Taiwanese students face immense pressure to excel in a system that prioritizes grades over personal development, leading to a lack of direction and purpose. Working with The City Wanderer Association, we explored the potential of backpacking as a means of fostering purpose among Taiwanese youth. After conducting surveys, interviews, and ethnographies, our findings suggest that backpacking can significantly improve self-confidence and self-efficacy, which can translate into daily life and contribute to one's sense of purpose. Key experiences and catalysts for transformation often come from five core aspects of backpacking: people, culture, confidence-building through hardship, life direction, and self-understanding. We recommend ways to integrate backpacking into the organization’s Wandering Challenge to promote purpose development among youth in Taiwan.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Huang, Randy
• Boafo, Abigail
• Sun, Alexander

Subject

• Learning
• Community
• Well-Being

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 109526
• E-project-050823-024302

Keyword

• Purpose development
• Personal growth
• Purpose
• Backpacking
• Taiwanese youth
• East Asian education

Advisor

• Sphar, Jefferson Alex
• Du, Wen-Hua
• Burrier, Grant A.

Year

• 2023

Center

• Taipei, Taiwan Project Center - IQP

Sponsor

• International City Wanderer Education Association

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 3 - Good Health and Well-being
• 4 - Quality Education

Date created

• 2023-05-08

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Source

• E-project-050823-024302

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2023-06-12