Rising young leaders from Tohoku Prepare for TOMODACHI Summer 2014 MUFG International Exchange Program
The TOMODACHI Summer 2014 MUFG International Exchange Program participants met each other for the first time in Sendai, Miyagi and Koriyama, Fukushima on June 8, and Morioka, Iwate on June 15 for a program orientation. This summer marks the third year of this program, and twenty six Japanese students from Tohoku will be visiting Southern California to participate in homestays, English classes, and sightseeing from July 24 – August 7, 2014.
The students arrived to the orientation with one parent or guardian to review program details and logistics, and to listen to experiences and advice from past program alumni. In Sendai, two alumni from the 2012 program visited the 2014 cohorts and provided practical advice, which included dressing in layers clothes to stay warm on the flights, making an effort to speak and ask as many questions as possible in the United States, and finding ways to remain connected to other participants, host families, and friends that they meet during the program.
One alumna shared her pre and post experiences as a participant. Originally incredibly shy and not one to raise her hand, she went to the United States and found that she had to speak up in order to communicate the simplest requests to her host family during her first few days. After a day and a half, she became used to a daily routine of speaking in English, learning different ways to communicate through facial expressions and hand gestures.
When she returned to Japan, she found herself looking for opportunities to engage with different people and make new friends. Based on her experience with her host family, she asked her own family in Iwate to host foreign students visiting her school. She even assigned herself as the unofficial guide to a student from Indonesia.
“Without the TOMODACHI MUFG program, I wouldn’t have met new friends or feel this confident that I could help someone just as I was while in the United States,” the alumnae shared. She continues to keep in touch with friends whom she met during her visit in the U.S., including young Americans she met outside the formal program who approached her while visiting one of the sites. Though she hails from a small town in Iwate Prefecture, she’s slowly growing and sharing her joy in finding ways to widen her TOMODACHI network.
TOMODACHI Summer MUFG International Exchange Program continues to send students to the U.S., enabling young Japanese students to experience and develop their awareness of similarities and differences in human experiences and culture. This program targets high school students, and therefore has the highest potential of developing globally minded, self-aware young Japanese who continue to form and explore their leadership, future career, and global interest.