The Tamkang Recreational Activity Counseling Club and Tamkang Chorus recently won recognitions from the Ministry of Education for two years in a row. Both rank among the top outstanding college and universities student clubs in a recent national evaluation. Joining a national student club evaluation and exhibition event held at Hsuan Chuang University on March 27 and 28 along with another 352 student clubs, the two TKU representatives, Recreational Activity Counseling Club, and Tamkang Chorus, won outstanding award in the evaluation at recreational and sports category, and academic, artistry, and language category, respectively.

Yeh Jih-cheng, a junior in the Department of Physics, who doubled as head of the Tamkang Recreational Activity Counseling Club, said that in order to join the national competition, he and his senior staff of the club have work hard on gathering all the related information on compiling a achievement report of his club. Yeh noted that his club was established in 1997. All the members of the club have been well-trained in events and activities planning skills. Many of the club’s senior members also serve as counselors in other organization outside the university. Some of them even serve as lecturer in other students club of TKU. Li Mei-lan, an instructor of the Recreational Activity Counseling Club said that joining the club can help its members to make progress in academic learning and in dealing with people.

One of the longest-running student clubs, Tamkang Chorus, has a history of 58 years. Kao Chen-yao, head of the club and a junior in the Department of Chemistry, attributed the award-winning to the joint efforts made by his clubmates. Kao noted that during the winter vacation, he and his club mates had been preparing the report for the competition, especially on mending all the mistakes made in the previous year report. Kao said he found that many student clubs have been working on volunteer services during the national competition. He said he will look upon these clubs and learn from their experiences to keep upgrading his own club. The move is also seen as a preparation for the upcoming annual student club evaluation that will be held by the end of May.

Under its guiding principles that focus on “Three dimensions” and “Five Goals”, Tamkang University has always been actively engaged in the promotion of student clubs and on encouraging them to devote into volunteer services. In preparation for the upcoming in-campus student club evaluation, a briefing to announce the details of the evaluation organized by the Extracurricular Activities Guidance Section was held at Ching-sheng International Conference Hall on March 23. The section also held a forum for student clubs instructors on April 1 to provide students and teachers an exchange platform. During the event, many outstanding student instructors were honored in appreciation for their contributions. Lin Tzu-chao, a sophomore in the Department of Management Sciences and Decision Making, who doubled as head of the Photo Club, said that he has come up with new direction for his club after attending the two seminars to face to face with club instructors. He also said that the activity can help him make preparation for the upcoming evaluation and for handing down his club to the junior members. Lin also thanks the school authority for paying attention to student clubs that make them won numerous prizes in national competitions and make students realize the importance of a student club. Chen Wei-chen, head of the TKU Student Union, said that though her union did not win any prize in the national contest, she still think it is nice to learn from all the participating student clubs of the event. Hopefully, her club can learn from them and make improvement for next year. ( ~Yeh Yun-kai)