Vicky Lee

A Starting Point Never Written Into History

The birth of the Travel and Learning Studio did not begin with a business plan, but with a quiet question.

Vicky has long focused on local culture and women's issues. She found that Tamsui, as a port city with a long history, has a wealth of preserved and documented architecture, trade history, and religious activity, yet the life trajectories of women are often hidden. The vendors in the market, the fisherwomen along the river, the daughters-in-law who married into Tamsui, the mothers who sustain the emotional networks of the community. Their labor, emotions, and memories make up the daily texture of the city, yet are not necessarily formally recorded.

She did not intend to speak on behalf of women, but hoped to create a space where women could speak for themselves. She believes that true cultural preservation is not only preserving buildings or artifacts, but preserving the connection between people and the land.

She Is Opening Up a City

In the afternoon at the Tamsui river mouth, light slants across the red-brick arcades. A group stands among the lanes, and Vicky is in no hurry to explain dates or architectural styles.

She asks the companion beside her: "What does this place mean to you?" And so the story begins.

Some studied at university in Tamsui, then returned to settle there after marriage and buying a home, and tell the stories of Tamsui to their children. Some are daughters-in-law of Tamsui who have long lived there, caring for husband and children as the center of their lives, moving daily between the park and the market. These experiences hold no grand events, yet are full of warmth.

In the tours she designs, knowledge is not the only core. More important is whether each participant is moved, understood, and invited to rethink their relationship with the city during the process. The city is no longer merely a sight to be observed, but a presence that can be conversed with.

From Resident to Path Guide

The 2025 Tamsui Women's Path Social Impact Report notes that the women participating in the Women's Path program are mostly between 50 and 65 years of age. They have long devoted themselves to family and community life, a stabilizing force in how the city runs, yet are rarely seen as "public storytellers."

At the Travel and Learning Studio, they go through a gradual empowerment journey:

This is a design centered on companionship, not an elimination-style training.

A Real Transformation

When the Vietnamese new immigrant Nguyen Ching-ting first joined the Tamsui Women's Path, she was in fact afraid to lead tours. She felt unfamiliar with history and culture, and was not used to speaking in front of others, so at first she always lacked confidence. But the Travel and Learning Studio did not leave her standing on the sidelines just because she did not dare to speak.

Vicky kept encouraging her, letting her accumulate confidence through repeated training, practice, and small sharings. She did not become a guide all at once, but, within companionship, walked all the way from student to a companion able to take on guiding and on-site tasks.

Her change was not merely "learning to guide," but moving from a state of self-doubt, or of being limited by family and life, gradually toward being able to participate, express, and take on a role, and beginning to believe that she too could influence others. This process of going from "Can I do this?" to "It turns out I can too" is one of the most profound results of the Studio's empowerment.

From Action 1.0 to 5.0: From Trial to Maturity

The development of the Tamsui Women's Path was not achieved overnight, but advanced in stages.

5.0 Maturity Period: Beginning to systematically organize results and records, and considering how impact can accumulate over the long term.

Vicky found that if action is to go far, results must be clearly disclosed, rather than resting only on emotion and word of mouth. This was also the impetus for her to introduce impact assessment.

When Stories Are Quantified: Behind the SROI of 2.68

The introduction of SROI (Social Return on Investment) was not for the sake of an attractive figure, but to understand the true value of the action.

The team inventoried stakeholders one by one, including the students themselves, the students' family members, participants, partners, and community units. Through interviews and questionnaires, they identified specific types of outcomes:

• Increased sense of self-efficacy
• Increased public participation
• Strengthened social connection
• Deepened identification with local culture

They then estimated value through proxy indicators, deducted deadweight and attribution proportions, and carried out discounting calculations.

This figure is not merely a highlight in a results report, but a form of affirmation. It means that women's empowerment is not only emotional support, but social creation that can be calculated, disclosed, and discussed.

One student's family member said: "She now often prepares materials, and has become more energetic." One partner teacher reflected: "Through the Women's Path, students understand history from a female perspective, which rarely appears in the classroom."

The Core Philosophy of Educational Empowerment

Vicky's leadership style is not high-profile. She values three things:

She believes that true education is not giving answers, but cultivating ability. True empowerment is not solving problems for people, but letting people believe they can solve problems themselves. This philosophy makes the Travel and Learning Studio not just a program, but a continually generative social space.

Closing: Letting Tamsui Be Understood Anew

When women stand on the streets and recount their own life experiences, the narrative structure of the city changes. Tamsui is no longer merely a tourism symbol, but a space where countless lives interweave. Those daily moments once seen as ordinary are placed back into public view. History no longer holds only heroes and great events, but also the labor in the kitchen, the mutual aid in the market, the waiting by the river.

In that moment, the storybook of Tamsui was opened. And the one turning the pages is the women's power of Tamsui.

In the Club's diverse spectrum of impact, Vicky is a model of the educational empowerment role. She does not win by volume, but by depth of accumulation. She makes people more powerful, makes the place warmer, and makes action more institutional. SROI of 2.68 is a number, but the true impact is that those once-silent women can now say with confidence: "This is my city."