The Fulbright Program aims to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby to increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.    —Senator J. William Fulbright

Why Taiwan?

The Personal

I am an African American woman born and raised in what is affectionately known as the South.  While I was born in Memphis, TN, I was raised just across the state line in Desoto County Mississippi. My husband is a Chinese American born in Burbank, CA but lived most of his childhood in Phoenix, Arizona.  His Mom and Dad are first generation immigrants who are ethnically Chinese but were born in Vietnam and Burma respectively.  They currently live in Bangkok, Thailand.  It is important to us that our daughter Leila Kamdang is immersed in all facets of her multicultural family. She has been learning Mandarin since she was 10 months old.  At age two, we enrolled her in Ms. Lam Montessori School, which has five locations in Taipei, Taiwan and Leila’s school located in Brooklyn, NY.  With my African-American roots, sadly I don’t have an African language to give her. What I can give to her is my family legacy of entrepreneurship and written and oral history and pictures that traces my family’s roots to the early 1800’s, when slavery was legal in America.  The opportunity to study in Taiwan seemed perfect for our family. Not only does it align with our values, my Mother-In-Law is an alumnus of National Taiwan University, where I will be teaching and completing research.  While we are in Taipei, she will be celebrating her 50th class reunion. 

The Professional

I was inspired to apply for a Fulbright Fellowship because I had a strong desire to get back to what I was most passionate about in graduate school: opportunities to travel; research; and design.  While at PennDesign, I was able to investigate the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and settlements in Accra, Ghana.  In real time, I was able to experience the informal versus the formal of architecture which broadened my perspective to understand how working with nature to create space, could be inherently more beneficial to “formal” architecture.  To return to my passion, I researched grants for architecture and urban planning. There were limited options for architectural research in general, so when I completed a search for available grants the number was quite limited.  But, there was a grant listed for Taiwan that privileged research of indigenous cultures.  It was an opportunity that worked for my research and family.  With Leila currently enrolled in Ms. Lam Montessori, a school with multiple locations in Taiwan and one location in Brooklyn; I knew that she could easily transition.  And with her grandparents (my in-laws), located in Bangkok, Thailand, her family would be closer than ever.  I applied and was so fortunate to receive this opportunity.