JICUF Hosts ICU Student Weekend 2024 in NYC
Shinnenkai at “Hill Country BBQ” (photo by Izumi Osawa) From Friday, January 19, to Sunday, January 20, JICUF hosted the second “ICU Student Weekend in NYC.” We invited 50 ICU students currently studying in the United States and Canada on an exchange program to New York, and 27 students participated from as far away as California, Georgia, and Vancouver. JICUF paid for their accommodation, several meals and admission to a few sites, while the students paid for their own travel. On Friday afternoon, we held a “meet and greet” at the JICUF office. Fusae Nara and Danny Ha, New York-based JICUF trustees, joined JICUF staff in greeting the students. We […]
JICUF Trustee Interview: Susan Schmidt
Susan Schmidt, who was appointed as a JICUF trustee in 2018, lived in Tokyo from 1972 to 1996 and worked as a staff editor of English-language books at the University of Tokyo Press. Currently residing in Boulder, Colorado, she is the Executive Director of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ), a professional organization of Japanese language educators in the United States. JICUF: Please tell us how you ended up working in Japan for so long. Susan: I went to Japan out of curiosity, not intending to stay more than a couple of years, but I had a background in editing, and once in Tokyo I discovered that there […]
JICUF Makes a Pledge for the Global Refugee Forum
The second Global Refugee Forum will be held in Geneva from December 13 to 15. JICUF submitted a pledge to the Forum to continue supporting refugee higher education.
Please support the work of JICUF
We are grateful to everyone in our community for your interest and engagement. As another eventful year comes to a close, we hope that you will consider giving to JICUF to support our work. This year, we sent out an appeal letter which focuses on our grants program. Please see the letter from Dr. Machi Fukuyama Dilworth, ICU alumna and JICUF trustee who currently chairs the Grants Committee on our board. We also compiled some statistics and comments from past grant recipients. Letter from Dr. Machi Fukuyama Dilworth 2023 Appeal Flyer To donate electronically, please visit our donations page. If you would like to donate by check, please send it […]
Introducing the 2023-24 JICUF Photography Interns
JICUF hired two new photography interns, Koto Miura and Naoki Beppu. They are both second year undergraduate students at ICU, and will regularly post on our Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as take photographs for our publications.
JICUF Grantee Spotlight: Project on Inclusive Education by Miyako Watanabe
This spring, ICU undergraduate student Miyako Watanabe was awarded a JICUF grant for her project titled “Towards the Design of Feasible Inclusive Education in Japan — Education that Embraces Each Individual.” Inclusive education is a reform process in education that ensures the attendance of diverse children in local schools, regardless of nationality, race, language, gender, economic status, religion, or disability. We asked Miyako about her project and what she took away from it.
JICUF Holds Its Board Meeting and Reception in New York
JICUF held its fall board meeting in New York on Saturday, September 9th. The night before the board meeting, JICUF hosted a reception at an Italian restaurant in Midtown for ICU alumni and friends. Approximately 70 people attended the reception, including ICU President Shoichiro Iwakiri, Vice President for International Academic Exchange Mark Williams, Managing Trustee Tetsuro Tomioka, ICU alumni living in or visiting New York, friends of JICUF, and JICUF trustees and staff.
JICUF Grantee Spotlight: The 1st Global Community Psychology Seminar in Asia by Prof. Sasao
ICU Professor Toshiaki Sasao received a grant from JICUF to host “The 1st Global Community Psychology Seminar in Asia” at ICU in July. We interviewed him about community psychology and the significance of this conference.
U.S. Scholars Initiative interview : Nicolas Correa
JICUF launched the United States Scholars Initiative (USSI) in 2018 to increase the number of degree-seeking undergraduate students from the US at ICU. For the last five years, we aimed to recruit two US students with excellent academic standing, and cover their full tuition for four years. The first two USSI students graduated this summer. Currently, six USSI students are studying at ICU, including two new students who matriculated this month. We had a chance to interview Nicolas Correa, one of the USSI students who enrolled at ICU in 2019 and graduated this year. Nicolas at the ICU graduation JICUF: Tell us a bit about your background. Where did you […]
Global Link Alumni Interview: Tomoaki Saito & Yukiko Takei
From 2014 to 2019, JICUF hosted Global Link, a summer program for ICU undergraduate students. (The program was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and there are plans to reintroduce it in 2024.) With the purpose of helping students contemplate their future, Global Link provided the opportunity to explore a wide range of global careers. Students selected by JICUF spent the month of July in New York and Washington, D.C., participating in office visits, roundtables, volunteer activities and professional skills workshops with the cooperation of ICU alumni and other professionals. We contacted Tomoaki Saito and Yukiko Takei, two former Global Link participants (in 2017 and 2019 respectively) , to […]