Student linguist wins scholarship to Taiwan

Megan Strumbeck, a junior majoring in East Asia studies

3:36 p.m., Nov. 5, 2004--Thanks to a series of serendipitous happenings and her own outstanding qualifications, junior Megan Strumbeck, majoring in East Asia studies, has won a $25,000 Rotary International scholarship and will spend next year studying Mandarin Chinese at the Language Institute of the Normal University of Taipei in Taiwan.

An anonymous Rotarian in Taiwan donated three one-time scholarships, stipulating that two students come from Japan and one from the Rotary Eastern Shore district in the United States to study Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan.

Jim Kent, associate professor of health and exercise sciences and an active Rotarian, learned of the scholarship and called Jianguo Chen, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures, to ask for his assistance in finding a suitable candidate who was studying Mandarin Chinese at UD. Chen suggested Strumbeck, and he and David Pong, professor of history and director of the East Asian Studies Program, were supportive and helpful in assisting Strumbeck in getting material together and filling out all the necessary forms to apply.

“This scholarship is a unique opportunity and is similar to the Rotary International Ambassador Scholarships, except they take several months to process, and we did this in a month,” Kent said. The local Rotary Club honored Strumbeck at its breakfast meeting at the Blue & Gold Club in September, with Pong, Chen and Richard Zipser, chairperson of foreign languages and literatures, all invited guests.

The daughter of missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in America, whose home base is Smyrna, Strumbeck has spent much of her life in South America, where she was born, and speaks several languages--English, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. She has lived in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador and participated in a UD Study Abroad Program to mainland China during Winter Session 2003. Last summer, she taught Bible lessons in Japan at a college near Tokyo, and then went to visit friends in Korea. Her goal is to be a missionary in the future.

As for now, Strumbeck is looking forward to her year in Taiwan. “I love to travel and have the opportunity to experience other cultures and meet other people,” she said.

Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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