Connexpedition 2023: Apply Today!
We are excited to announce that applications for this summer’s service trip are open today. We are currently accepting applications from high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area. The deadline to apply is January 2, 2022.
We are excited to announce that applications for our 2023 program are open today.
Since 2011, more than a total of 500 high school students have volunteered in Taiwan with Connexpedition, teaching English and sharing their American culture while exploring the traditions, lifestyle, and values of the island nation. We hope you will decide to join us this year as we embark on the tenth year of our program!
Program information and full application procedures can be found on our website at www.connexpedition.com/apply. Please read through our program application packet carefully to understand various qualifications, application procedures, and new changes to the program this summer.
Please feel free to share this message with any friends or family members who you think may be interested. We are currently accepting applications from high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area. The deadline to apply is January 2, 2023. We look forward to reviewing your application!
Please do not hesitate to email us at connexpedition@wceo.org if you have any questions.
Welcome Home - Connexpedition 2022
Welcome home! This summer was much more different than originally imagined, but against all odds, we were still able to host a very successful NTPC Easy Leap English language summer camp for the very last time.
Welcome Home - Connexpedition 2022
To our Connexpedition 2022 members: Welcome home! After pausing our program for the last two years, this summer also began to seem like a reach in May when COVID cases started rising again in Taiwan. Against all odds, and because of your hard work and determination, we were still able to host a very successful NTPC Easy Leap English language summer camp for the very last time.
Your positive attitude and herculean efforts to make your online classes as engaging as possible resulted in overwhelmingly positive feedback from your students and their parents. Your commitment to the training program helped us all be more prepared for the 17 days in Taiwan. And of course, we must also express our gratitude to your parents and family members for supporting you the whole way.
We hope you all made the most amazing memories this summer. A few of these memories are enshrined forever in our online photo gallery and Stephanie 老師 recently uploaded a few videos onto our YouTube channel. Continue to keep in touch with your new friends and teammates. We'll host a reunion in October to celebrate this summer one more time.
In the meantime, please review the latest email that was sent to you to confirm your information for the President’s Volunteer Service Award. See you in the fall! If you have any questions, email us at connexpedition@wceo.org!
Now Recruiting for the Continuation of our 2021 Program
We are now recruiting new members to join current members as we continue the 2021 program! There are only a handful of spots left to fill, so please email us as soon as possible if you are interested in joining our program now.
Update (10/10/2021): The Connexpedition 2021 program has been filled. We will begin recruiting for Connexpedition 2022 in the winter. You can add your email address to our mailing list here https://connexpedition.com/apply/2022 to be the first to know when applications are open.
Both the 2021 and the 2022 program will volunteer in Taiwan next summer at the same time. The only difference is the timing of the Online Tutor Volunteering which begins now for the 2021 program and after next summer for the 2022 program.
Earlier this summer, we made the difficult decision to postpone our 2021 service trip to Taiwan due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Taiwan. The decision to postpone our service trip to the next summer means that our current members will participate in Connexpedition 2021 “in reverse”, with the online tutoring sessions occurring this school year, from October 2021 to May 2022, before the trip in July 2022. We are now recruiting new members to join current members as we continue the 2021 program!
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Apply Now to Join Connexpedition 2021
Joining Connexpedition 2021 now means that you will tutor New Taipei City students online from October 2021 through May 2022. You will be paired with another Connexpedition member and take turns leading the online tutoring sessions each week. There are 17 sessions total and each session is approximately 50-minutes long. Taking turns means you will only go online about once every two weeks.
In March of 2022, we will begin a hybrid online and in-person training series to prepare for the service trip to Taiwan in the summer. Volunteers will create and host a 2-week English language summer camp for students in New Taipei City in July 2022. Learn more about the trip here.
Normally, the online service follows the summer trip, but as 2021 members will have already completed the 17 tutoring sessions before the trip, their volunteer obligations end right after the two-week long summer camp in Taiwan. All volunteers will receive the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold Level) in October 2022.
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There are only a handful of spots left to fill, so please email us (connexpedition@wceo.org) as soon as possible if you are interested in joining our program now. There will be a short screening and interview process to make sure you are a good fit for our program and the online classes will begin immediately after.
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Connexpedition 2021 Dates and DetailS
Cost for the entire program (October 2021 through July 2022): $525.00
Program fees to be paid by the end of October after acceptance into the program.
Program fees do not include airfare to and from Taiwan.
Prerequisites: Currently enrolled in 9th-12th grade and can speak both English and Mandarin Chinese
The online classes for the first half of the school year have already been scheduled. Members will be assigned a partner and a day of the week for online classes.
