鄭婷予 Angela Cheng

Hi! My name is Cheng Ting Yu(Angela), currently a year 4 student studying finance.  First and foremost, I’d like to express my gratitude to JTCA and NTU OIA again for  recruiting such an excellent group and organizing this wonderful trip. During the 14  

days, I not only explored Israel in a way I’ve never think about, but also had lots of  life lessons from the fellow students. Since I’ve shared my daily experiences in the  feedback form, I will focus on my key takeaways and reflections below. 

I. How to Build the Startup Nation? 

The main idea of this trip is to explore the key to success of how Israel became a  startup nation, but in fact, the innovation only accounts for 30% of my learnings here.  It doesn’t mean its innovation is not worthy learning. It just that I love the other  elements of Israel more. Regarding how Israel became the startup nation unpurposely,  I think it can be concluded into three reasons, which is Brand Establishment, Industry  & Academics Collaborations and Israeli DNA. 

(i) Brand Establishment 

From the first day we visited Perec Canter for Peace and Innovation, I’ve been  amazed by the efforts Israeli government made to build the startup ecosystem.  Although the startup nation was formed unconsciously, the government still put in a  lot of resources to maintain, such as financial supports, investments and others. They  even established Israel Innovation Authority and Perec Center to facilitate early-stage  startups and demonstrate Israeli startups from past to future. For now, Israel has been  famous for startup hub, which attracting lots of venture capitals. 

In my freshman year, I used to join a case competition where we proposed a  project to GASE. The topic is about propagandizing Taiwan’s technological  innovation energies to other countries. Back then, I haven’t known much about the  world and business planning, so many of the ideas I came up with are only from my limited knowledges and internet. This time is my first time actually seeing a country  demonstrating their high-tech industry, which helps me solve many confusions after  the competition. 

(ii) Industry & Academics Collaborations 

Secondly, the regulations and systems in Israel make it much easier to  commercialize academic results in research institutions. For instance, the technique transfer company, Yissum, cooperated with Hebrew University. So far in Taiwan, we  are not able to do this due to laws, but I heard that the laws are going to be loosened.  Hopefully we can finally integrate our academics achievements and talents with  resources from the industry, and inject more flexibility into innovation and business. Another reason boosting the startup industry, I think it would definitely be their 

mandatory military services. Since many people normally do back-desk jobs, which is  quite different from our imaginations, the young are assigned to be in charge of huge  projects, executing important tasks, managing big budges and cooperating with the  seniors serving in the military from different countries. It really turned them into a  more self-conscious, mature and efficient workers, and also equipped them with job experiences and ability to handle crisis, emergency and pressure. From what I see, It’s  like the government is guaranteeing you your first job. For some lucky people who is  chosen to work in prosperous industries like data science and cyber security, it would  be much easier for them to find their first job after the services. 

(iii) Israeli DNA 

Lat but not least, is their DNA. Though some of the students don’t buy in this  element, I do think It’s a very important catalyst. Since they are in a culture that isn’t  afraid of raising questions, failures and innovations, they are more willing to take  risks, especially when all of your friends are starting business, you probably want to  try once. If Taiwanese people also learn a bit from these spirits, the society may  encourage more people to start their own business. 

II. Be Respectful to Different Cultures and Always be Open-minded What impressed me the most, also astonished is Judaism. In the very beginning, I  have totally no idea of Judaism. I thought those religious practices just exited in  ancient time. And also since there are only a little of Jews in Taiwan, I never met any  Jew before. When I’ve been to Jerusalem, I was so shocked that there are lots of  orthodox Jews on the street. Out of curiosity, we asked around people who speak  English, and luckily we are able to chat with a married orthodox woman, a group of orthodox teenage girls, a Palestinian girl and a uni student joining a protest. I didn’t  know they are so religious and have strong belief in Judaism until I talk with them. I  learned about some bans and religious disciplines such as that only using kosher  phones is allowed, married woman should cover their hairs with wig or scarf, they  don’t use any social media, and their wifi is even being filtered from some websites. I  was so surprised and I asked if they would like to break the rules, but none of them  wants to. I always remember the married woman say it’s their privilege to do so. I  admire how consistent and persistent they are in Judaism. 

Another place I like it very much is Yad Vasham, the holocaust museum. I used to  think it might be boring cause I’ve already known about the history, but our tour guide  is super nice, and so convincing. I even almost cried several times during the guide. I  wasn’t aware of the antisemitism in western world until I’ve been to the museum.  Also, when I was chatting with the orthodox teenage girls, they asked me if  Taiwanese unfriendly to the Jews. I was so proud to say we don’t, and in fact people 

in Taiwan only regard the Jews as super smart people. I really feel proud of being a  Taiwanese at that moment. 

III. Cherish our Roots and be Proud 

Sometimes we stay in Taiwan so long that we forgot it’s such a great country. In  Israel, I saw the locals love their nation, and almost all of them are familiar with the country history, the bible and Judaism. But while seeing those advantages, we should  also think about the other sides. Though they have developed high-tech industry,  Israel is not good at manufacture, infrastructure and public transporations. They also  have problems on incomplete educational system, income inequality etc. I also  learned from our tour guide, Ben, that people sometimes are forced to work in specific  fields like IT in the military since they are talented people. It somehow reminds me of  a book called “The giver”, which the gov allocate your jobs based on your strength,  and you don’t have the right to choose it by yourself. After hearing that, I start to  appreciate how liberal Taiwan is, and cherish my own culture and nations more. We  really should be grateful of what we have now, and keep making positive impact to  others. 

Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone organizing the tour once. These  unforgettable 12 days will never fade away. They will always in my heart and  accompany me to the next stage of my life. 

(P.S. As I promised in my motivation letter, I actually filmed 12 days vlogs using reels  on IG, trying to help promoting Israel. I will also make a post for the tour to let people know Israel better.)