Ms. Noriko Iwase, who graduated from ICU in 1974, currently lives in Washington, D.C. After a long career at the United Nations and World Bank, she decided to pursue a different path. A generous supporter of JICUF and ICU, she shared her ICU story with us.
In April, three ICU students participated in the 2019 Jean-Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition held in Obernai, France, and ICU graduate student Kalika Kastein won the Best Speaker Award in the Anglophone section. The JICUF grant that their instructor Assistant Professor Hiromichi Matsuda was awarded was used to cover some of the cost of participating in the event. This is a report from Kalika. Congratulations, ICU team!
On April 4th, the Institute of International Education (IIE) hosted the first Global Forum for its Platform for Education in Emergencies Response (PEER) Initiative in New York. Paul Hastings, Executive Director of JICUF, contributed as a panelist in a breakout session on “How to Build Successful Partnership in Higher Education in Emergencies. ” He spoke about JICUF and ICU’s scholarship program for Syrian students, Syrian Scholars Initiative.
On February 20th (Wednesday) and 22nd (Friday), Ms. Mina Takanashi, Instructor in ICU’s Health and Physical Education Program, hosted a Wheelchair Basketball Workshop in the V Gym at ICU. This was the second “parasport event” organized at ICU, the first being the Blind Soccer Workshop organized by Instructor Hiroshi Yamauchi last January.
Yuki Moritani, a fourth-year student at ICU, planned an event with three of his friends to discuss ICU’s philosophy, history and future. The event titled “Discussing the Future of ICU” was held on Tuesday, February 26th. Yuki was awarded 75,000 yen from the JICUF Student Support Funds last fall.
The Spring 2019 JICUF Undergraduate Research Day (URD) was held on February 15th at ICU. 46 fourth-year students presented their research posters. The event was organized by Associate Professor Seunghun Lee with a grant from JICUF.
Ms. Christine Nalubowa obtained her B.A. and M.A. from ICU in the 2010s, and is now based in Uganda. This month, we asked her to share her “ICU story.”
The 2019 spring application period for the JICUF Student Funds will begin on January 21st.
Since this program was established in 2016, JICUF has supported numerous projects by both undergraduate and graduate students at ICU. At the same time, many students are not familiar with the idea of “grants,” and some confuse it with scholarships. We asked JICUF Program Manager Fernando Rojas to answer some frequently asked questions.
We are happy to announce that ICU student Mone Ikeda has been awarded the 2019 JICUF Study Abroad Scholarship earlier this month. Mone will study at the University of California from fall 2019. We recently interviewed Mone by e-mail.
On December 1st and 2nd, JICUF and UNHCR Japan co-hosted a symposium at the International House of Japan in Tokyo entitled “Supporting Refugees in Higher Education: Japanese Models and Next Steps.” Close to 80 participants including representatives of Japanese universities, NPOs and government agencies participated to discuss existing programs for supporting refugee students and to explore ways to strengthen collaboration among institutions.
