Free room and $800 a month living income in the city of Taiwan and the only thing that is asked in return is to learn mandarin, that’s the opportunity that was presented at the ASCC Senate meeting on Wednesday Oct.19.

Senator Alan Malfavon was excited to hear about the scholarships and internships opportunities presented by Director of Education division in the Taipei Economic and Cultural office Los Angeles Li-Ling Liang.

Malfavon said, “It don’t think it’s every day that people come in contact with a representative of a foreign country, offering money to go study.”

Liang was introduced by Student Trustee Karen Patron and accompanied in her presentation by Board of Trustees President Shin Liu.

She also provided her contact information for anyone interested in the scholarship opportunities available.

“Interested students should contact me for details on what paper work needs to be submitted.” Liang said.

Her contact information is:

• Email [email protected]

• Telephone No. (213) 385-0512

• Cellphone No. (626) 383-3585

• Website http://www.roc-taiwan.org/uslax/

She is in charge of selecting 20 to 25 students for the scholarship that includes $800 a month for living expenses and the only requirements are to spend three hours a day learning mandarin in Taiwan and the airfare expenses.

Liang also stated that students would have the rest of their time free to explore the country’s scenery, restaurants, and take other classes such as calligraphy.

How long a student stays in the country to learn is also up to the student, the stay can be as short as a two month summer internship.

Malfavon said, “They [Liang and Liu] mention a summer internship to learn mandarin and how incredibly useful is that. I think she’s saying we’ll pay you to learn a language in a foreign country all you have to do is come up with a plane ticket. That is amazing I’m going to look into that myself.”

Senator Isaac Simons-Araya agreed that the presentation was something that stood out during the meeting.

He said, “I thought that [scholarship] was very interesting and exciting to hear about.”

However, he is not interested in obtaining one of the scholarships. “My yearly schedule is pretty packed but I’m definitely interested in sharing that information with others,” Simons-Araya said.

Another agenda item that caught both Malfavon’s and Simons-Araya’s attention was the presentation by the Cerritos College Model United Nations president Carlos Diaz Soto requesting funds for an upcoming conference.

Simons-Araya said, “I’m looking forward to seeing the advancement of the Model United Nations [fund request].”

The total amount he was requesting was $6,440, the club would have to fundraise 20 percent of the total cost to be eligible to receive the rest of the funding from ASCC government.

Beside fundraising the 20 percent of cost the club also has to deal with the standard process of requesting funds from the ASCC government a process that usually takes three months according to ASCC Senate advisor Amber Dofner.

The problem for CCMUN Club is the registration deadline is Nov. 1, after that date registration would increase $10 per student registration increasing the amount of money it would need, and the amount the amount of money the club would need to fundraise.

Malfavon said, “I was impressed with the information that the president of the model United Nations came with. Model United Nations is a club that I am interested in had it come to a vote it would have been my obligation to abstain because of the conflict of interest and I’m fully respectful of that. I’m curious how the senate will regard his request for funds in the future.”