an atmosphere of art. That is because of the Tamsui Art Festival, an annual event which involves a major parade. This year, 57 Tamkang students from the Department of History provided service and assistance at the parade. Their efforts were part of the TKU service learning program, which requires all freshmen to “help out” the local community.

To assist the service learning students, TKU held two service training sessions to help students become more familiar with the Tamsui area. To prepare for the parade, the students assisted participating artists in creating props, uniforms, and decorations for parade floats. On the day of the parade, the student volunteers wore special vests and assisted in a range of tasks, from answering questions of passersby to holding up the signs for floats in the parade.

Student volunteer, Sung Yi Hsuan, said that “on the day of the parade, we were each responsible for holding signs introducing each float. It taught me a great deal about interacting with others. It was an incredible experience”.