Visit from UTokyo Faculty and Staff Bolsters Partnership with Swarthmore, Shared Emphasis on Global Engagement
Yujin Yaguchi, professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the The University of Tokyo, recently visited campus and met with students and faculty from the Japanese Studies section of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department.
Swarthmore recently welcomed two faculty and staff members from The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), bolstering the 25-year partnership between the schools and their shared emphasis on global engagement.
Yujin Yaguchi, professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, vice president of global education, and deputy director of the Division for Global Campus Initiatives, and Risako Kondo, coordinator of incoming students, visited the College in late September. They enjoyed a day of activity aimed to connect them with as many campus stakeholders as possible.
During lunch, Yaguchi and Kondo met with students and faculty from the Japanese studies section of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department. Throughout the afternoon, they met with an array of College staff, including Dean of Admissions Jim Bock ’90, Dean of Students Tomoko Sakomura, and Assistant Dean and Director of International Student Programs Jennifer Marks-Gold.
A reception was held in the evening geared toward students, faculty, and staff who are interested in The University of Tokyo, Japan, and global engagement. The Japanese studies section and the Off-Campus Study Office also co-hosted a dinner at the Broad Table Tavern to bolster connections between the institutions.
Swarthmore is the only American liberal arts institution to have a partnership with UTokyo, for which global outreach is a core element. Each school offers two to three students the opportunity to study at each respective institution for one to two semesters per year. The purpose of these exchanges is to enrich the academic, social, and cultural experiences of both Swarthmore and UTokyo students.
“The program offered an incredible breadth of content for course work,” says Arka Rao ’18, who participated in the exchange program in 2015 and is now pursuing a philosophy Ph.D. at the University of California, San Francisco. “I really enjoyed taking a course on gender studies, and the introductory Japanese language course was extremely helpful as well. I didn't realize how much I could learn in such a short time from very experienced and patient professors.”
Risako Kondo (third from right) and Yaguchi's visit bolstered the 25-year partnership between Swarthmore and UTokyo and their shared emphasis on global engagement.
