| Mission
of Education |
 |
In order to help solve the shortage of nurses
on Taiwan's east coast and provide a source of nursing staff for
the Tzu Chi General Hospital, and in the hope of training nurses
who would be both skilled and compassionate, Master Cheng Yen
established the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing in Hualien in
1989.
In order to train more medical personnel for
the Tzu Chi General Hospital and to improve some inadequacies
in the Taiwanese medical system, and in the hope of cultivating
for society and all humanity doctors who would treat patients
as they would their own relatives, the Master also established
the Tzu Chi College of Medicine in Hualien in 1994.
The nursing school was upgraded to the Tzu
Chi College of Technology by Taiwan's Ministry of Education in
August 1999, and the medical college was upgraded to Tzu Chi University
in the summer of 2000. The Tzu Chi High School and Tzu Chi Experimental
Elementary School opened in September 2000. The establishment
of these schools realized Tzu Chi's goal to set up a comprehensive
educational system which offers education all the way from kindergarten
to post-graduate studies.
In 1991, the first overseas Tzu Chi Youth organization
was set up. In 1994, the first overseas Tzu Chi humanities school
was established in the United States, which was the first step
in the future expansion of the overseas mission of education.
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