Seeing the World with Open Eyes

Texas A&M University professor and former international student Kuang-An Chang helped lead the university’s first civil engineering study abroad program to Taiwan last year, guiding 14 students on their five-week academic and cultural experience in and around his undergraduate alma mater.

Never did I imagine while working toward my undergraduate degree at the National Taiwan University (NTU) that I would be returning to its campus 25 years later leading a group of American undergraduate students, but it was a uniquely gratifying learning experience for all of us.

At the encouragement of my professors during my time at NTU, I began working toward my master’s and PhD in the United States. That guidance and support made a huge impact on my thinking and opened the door to opportunities I’d never have thought possible. Once you take a chance on learning the culture and environment somewhere else, you see the whole world with open eyes. You see these new cultures and educational methods, each with their own pros and cons. If you don’t step outside your comfort zone, you don’t gain confidence in working with people of different backgrounds and walks of life. The culture I experienced in New York during my graduate study was definitely different from the culture I experience today in Texas—something I like to share with my students.

The decision to go back to Taiwan was easy. Robin Autenrieth, department head of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, approached me about leading the study