Walking around the school, there was a large group of people, laughing, talking and getting to know each other. There were people of all ages speaking multiple different languages. Some were teachers, some were students and one was a special visitor.

Andrea Yang, the head of education for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, visited on Nov. 8. She was the first foreign diplomat to visit the school. Yang was given a tour by sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung, and senior Yushan Pan, all of whom currently take a Chinese class with Joyce Chen. Pan is in AP Chinese, and Trung and Ou are in Chinese III. Ou’s family is from Taiwan, Pan’s family is from China and Trung is from Vietnam.

“I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.”

The student tour guides were chosen on a volunteer basis. Pan said that she knew Chinese before taking the class but that she has been able to improve her understanding of the language through taking AP Chinese. Pan was in charge of showing Yang the band hall and choir room. She said that the tour was a great way to improve the school’s relationship with the ambassador. 

“This [was] definitely a great experience and opportunity,” Pan said. “We’re doing some collaborations with the [Taiwanese] students as well. I’m happy to [get to help] and do what I can.”

Cedar Park Chinese teacher Joyce Chen was introduced to Yang by Charlotte Chen, the long-term sub for Vandegrift’s Chinese teacher. Charlotte Chen also teaches at Goodnews Mandarin Academy. Charlotte Chen helped give the tour with the student volunteers and Joyce Chen. She is from Taiwan and said she wants to educate America about Taiwanese culture.

“[In Taiwan], I think the food [creates] common conversation, and we talk a lot more,” Charlotte Chen said. “I’m from Taipei, and it’s a very modern city. It’s very diverse. You can see so many people from different countries around Taipei.”

Yang has worked as a diplomat for over 20 years, and she was a diplomat to Paraguay until 2019. She now works as a diplomat, covering eight states for the Taiwan Ministry of Education. In addition to working in Paraguay and the United States, she also spent a year in Spain at the national university for language training. She is fluent in Chinese, English and Spanish.

“I want people to know that Taiwan is a very friendly, diverse, and democratic country,” Yang said. “We welcome all of our international friends.”

During the tour, Yang saw the broadcast studio, culinary kitchens, choir hall and dance gym. At the broadcast studio, she was given a tour by juniors Reid Cummins and LuLu Lynch, anchors for The Wolfcast. Yang said that she was impressed by the professionalism of the students in The Wolfcast program and offered to come back to the school and give an interview with The Wolfcast.

“I’m blown away by the fact that she made time to come here,” Lynch said. “We were able to teach her stuff and she’s willing to be on our show because she wants to be here. I think it’s a great opportunity to share what Taiwan is doing and get those connections started. We can get [more information] out into our community because I feel like a lot of students don’t have a lot of information about [Taiwan]. It allows us to broaden our audience in a really cool way.”

Joyce Chen said she hopes to form a sister school partnership with a school in Taiwan by having her students write letters to pen pals from Taiwan once a month. Chen plans to make the first prompt for their letters holiday-related because Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Taiwan and Christmas traditions are very different in Taiwan. She said she wants to share American traditions with the Taiwanese students. 

“I’m really excited for our students to learn more about Taiwan [through their pen pals] because it’s my home country,” Joyce Chen said. “I’m also excited to see opportunities that the Taiwanese government could help us with, like study abroad or scholarships. They’re very active in the United States with travel abroad and exchange programs. It’s expensive to study abroad, so it would be nice to have some systems and partnerships [established].”