ICU Admissions Center and JICUF staff visit DC for Japan Bowl
For the past few years, the Japan ICU Foundation has been sponsoring Japan Bowl, an academic competition that tests the achievements of high school students throughout the United States who are studying Japanese. Created by the Japan-America Society of Washington DC in 1992, the competition is held every spring with participation of more than 30 high schools. Student teams compete for two days at three different levels, depending on how long they have studied Japanese. The winners of the highest level are awarded a trip to Japan.
This year, JICUF Program Manager Fernando Rojas and Director of Communications Aki Takada participated in the event on April 6th, and were joined by representatives of ICU’s Admissions Center for the first time. Professor Yasunori Morishima, Director of the Center, and Mr. Kenji Ikenouchi, Special Assistant to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, travelled to DC on their way back from Europe.
During registration, Professor Morishima and Mr. Ikenouchi distributed brand new ICU brochures to participating students and teachers, and talked to them about the university. Professor Morishima and Fernando also gave a presentation about ICU to a group of students who were interested in studying at a Japanese university.
In the evening, a small gathering of ICU alumni in the DC area was organized to welcome the two guests from ICU and exchange ideas about how ICU could recruit more students from the United States.
During their time in DC, Professor Morishima, Mr. Ikenouchi and Fernando also had the chance to visit Japanese Plus, a selective after-school Japanese language, culture, and career exposure program for students in DC public high schools.
The trip provided an invaluable opportunity to meet high school students and teachers dedicated to the study of the Japanese language, gain unique insight from alumni on ICU’s efforts to recruit more international students, and network with other Japanese universities making similar efforts. We would like to thank the alumni who helped make this trip worthwhile.
