NTU's Service Learning Program offers a variety of engaging courses that have given students a chance to gain practical experience by helping others.The students of the mandatory course haveworked with communities in the mountains and near the sea, and have even traveled as far as northern Thailandto complete the program.

This year, NTU's Life Education Center teamed up with Prof. Pei-Shan Yang of the Department of Social Work in offering one service learning course that helps out much closer to home–so close in fact that the students work with senior citizens living in neighborhoods just next door to the NTU Main Campus. Called "Life Storybook," the course guides its students in helping their elderpartners compile and design handmade storybooks that depict the fascinating adventures of their personal histories.

Before the students begin meeting with the senior citizens, the course's instructors lead two classes that ask the students to reflect on society's stereotypical impressions of seniorsso as to help them become familiar with appropriate concepts of aging. The students also learn to conduct interviews and receive training to enhance their creativity and handicraft skills in preparation for their service work. These classes help the students, who often feel anxiety over interacting with older people or making handmade art, develop confidence while equipping them with useful skills they can apply during and after the program.

For two hours each week the students and their much olderclassmates meet for a class wherethe instructor starts out with warm-up games that create an energetic atmosphere before moving on to the interviews and hands-on work of creating the storybooks.Walking into the "Life Storybook" classroom, one inevitably hearsthe sounds of laughteras the unlikely friends engage in idle conversation as if they were old friends enjoying an everyday encounter.

"This course is not like other service learning courses," says a former student,"because when we come here, it feels as if we have come to meet with a friendwho just so happens to be from a different generation." Since their relationships are uncomplicated, it is easier for the participants to open their hearts and talk freely about subjects that they might not have been able to discuss with their closest friends. It is the beautiful times shared in heart-to-heart exchanges that always earn this unique service learning course positive reviews from the students and the older participants alike.