Love changes everything. When Rosel Be earned her bachelor's degree from National Kaohsiung University Saturday, the Philippines native understood fully what those three simple words mean. Be's journey to love began in 1999, when she had to stop her life as a university freshman to earn her own living because her family could no longer to afford to pay for her studies. She managed to land a job at an electronics factory in Nantzih, in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung City, but sent the bulk of her meager salary back home to her family every month, leaving her with very little for herself. Her dream of one day finishing her university studies became more and more remote, giving way to thoughts about how she would earn enough money to improve her family's livelihood when her three-year contract in Taiwan expired. However, Be met a Taiwanese engineer at her factory named Chu Yung-ren, who encouraged her to pursue her dream and offered her sympathy when she plunged into depression. The friendship developed into a relationship, so that when she was ready to pack and leave Taiwan at the end of her contract, Chu popped the question and instead of leaving, Be stayed on in Taiwan as Chu's wife. Driven by her desire to finish college, she enrolled in the Department of Western Languages and Literature at National Kaohsiung University and immersed herself in her studies. On Saturday, she graduated summa cum laude and was admitted to the Graduate Institute of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Sun Yat-Sen University, also in Kaohsiung. Be, who still does not have a thorough command of mandarin Chinese, threw herself into her husband's arms after receiving her diploma at the commencement ceremony, saying that she owed her husband any glory she earned at the university. Now she is looking forward to her graduate studies, with high hopes that she will be able to land a teaching job after earning her master's degree. 