The US trip

This is Ayaka Iwatsuki, an M2 student from Education and Human Resource Development, Graduate School of International Development. I visited the Untied States from February 18th to March 10th, 2010. Today, I would like to share my experience there.

The Conference of Comparative and International Education Society was held in Chicago from March 1st to 5th when it was really really cold. I joined this conference and gave a presentation about the result of Domestic Field Work (DFW) with the title of “The Impact of Sanson-Ryugaku on the Local Community – A case of Namiai, Achi village”. Unfortunately I don’t think it went well (as most of you know I am really easy to nervous in presentation...) and I came to realize that I need to practice my presentation skill more! But it was really exciting to see some famous professors whose books and papers I’ve read, and listening to interesting presentations was really fun. Also, I met Liu-san, Ogisu-san and Nori-san who study there! It was good to hear how they are doing in the States and it really motivated me.

After the conference, I visited Washington D.C. and luckily the weather there was really nice, even though I heard many times before going there that I had to get prepared for tons of snows! For first day of Washington D.C., I visited Academy for Educational Development and the World Bank with Kobe University students. Also by visiting George Washington University, I met some students there and it was good to see and hear how they do research compared to how we do in Japan. The next day, I went to Center for Applied Linguistic and American Institution for Research as well. Thank you so much Jim sensei for introducing such nice people from the organizations! People in the organization gave me some tips for my future career and what I should/ can do in Senegal for 2 years. It was really informative and I really enjoyed talking with them. At AIR, I happened to meet Japanese woman who works for the organization. It was so nice for me to see Japanese woman who works in such a prestige organization in Washington D.C and of course the fact also gave me a great motivation!

Also, I want to mention that I visited Indiana University where Nori-san studies now. I also studied at the university as an exchange student 2 years ago, so it was good to see some of my old friends. Thanks to Nori-san, I was able to join one of the classes offered in the graduate school which motivated me study harder as well! Thank you Nori-san!
Overall, this trip to the States was really motivating and interesting for me. I learned a lot and hope to utilize this experience for my academic achievement and future :) I really appreciate many people who helped me there! Thank you so much.
Ayaka Iwatsuki