Alumna Makes a Special Delivery From Taiwan for Homecoming

Zu-Chun Lin, a former doctoral student at the UA, helps renew the University's partnership with a private university in Taiwan where she is an associate professor and dean.

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Homecoming this year came with special documents hand-delivered from Taiwan.

Zu-Chun Lin completed her Ph.D. in nursing at the University of Arizona in 2008 and is now an associate professor of nursing and dean of the Office of Research & Development at Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology, or TCUST, in Hualien City, Taiwan. Last weekend, she returned to Tucson to celebrate the UA's Homecoming, bringing documents that renew a previous agreement between TCUST and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

TCUST, a private university founded by the Tzu Chi Foundation, is known in Taiwan for the quality of medical education it provides. TCUST has strong ties with Hualien Tzu Chi General Hospital — located on its campus — as well as five teaching hospitals in other parts of Taiwan.

The agreement between the two universities allows for increased research collaboration and faculty-scholar exchange, but it also lays the groundwork for a future program involving student internships and a potential dual-degree program.

"Globalization has been an important area in which TCUST has put effort over the past five years," Lin said. "The Memorandum of Agreement between the UA and TCUST definitely enhances globalization and internationalization for TCUST in the areas of education and research."

During her visit to campus, Lin also was honored by the UA College of Nursing during the Wildcat Nurse Alumni Awards Breakfast. She was given the Global Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni who have brought honor and credit to the UA and their profession in the global arena through career achievement or humanitarian service.

"Coming back to the UA feels like being home," Lin said. "I am so proud of being an alumna and appreciate the Alumni Council giving the award to me."

With hundreds of international partners, the UA Office of Global Initiatives processes these types of agreements on a regular basis — but rarely do they involve the personal touch Lin provided at Homecoming.