Takamori Park is an ICU student spending his junior year abroad at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also one of five ICU students to receive the JICUF’s Study Abroad Scholarship for the 2015-16 academic year. This is the second year this scholarship has been awarded.

This interview is the fourth installment in a five-part series highlighting the Study Abroad Scholarship recipients. The scholarship is intended to support ICU students who are studying abroad in North America. This year, it was awarded to five students who are spending one year at Georgetown University, Middlebury College, Ohio State University, University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles, respectively.

Japan ICU Foundation: Thanks for your time, Takamori-san! To begin, please tell me how you first heard about JICUF.

Takamori Park: In my freshman year, I received a different JICUF scholarship for international students, so I was aware of the organization prior to receiving this scholarship. My understanding is that JICUF is an organization started in New York to help fund ICU during its inception.

JICUF: Yes, that is the history of JICUF. Since then we have expanded our mission to include supporting ICU faculty and students through grants, programs and scholarships, among other things. Would you please tell us why you decided to attend ICU?

Takamori: I attended an international school in Tokyo for high school so my options for universities in Japan were limited to a handful. Among those universities, I found ICU to be the most liberal and open minded. In addition, I also liked the fact that September students and April students at ICU studied together in the same division.

JICUF: What made you decide to study abroad in the U.S. this year?

Takamori: I decided to study abroad at the end of my freshman year after reading about ICU’s study abroad program. In order to decide the school, I looked up all the schools which were study abroad partners with ICU to see which school had the strongest physics program. This led to my decision to apply to UC Berkeley.

JICUF: Is physics your major now? Also, are you a member of any student organizations?

Takamori: At ICU, I study both physics and mathematics. I plan to graduate in June of 2017. I do not participate in any organizations since my course work dominates a large part of my time.

I actually spend two hours to commute to ICU every day.  However, I do not think that this factors into my decision not to participate in any extracurricular activities.  My main reason is that my course work consumes most of my time.

JICUF: I understand – your studies are the first priority. Please tell me more about your goals for this year.

Takamori: My main goals for my year abroad is to study topics in physics that are not currently offered at ICU. I also hope to participate in undergraduate research at Berkeley. I applied for a research position at the Space Sciences Laboratory for developing software on processing data from a neutron detector. I am still waiting to hear if I was accepted – I hope I am.

On a different note, because I come from an international school, many of my close friends also study in North America. I plan to travel to St. Louis and Montreal during my breaks to visit them.

JICUF: Those sound like great goals! Do you have any concerns or worries for this year abroad?

Takamori: I expect life at UCB to be somewhat different than ICU. However, I do not have any particular worries as of now. I am confident I will be able to keep up.

JICUF: I am also confident you will be able to keep up. Do you have plans to meet any other people from ICU?

Takamori: I would like to meet ICU alumni in North America to learn about their experiences after graduating ICU and how they came to work and live in North America.

Although my plans are not concrete, after I graduate ICU, I hope to continue my studies in physics at the graduate level at a school in Europe or North America. I would like to learn more about the experiences of other ICU alumni who have gone to graduate school in the U.S.

JICUF: I am sure many ICU alumni can and will give you advice on graduate schools and living in the U.S. Is there anything else you would like to say to the ICU community in North America?

Takamori:  I would like to thank everyone involved in funding the scholarship. I will make sure my year abroad is fruitful and productive.

JICUF: Thank you for doing this interview, Takamori. We wish you the best of luck!