日本語
The international exchange program of 2022 was held between Yamagata University (YU) and Mayor de San Andrés University (UMSA) in Bolivia across November and December.
It was a 4-week online program with the theme of “Solving Social Issues through Technology”.
10 students joined from each university, and were divided into 5 inter-university groups to encourage communication between the students.
The program was self-directed – other than the 3 sessions where all members met together with the program coordinators, students decided what topic they wanted to do and the pace of what they did with their groups.
The aims of the program were to promote international and cultural exchange, build students’ communication and presentation skills, independent and self-directed learning, teamwork, critical thinking, creativity, time management and more, all the while improving their English language skills.
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In the 1st session, students from both universities gave introductions about their countries, cities and universities before breaking up into their groups. In their groups, students got to know each other using their common language of English and worked on deciding their topic. Over the following two weeks, students communicated with each other using social media.
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In the 2nd session, students from each group shared about their group’s progress regarding the theme. With some feedback from the program coordinators, students continued working on their chosen topics.
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In the 3rd and final session, every group gave a presentation on their chosen social issues and their proposed solutions. Although challenging, students were able to work together and think about different social issues and ways that they can be solved.
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After the presentations, students went on to present on different topics that illustrated their daily lives in Bolivia or Japan. Through these presentations, students could learn about differences and similarities between themselves and students from a country on the other side of the world.
In a follow-up session, students received gifts and postcards from students in Bolivia and shared about their experiences on the program. Although challenging to communicate in a foreign language with people in a different time zone about the difficult topics, students were glad to have joined the program and were happy to have had the chance to meet people across the world.
We hope that we can visit UMSA in-person next time!