MCUT’s "Awakening of Silver Power" USR Project Achieves Fruitful Results! Seniors Undergo Age-Reversing Transformation to Become Community Changemakers.
In response to the Ministry of Education’s University Social Responsibility (USR) initiative and the national active aging policy, the Physical Education Office of Ming Chi University of Technology (MCUT) successfully concluded its project titled "Awakening of Silver Power, Mobilizing Impact: Promoting Healthy and Active Lifestyles for Seniors and Co-Creating Value Through Social Engagement." Deeply rooted in the Taishan, Xinzhuang, and Wugu communities from May to September 2026, the five-month project supported 45 local senior citizens through 34 regular exercise sessions, 6 health workshops, and 3 outdoor community service initiatives. The program not only achieved a 100% completion rate but also delivered an outstanding Social Return on Investment (SROI), generating NT1 invested.
Through professional yoga stretching, bodyweight strength training, and age-friendly sports such as pickleball and table tennis, participants demonstrated significant breakthroughs in physical fitness: lower body strength improved by 32.12%, upper body strength increased by 34.03%, and flexibility in the chair sit-and-reach test rose by 46.69%. In addition, InBody assessments revealed remarkable age-reversing results characterized by "fat loss and muscle preservation". Breaking the stereotype of seniors as passive recipients of care, participants actively engaged in mountain trail cleanup following a typhoon, beach cleanup along the Fulong coastline, and collaborative intergenerational drumming with the MCUT Drumming Club at a charity road race. With a cumulative 93 service attendances, the seniors successfully transformed from "care receivers" into empowered "community changemakers and health contributors".
At the recent completion and achievement ceremony, MCUT President Liu and Director Pu of the Center for General Education delivered opening remarks, presenting Awards for Physical Fitness Progress, Certificates of Appreciation to the Drumming Troupe, and Perfect Attendance Awards to seven dedicated seniors, filling the venue with laughter and tears of joy. Participants warmly shared that the five months of companionship not only dispelled loneliness but also rekindled the pure joy of being students again. From previously feeling stiff and unsteady, they have regained strength, mobility, and confidence in independent daily living, warmly promising to reunite next year. Moving forward, MCUT plans to institutionalize regular health promotion programs, assist in establishing self-governing senior clubs, and deepen intergenerational service-learning, fulfilling the enduring USR vision of "learning together, working together, and thriving together".
Image (No. 1) Description: On behalf of Ming Chi University of Technology (MCUT), President Thu-Hua Liu (center), Director Yen-Kuang Pu of the Center for General Education (center), and Instructor Hsueh-Chung Wang of the Physical Education Office (right) presented certificates of appreciation to the senior participants of the drumming cheer squad for the Father's Day Charity Road Race, expressing heartfelt gratitude for their hard work in regular training and their enthusiastic dedication.
