Serial Activity for the 110th Anniversary Celebration

On the afternoon of October 17, Women’s Education Forum and Release Ceremony of the Book “International Faculty with Fujian Hwa Nan Women's College Since 1908” was held in Yu Baosheng Lecture Hall.  The forum invited Lin Yingtao, alumna and famous host of Southeast TV Station as the MC.  Principal of Sacred Heart Academy Betty White was invited as the keynote speaker.  The guests attending the forum are Council Chair and President Su Mengna, Honorary Chair of the Council Gordon Trimble, Consultant Lin Benchun, Chair of Education Department Yue Feng, Program Director Wu Yuanyuan of Business English, Program Director Huang Fei of Applied English, Alumna Wu Hang and Alumna Chen Jingxuan.

The forum started with brief introduction of the guests and of the theme by MC Lin Yingtao.  

President Su Mengna made opening remarks and extended thanks on behalf of faculty and staff to the guests for their participation in the forum on having a balance between work and family from women’s perspective.

Gordon Trimble warmly introduced the outstanding woman leader Betty White from Hawaii.  Betty White has been the principal of Sacred Heart Academy for twenty-seven years.  In this position, she vigorously promoted liberal education reform and cultivated one after another class of confident, committed, resilient and courageous girls with self consciousness and outstanding performance in STEM fields.

Betty White gave the keynote speech on how to balance career and family from women’s perspective.  She took her Grandmother Martha  as an example and made an introduction on the one hundred-year historical path of American women’s fighting for their rights, which achieved great success but hasn’t reached the goal yet since men are still in control.  She also shared seven suggestions on how to handle work-family conflicts which include finding reliable child care, setting our compass, determining our own standards, taking care of ourselves, creating time for ourselves, building a support network at work and home, and letting go of guilt.

In the interaction session of the forum, three Hwa Nan alumnae who are successful in their careers shared with audience their views and solutions in dealing with the work-family conflicts.

After the forum, the book entitled “International Faculty with Fujian Hwa Nan Women's College Since 1908”was released.  This book tells stories of a group of international faculty mostly women who devoted themselves to Hwa Nan Women’s College, to women’s higher vocational education in China, and to the progress and civilization of Chinese society. 

At the release ceremony, chief editor Professor Yue Feng enthusiastically introduced the motive of writing this book.  On one occasion, he got to know that several foreign teachers of Hwa Nan received Friendship Awards from Chinese governments and some foreign teachers continued teaching in Hwa Nan for a long time, which inspired him to call upon English faculty of Hwa Nan to write the book.  Consultant Lin Benchun spoke about his honor to have worked with many foreign teachers in the book and become life-long friends.  He said without those foreign teachers, there weren’t excellent Hwa Nan graduates, because the reason why Hwa Nan graduates are very successful in job hunting after reestablishment in 1984 is their good command of spoken English. 

MC Lin Yingtao read the congratulation letter from President Chen Jing of Fujian Women's Cadre School.  She extended congratulations to the forum and affirmed the achievement made by Hwa Nan in women’s education. 

The successful forum reveals to the faculty and students that, though women’s status in family and work have been greatly improved, more efforts shall be made to achieve the goals for women.  When we are grateful to the education given by foreign teachers, we shall also think about how to cultivate new generation female talents in higher education.