Los Angeles and Nagoya held an event called the “Student Exchange Plan Reunion 2021” online setting up on July 30 with about 80 people in attendance.
The function was jointly sponsored by the Los Angeles-Nagoya Sister Town Affiliation (LANSCA), which celebrated the 60th anniversary of the sister-city romance in 2019, and the Intercontinental Exchanges Area of the Metropolis of Nagoya. Its function was to rekindle the ties between previous college students and chaperones from the Scholar Exchange Program as nicely as taking part school officers, host people, and others.
The university student exchange program has been conducted for the previous 60 several years, with every sister town sending four superior school college students and a chaperone to the other sister city in alternate several years during summer season family vacation. On the Los Angeles facet, the exchange software has been financed with resources raised by LANSCA volunteers.
Teruko Weinberg, who developed the idea for the occasion as chairwoman of LANSCA, defined the reunion’s standard premise: “We experienced to halt the Student Trade Software in 2020 due to the fact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the very last exchange becoming Los Angeles learners who visited Nagoya in 2019. I observed a way to triumph over this break in the application by developing a virtual celebration that would revive the reminiscences and activities of plan alumni and also develop into a product for a related yearly occasion in the long term. We made a decision to give this plan an first consider and set it up with the Town of Nagoya.”
The occasion employed the Internet to connect members collected at Nagoya’s World wide Education and learning Middle with other individuals signing up for remotely from household. It was led by two people as emcees: Megumi Endo of the Metropolis of Nagoya and Dickson Perey, chairman of the LANSCA Scholar Trade Application.
At the outset Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura arrived to the International Education and learning Middle and gave his remarks in English, emphasizing the worth of the marriage of friendship amongst Los Angeles and Nagoya.
He was followed by online video messages from Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nina Hachigian and Akira Muto, consul basic of Japan in Los Angeles.
Upcoming on the method were being alumni of the application, such as previous chaperones who appeared on display screen a single by a person and talked about their memories of the system as nicely as their recent life.
Karl Lin, an trade college student from Los Angeles in 2015, recalled how his participation in the method all through significant school turned a turning issue in his life: “I am now attending Tokyo College as a Fulbright scholar. When I was in Nagoya, I was disappointed that I couldn’t connect well with my host spouse and children due to the fact I spoke no Japanese. With that in head, I double-majored in science and Japanese at faculty (in the U.S.) and am now pursuing submit-graduate studies in Japan.”
Cindy Martinez, who was a chaperone in cost of 4 learners from Los Angeles in 2019, reported, “I acquired a new Japanese loved ones all through my stay in Nagoya. When people ask what I like most about Nagoya, I notify them it is how amazing all the people today are.”
It is expected that the Student Exchange System will return to its normal format in the summer months of 2022 with significant school learners from Los Angeles touring to Nagoya.