JICUF recently recruited two ICU students, Kira Taylor and Rika Asakura, as our first Communications Interns. Their main responsibility is to disseminate information about the opportunities that JICUF provides to current ICU students, and with their help, we launched the JICUF official LINE account!
JICUF is relaunching the grants program this fall! Starting August 30, ICU students, faculty, and now alumni can apply for funding for projects focused on sustainability, DEI or peacebuilding.
Mr. Yoshito Dobashi graduated from ICU in March 1991. His parents and wife all being ICU alumni, ICU has been a part of Mr. Dobashi’s far beyond graduation. He is currently the chapter president of “ICUICU,” the group of ICU alumni involved in international cooperation. We asked him to reflect on his path from childhood to ICU, and to his current work on disability and development.
A statement of solidarity from the Japan ICU Foundation
Earlier this month, JICUF Executive Director Paul Hastings was invited by the Institute of International Education to speak at a workshop in Vietnam on the topic of refugee higher education. JICUF’s scholarship program for Syrian students, the Syrian Scholars Initiative, is the only private sponsorship program hosted by a university in Japan and has garnered much interest among the international community. ICU Professor Osamu Arakaki also participated in the workshop.
In fall 2018, fourth-year student at ICU Kazuna Yamamoto (CLA ‘19) received ¥510,000 through the JICUF Grants Initiative for her project, “Educate For ICU Ambassador Program.” This past March, Kazuna brought 4 ICU students and 2 non-ICU students to organize, conduct, and facilitate educational STEM and English workshops in 3 schools in Trujillo, Peru.
On June 18th and 19th, Aki Takada, Associate Director of JICUF, attended a conference titled “The Other 1%: Refugees at Institutions for Higher Education Worldwide” in Berlin, Germany. She introduced JICUF’s Syrian Scholars Initiative in a workshop on Financing Models and Strategic Partnerships.
In April, the ICU Graduate School launched the Diplomacy and International Public Service Program (DIPS). DIPS targets ICU graduate students and students in the Five-year Program who are interested in pursuing careers in diplomacy or international organizations. A kick-off event was held on the ICU campus on Saturday, April 20th.
On Friday, September 13th, JICUF will host a 70th Anniversary Dinner at Riverside Church in New York City. ICU alumnus Dr. Hirotaka Takeuchi (class of 1969), Professor of Harvard Business School, will give a talk. We hope many alumni and friends will join us!
In early April, the JICUF announced the recipients of the 2019 spring JICUF grants. JICUF provided a total of ¥4,275,295 to twelve projects – two from faculty, ten from ICU students. Congratulations to all!