Volunteer Training Session
October 10, 2021 3:00pm to 6:00pm
Online Classes Week 0 (W0)
Week of October 17
Online Classes W1
Week of October 24
Online Classes W2
Week of November 7
Online Classes W3
Week of November 14
Online Classes W4
Week of November 28
Online Classes W5
Week of December 5
Online Classes W6
Week of December 12
Online Classes W7
Week of January 2
Online Classes W8-W16 will resume after the Lunar New Year break in 2022
Member Training and Service Trip Preparation
8 hybrid online and in-person sessions from March 2022 through June 2022
Service Trip*
Depart from the United States - June 30, 2022
Meet in Taiwan - July 1, 2022
Two weeks of English camp - July 4 through July 15, 2022
End of program - July 16, 2022
*Assumes no quarantine in Taiwan
Join Us Today!
Email connexpedition@wceo.org for more information
Summer 2021 Trip Postponed to 2022
Unfortunately we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone this summer’s service trip due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Taiwan.
The new entry restrictions and the sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in Taiwan have led us to make the difficult decision to postpone this summer’s service trip. Though the Level 3 alert and entry restrictions will only last through June 14th and June 18th respectively, the latest situation in Taiwan has already delayed our planning progress.
The safety of our members and families will always come first, and as such, we do not believe the in-person, interactive, and sizable nature of our program can or should exist alongside the current state of community pandemic mitigation in Taiwan, even with a 100% vaccination rate amongst our members and staff.
COVID-19 in Taiwan
We know this is disappointing to hear. We will do everything we can to help Connexpedition 2021 members participate in other WCEO volunteer activities. Plus, just like last year, we will also reverse the order of our program. Members may choose to teach students online from October 2021 through May 2022 and then participate in the service trip next summer. Members, please refer to our latest email for more information.
To all our members and families, we thank you again for your understanding as we navigate through these unexpected circumstances. As always, please feel free to send us an email if you have any questions or concerns and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Connexpedition 2021 - An Update Regarding This Summer
Thank you for your continuous patience and understanding while we worked to plan the details of this summer with New Taipei City’s Department of Education. We only intend to provide you with the most accurate information available, and until today, we did not have a definitive conclusion to share.
After many discussions and meetings with NTPC, we have decided that this summer’s service trip to Taiwan will proceed if Taiwan’s border remains open. If the COVID-19 situation takes a turn for the worse and Taiwan closes its borders, then we will unfortunately have to cancel the trip again.
Please read the email we just delivered for more specifics. The below is only an outline of the recent update!
You must be able to enter Taiwan to participate in our service trip/Connexpedition 2021.
If you are unable to travel to Taiwan under the current entry restrictions, you will be unable to join this summer’s service trip.
There will be no in-person training sessions in the United States.
Training will be condensed into two or three full-day sessions in Taoyuan, Taiwan (tentative location) beginning on June 30th. Your final day of quarantine must be on June 29th, so plan your air travel accordingly to arrive in Taiwan no later than June 15th for a 14-day quarantine.
You must provide your own quarantine accommodations.
Once you enter Taiwan, you will be responsible for your own quarantine accommodations. Please plan for at minimum fourteen days of quarantine. Note that the day you land at the airport does not count as day one of quarantine.
Get the vaccine as soon as you are eligible.
All our staff based in the United States will receive the vaccine and members eligible for the vaccine will be required to get it. We also highly encourage eligible family members to get the vaccine as well.
Alternate volunteer opportunities are available.
If you are unable to travel with us to Taiwan or decide not to participate in Connexpedition 2021, we have alternative opportunities available for you at our summer camps in the San Francisco Bay Area or online. You will have priority access to these opportunities.
If you have any questions, you can always reach us via email. If you prefer, we can also arrange time for our staff to guide you through this information so you can make a more informed decision.
News From Our Community: Choosing a College Workshop
We had another successful workshop to close our college information series! We hope you learned a lot from our Connexpedition alumni who represented eleven different colleges and disciplines.
We had another successful workshop to close our college information series! Thank you to our past and present members for contributing to the discussion and engaging with our panelists during the workshop. We hope you learned a lot from our Connexpedition alumni and that the workshop provided more foundational information for you to begin researching various colleges and universities. We had panelists from the following institutions join us, each with different majors and disciplines:
Purdue University
Santa Clara University
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Los Angeles
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
University of Toronto
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
University of San Diego
This event was made possible by you, the members of our community! All Connexpedition members past and present are invited to our exclusive community events created and hosted by Connexpedition members.
