In ancient times Rivers represented civilzation. "Bayous" represents Houston TX. It connects Houston to "other civilizations. In the context of globalization and a focus on the cooperation between the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) and its counterparts in Taiwan and China, the Bayou Connection Program is a grass-roots initiative. After joining the Department of Criminal Justice (now the Department of Criminal Justice  and Social Work) in 2001, Dr. Wang with the support of Dr. Beth Pelz, (former chair of the Department of Criminal Justice), organized the first UHD delegation to Taiwan in December 2002. The delegation was led by Dr. Michael Dressman, (former dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences). This trip resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to serve as an academic compact between the National Chung-Cheng University (CCU) and the University of Houston-Downtown. Per this agreement, two Taiwanese students participated in a newly developed graduate program in security.