Dear ___：

Marketing experts like to classify people into different generation groups,believing that people of the same age share similar value and attitudes. I agreewith those experts'' theory in that it emphasizes the connection between thecircumstances of one's upbringing and one's later outlook on life. Mypersonality, talents, values, even career choice have been profoundly influencedby my family life and upbringing in Taiwan.

My name is Peter Huang and I’ve grown up in Ten-Mou, a multiculturalneighborhood in suburban Taipei. During the early years of my childhood, myparents exerted a profound influence over my development. Though neither of themwas involved in business, by watching their integrity and hard work, I learnedmore about the true meaning of success than I would ever have in anyclassroom.

My father is an Air Force colonel. He joined the R.O.C Air Force at the ageof 14, struggling to achieve his personal best as the supply division chief ofthe R.O.C. Air Force Academy. Unlike some officers in the military, who dependedon family relationship and privilege to get promoted, my father gained hisposition by hard work and assiduity. He thus emphasized the importance ofindustriousness when it came to my education. When I was 10, I attended a speechcontest. During the week before the contest, my father and I spent two hours aday together, organizing the lecture content, adjust my rhythm, and rehearsing.I was a shy, soft-spoken child, and found speaking in public difficult at first.But through my father's patient efforts and his believe in the rewards of hardwork, I gradually became an excellent public speaker and won many of thecontests that followed. As a result of the experiences such as this, I learned avery strong work ethic and emulated some of my father's best characteristics -perseverance and dedication.

These qualities served me well as I entered mandatory military service inTaiwan and faced many difficult situations. I once led a squad to enact thetyphoon disaster relief action in Nan-tou. We had one week in which to salvage afactory that was half-buried in mud. As the squad commander, I not onlysupervised, but also participated in the demanding and seemly endless diggingwork. And each night, after an exhausting work when all other soldiers wereasleep, I spent extra hours checking if there were sufficient supplies andmaking plans for the next day's relief action. When I finally laid down tosleep, I could not help but reflect on how much I had developed, as both aperson and a leader, since that first speech contest.

My mother has a warm and kind personality, and has always reached out tothe expatriates in our neighborhood. She organized a language exchange club withthe American students in local colleges, hoping to increase understanding ofTaiwanese and American cultures through the exchange of language. I took part inthe club when I was still in elementary school. This childhood multi-culturalexperience instilled in me an active personality and willingness to interactwith people of different cultures. In particularly, it strengthened my interestin American and my desire to work and live there one day.

My mother’s emphasis on international exchange and cooperation has led meto work for the Fulbright Foundation in Taipei as a research assistant. Thisposition allows me to interact with educational associations in the UnitedStates and to take part in international conferences. I once participated in aventure capital seminar in Hsin-Chu, working on the issue of graduate leveltechnology management education with representatives of major high-techcompanies and academic institutions. Last November, I represented the Foundationin an international Tele-conference in Taipei. The conference was conducted bothin English and in Chinese and was hosted by the Prime of Ministry of Education.My work has also given me the opportunity to know and become friends withexceptional Fulbright scholars from the United States.

While my childhood years shaped my character, it was my high school andcollege years which led to my interest in business. 1988 was both a determiningyear to my career choices and a turning point in Taiwan's economy. As peoplefamiliar with Taiwan's modern economic history know, the exchange rate of theNew Taiwan Dollar to U.S. Dollars moved from 40:1 to 25:1 in that year under theoverwhelming pressure of American government. Thus meant that the traditionaladvantage of Taiwan's economy, low labor costs, was no longer our strength.People everywhere were talking about the future of Taiwan's economy. Out of ayoung man's passion, I wanted to contribute my talent and effort to my country.That was the time at which I made up my mind that someday, I will makeTaiwan-made products famous world-widely, like those produced by IBM, Intel, orMicrosoft.

This teenage naive patriotic dream transformed into an interest in businessadministration and economics after I graduated from Taipei First Senior HighSchool. I focused my college study on manufacturing administration andeconomics. From four years of lectures, seminars, and in-factory study in thedepartment of Industrial Engineering at National Formosa University, I acquiredskills in quality insurance, manufacturing planning and control, and factoryimprovement and diagnostic methods. In my economic class, I learned how prices,preferences, and incomes affect people's demand of goods from the microeconomic.I also acquired knowledge of how various factors - government policies, currencyexchange rate, and balance of international trade - affect a country's economicsgrowth. My interest in business, however, is not limited to industrialengineering and economics. In my junior year, I also took 6 credits ofaccounting courses and learned the knowledge of basic accounting principles,financial statements, and managerial accounting. To acquire a more thoroughunderstand of management information systems, I chose "Alumni AssociationDatabase Management System for Department of Industrial Engineering" as mygraduate activity project. From each step of developing the database system, Ilearned solid skills in FoxPro programming and enterprise demand analysis.

I am thankful that my parents provided me with an environment thatencouraged me to develop my personality and an intellect for which I amremembered. With a deeply-instilled work ethic, strong interpersonal skills, anda high level of motivation, I believe I will enrich the professional and socialenvironment at your esteemed Buchman School and continue to grow as a expert inhigh-tech industry.

Yours sincerely,