Last month the Japan ICU Foundation held a number of outreach events in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. They included a JICUF trustees meeting, a special evening reception and dinner for ICU alumni and friends and a series of recruitment activities.

The trustees meeting, the first under Paul Hastings’ leadership of the JICUF, was attended by special guests ICU President Junko Hibiya and Director of the University Secretariat Megumi Tsuburaya. The meeting provided a great opportunity to openly discuss ways to further build on the 60+ year partnership between ICU and the JICUF.

During the meeting, the JICUF recommitted to supporting ICU students and faculty through providing grants, scholarships and programmatic opportunities. In order to improve our direct outreach to ICU students and faculty, the JICUF will soon be launching an online grant application system on our website. We will also continue developing programs and creating initiatives aimed to serve ICU in useful and innovative ways both on and off campus. We look forward to providing more details on these developments throughout the remainder of the academic year.

Then, on September 19 the Japan ICU Foundation hosted a special evening reception in dinner for ICU alumni and friends in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles. The event was held at the Japanese American National Museum and featured an uplifting performance by the L.A. Matsuri Taiko group, which includes ICU alumna Yuki Inoue as a member. The outstanding performance was followed by short speeches from JICUF Board Chair Samuel Shepherd, JICUF Executive Director Paul Hastings and ICU President Junko Hibiya.

The previous evening, JICUF staff and trustees and our ICU guests attended Peace on Your Wings, an original musical inspired by the life of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was a 12-year old girl who died from leukemia resulting from radiation caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The wonderful musical is produced by Ohana Arts, a performance arts organization based in Hawaii.

Then on September 20 and over the course of the following several days, an information session and a series of school visits were held for prospective ICU students in the greater LA metropolitan area. Throughout these events, the JICUF and ICU worked closely together to recruit international students for ICU.

In all, it was an extremely successful series of meetings and events. We would like to express a special thanks to the Southern California ICU Alumni Chapter and to L.A. Matsuri Taiko for their special performance.

For those of you in the Los Angeles area, please take a look at the following upcoming events.

Upcoming events in Los Angeles: 

• ICU Night Out
  Date: Saturday, October 17th
  Time: 7:30pm
  Place: Izakaya Honda-ya, 333 Alameda #314, Los Angeles, CA
• ICU Southern California Chapter’s Exchange Student Welcome Lunch
  Date:  Sunday, November 1st
  Time:  1:30 PM ~ 4:30pm
  Place: Hopwoo BBQ & Seafood Restaurant  (合和), 11110 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA (SW corner of Olympic / Sepulveda)
  Fee: $25.00  (This includes support for the students). There is no charge for children under (around) 6 years.
• One Sound Concert – On November 6 & 7, in Los Angeles. This is the 13th concert of L.A. Taiko Festival series, and the performance will feature the renowned professional taiko group from Japan, Oedo Sukeroku Taiko, with ICU alumna Yuki Inoue as a guest performer.