Voices
TOMODACHI Alumni Highlight: Hikari Igarashi, from TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2024
For December’s alumni highlights, we highlighted Hikari Igarashi, who is an alumna of the 2014-2015 TOMODACHI MetLife Women’s Leadership Program, and works at Women’s Eye as Executive Director. Launching the Single Mother Research Project, she has co...more
TOMODACHI Alumni Highlight: Sena Someya, from TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2024
This month’s alumni highlight features Sena Someya, who delivered an inspiring speech at the TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2024. Sena Someya is an alumna of the 2023 TOMODACHI Story Jam for Youth with Disabilities. She graduated from the Tokyo Uni...more
TOMODACHI Alumni Highlight: Keegan Rapp, from TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2024
This month’s alumni highlight features Keegan Rapp, who delivered an inspiring speech at the TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2024. Keegan is an alumnus of the 2020 TOMODACHI Generation: Morgan Stanley Ambassadors Program, a collaboration with The Wa...more
From Zoom to Room: Can TOMODACHI Alumni Build Lasting Bonds?
After months of connecting on Zoom as TOMODACHI regional representatives, we finally gathered in person, sharing an Airbnb for the U.S.-Japan Council conference. I’m Aika May Talavera, a TOMODACHI Core Committee Member for the Kyushu region and a Sen...more
Q&A with TOMODACHI Program Participants and TOMODACHI Alumni: Kotomi Ideishi
We conducted an interview survey with Kotomi Ideishi, a first-year master’s student majoring in Social Psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Since Ms. Ideishi is originally from Kagoshima and Fukuoka Prefectures, she played as a ...more
Q&A with TOMODACHI Program Participants and TOMODACHI Alumni: Felix Garcia
In this interview, we spoke with Felix Garcia, a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Boston with a Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology and a minor in Japanese. Felix is an alum of the TOMODACHI Daiwa House Student Leadership&helli...more
Q&A with TOMODACHI Program Participants and TOMODACHI Alumni: Yukina Matsuda
In this interview, we spoke with Yukina Matsuda, a third-year student majoring in Public and Civic Studies in the Department of Social Studies at Waseda University’s Faculty of Education. Yukina participated in the 2019 TOMODACHI Summer SoftBan...more
Q&A with TOMODACHI Alumni Intern: Aya Kaneko
For this interview, we talked with Aya Kaneko, who was an Alumni Social Media Intern from August 2023 to May 2024. She is a Sakura Scholar at American and Ritsumeikan Universities, studying Global International Relations and Affairs. She worked at&he...more
