LISD student exchange program aims to strengthen ties with Japan

By: 
MEGAN LINSKI

Nicholas Case (l-r), Ryo Furutaka, Takara Nakanishi and Michael Rine all participated in LISD’s Moriyama Middle School Exchange Program. Photo submitted.

The Lenawee Intermediate School District (LISD) will be hosting its Moriyama Middle School Exchange Program meeting for the 2016-2017 year on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 4107 N. Adrian Hwy. The program is an opportunity for middle school students and their families to host Japanese exchange students in the fall and visit Moriyama, Japan in the spring. Teachers are invited to host the Moriyama delegation’s teachers. Current Lenawee County sixth and seventh grade students, along with parents, guardians, and teachers interested in chaperoning are invited to attend.

“The program gives students an understanding of a different culture by visiting Japan, and a perspective of international relations,” said Cindy Kojima, Japanese exchange coordinator. “The world is getting smaller, and I think it’s a good idea for students to learn as much as they can about other cultures. It opens their eyes to see what is happening for other people.”

The goal of the program is to improve relations between Japan and Lenawee County, while giving students and their families a way to share their lives with exchange students for several days. After the Japan delegation returns home, the Lenawee delegation meets frequently in the following months to prepare for a trip to Moriyama in the spring. The Japan Business Society of Detroit, the United States-Japan Foundation, the Adrian Noon Rotary Club and the Anderson Development Company offer some partial scholarships for the program.

Kojima said middle school students are not often offered opportunities to host students from other countries, and students who participate in the program will gain skills useful to them in the future. “If they go to Japan at age thirteen or fourteen, it gives them an experience. They learn how to communicate with people who don’t speak their language, and how to get along with people who live lives different from their own,” Kojima said. “It changes their perspective when they return to America. Some students have formed relationships that have lasted for twenty years. One exchange student recently attended his host sister’s wedding. It’s a relationship that’s fulfilling for both students from Japan and Lenawee County.”

Applications for the program will be available at the meeting, and on the LISD website at www.lisd.us/japanese-exchange-program/. Applications are also available through Kojima by emailing cindy.kojima@lisd.us.

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