[TEST] Turning Setbacks into Momentum: From the Bottom of the Class to an International Research Stage | Department of Electronic Engineering, Feng Chia University – Kuan-Ju Chen

The Starting Point: Ranked 94th in the Department, Lost and Awakening

When I first entered university, I was a freshman who felt extremely lost about the future and full of doubt about the Department of Electronic Engineering I had chosen. In my first semester, my life had no focus; I often dozed off in class and even used remote learning as a chance to sleep in at home. At that time my class ranking was 94th, sitting in the very back row, watching my outstanding classmates and feeling that I had nothing to do with this campus or with future industry competitiveness.

Later I fell for a girl with excellent grades, and to become someone worthy of her I turned university into an arena. I pushed my GPA from 3.0 all the way up to 4.0 — from circuit diagrams in electronics to calculations in semiconductor physics, every bit of progress was meant to close that gap.

New Southbound "Study Abroad Dream-Building" Program: Chiang Mai, Thailand — Seeing Rural Needs and Building Cross-Cultural Communication

By chance, I heard about the "Dream-Building Overseas" program in a general education class, applied on my own initiative, and was selected. In the winter of 2025 I went to serve at the Youth Charity Foundation (YCF) in Thailand and to exchange at Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai. The trip thoroughly trained my cross-cultural communication, teamwork, and my ability to solve problems independently and manage time in a foreign country.

Into the Real Workplace: Equipment Engineering Internship at Micron Taiwan

In the second semester of my senior year I learned about the Micron internship through a message forwarded by the department office in the class group. After applying I successfully entered a world-class memory manufacturing environment as an equipment intern in the FST department. Over four months of facing highly complex facilities and rigorous SOPs, I quickly built the mindset of a professional engineer and world-class collaboration skills.

Onto the International Stage: A Deep Research Internship at Italy's National Research Council

In July 2026, with a mix of anticipation and nervousness, I arrived in Bologna, Italy, and officially began a two-month deep research internship at the Institute of Polar Sciences of Italy's National Research Council (CNR-ISP). My job was to use the KiCad software I had learned in my sophomore year to design a PCB board that matched the project's instruments. Through repeated debugging and revision, I gradually sharpened my sensitivity to hardware details.

Selected as a First-Cohort Honors Student: Four Years of Accumulation, Grateful for the Warm Guidance Along the Way

From the initial groping and learning all the way to today, I am honored to have been selected as one of Feng Chia University's first-cohort "Honors Students" in my graduation year, on the strength of four years of accumulation. This journey of "turning setbacks into momentum" will be my greatest source of confidence whenever I face any challenge in the future!