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The Stanford University Scholars Program for Japanese High School Students or “Stanford e-Japan” is an online course sponsored by the Yanai Tadashi Foundation and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University. This online course teaches Japanese high school students about U.S. society and underscores the importance of U.S.–Japan relations. Through Stanford e-Japan, ambassadors, top scholars, and experts throughout the United States provide web-based lectures and engage Japanese high school students in live discussion sessions called “virtual classes.” Stanford e-Japan is now in its 5th year and 8th session overall.
On March 15, 2019, 29 high school students across Japan were notified of their acceptance to the Spring 2019 Stanford e-Japan Program. The online course kicks off today and runs until August 23, and will include students representing Aichi, Chiba, Fukuoka, Gunma, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Hyogo, Kanagawa, Nagano, Niigata, Okinawa, Osaka, Saitama, Shizuoka, Tokyo, and Toyama. In addition to a diverse geographical representation within Japan, the students themselves bring a diverse set of experiences to the program, many having lived overseas in places such as Canada, China, the Philippines, and the United States.
The selected Stanford e-Japan high school students will listen to lectures by renowned experts in the field including Professors Emeritus Daniel Okimoto and Peter Duus, and Professors Katherine Gin Lum, Phillip Lipscy, and Kenji Kushida (Stanford University) on topics such as “Baseball Diplomacy,” “The Atomic Bombings of Japan,” “The Attack on Pearl Harbor,” “Religion in the U.S.,” “U.S.–Japan Relations,” and “Silicon Valley and Entrepreneurship.” Live virtual classes include guest speakers such as Ms. Suzanne Basalla (Toyota Research Institute), Ms. Maiko Cagno (U.S. Consulate, Fukuoka), and Mr. Andrew Ogawa (Quest Venture Partners).
Many Stanford e-Japan students in the current cohort (as well as past ones) have mentioned their desire to study in the United States. The Stanford e-Japan Program equips many students with the motivation and confidence to do so, in addition to many of the skills they will need to study at U.S. universities and colleges. In addition to weekly lectures, assignments, discussion board posts, and virtual classes, the program participants will complete a final research paper on a topic concerning U.S. society or the U.S.–Japan relationship.
“Through this course, we’ve raised Japanese students’ interest in U.S. society and U.S.–Japan relations, which is fantastic,” commented Brown. “I’ve encouraged them to seriously consider undergraduate studies in the United States and to look into opportunities like the Yanai Tadashi Foundation Scholarships.”
Stanford e-Japan is one of several online courses for high school students offered by SPICE, including the Reischauer Scholars Program, the China Scholars Program, and the Sejong Korean Scholars Program. For more information about Stanford e-Japan, please visit stanfordejapan.org.
To be notified when the next Stanford e-Japan application period opens, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Applications opened yesterday for the China Scholars Program, an intensive, college-level online course on contemporary China for U.S. high school students. The China Scholars Program is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University, and is open to rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. The Fall 2019 online course will run from late August through December. Applications are due June 15, 2019.
Stanford University China Scholars Program for high school students
Fall 2019 session (late August through December)
Application period: April 15 to June 15, 2019
Accepted applicants will engage in a rigorous academic exploration of key issues in China, spanning politics, economics, social issues, culture, and the arts, with an emphasis on the relationship between the United States and China. In real-time conversations with leading scholars, experts, and diplomats from Stanford University and other institutions, participants will be exposed to the cutting edge of U.S.–China relations and scholarship. Students who complete the online course will be equipped with a rare degree of expertise about China and international relations that may have a significant impact on their choice of study and future career.
As in previous sessions of the China Scholars Program, the Fall 2019 cohort will comprise high school students from across the United States. Participants in the current cohort represent states across the nation, including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona, California, and Hawaii. The immense diversity of student backgrounds and experiences within each online course allows for an especially rich exchange of ideas and perspectives among the young scholars—a crucial and invaluable component of the learning experience.
“It’s been one of the most fascinating, valuable, and formative classes I have ever taken,” says Rebecca Qiu, a recent alum of the program. “Every week, you discuss pressing topics—from technology censorship to the urban-rural divide—with your motivated peers. During virtual classes, you have the opportunity to ask questions and speak with some of the most influential experts and researchers on modern China—I cannot emphasize how valuable this is. [The China Scholars Program] provides you with a huge breadth and depth of knowledge on China and U.S.–China relations that you cannot find in any typical high school class.”
More information on the China Scholars Program is available at http://chinascholars.org. Interested high school students can apply now at https://spicestanford.smapply.io/prog/china_scholars_program/. The deadline to apply is June 15, 2019.
To be notified when the next China Scholars Program application period opens, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
The China Scholars Program is one of several online courses for high school students offered by SPICE, Stanford University, including the Reischauer Scholars Program (on Japan), the Sejong Scholars Program (on Korea), and the Stanford e-Japan Program (on U.S. society, offered to high school students in Japan).
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SPICE is now accepting applications for the 2019 East Asia Summer Institute for High School Teachers. This free three-day institute is SPICE’s premier professional development opportunity for teachers, combining Stanford’s deep content expertise with SPICE’s award-winning lesson plans.
SPICE/NCTA East Asia Summer Institute for High School Teachers
July 8–10, 2019
Stanford University
Application deadline: May 6, 2019
High school teachers of social studies and language arts are especially encouraged to apply.
Participants will learn from Stanford faculty and other experts about the geography, cultures, politics, economics, history, and literature of East Asia, including a special focus on U.S.–Asia relations and the Asian diaspora in the United States. Teachers will also engage in pedagogy-focused discussions and receive training on several SPICE lesson plans on East Asia, in order to help them translate their new content knowledge to the classroom. Teachers who complete the professional development seminar will be eligible for a $250 stipend and three units of credit from Stanford Continuing Studies, and they will leave Stanford with several extensive SPICE curriculum units in hand.
This professional development opportunity will focus largely on China, Japan, and Korea. For example, last year’s speakers included Kathleen Stephens (former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea), Peter Duus (renowned Stanford scholar of modern Japan), and Clayton Dube (Director of the USC U.S.-China Institute). The institute also featured speakers like author Chun Yu (who grew up in China’s Cultural Revolution) and Joseph Yasutake (who grew up in a Japanese American internment camp), whose rich personal stories brought history to life. SPICE staff led complementary interactive curriculum training sessions on China’s economic development, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, South Korean pop culture, and East Asia’s “history wars.”
“Every speaker added a new perspective to historical and contemporary events,” remarked participant Kimberly Gavin. “[The] lectures enriched my knowledge base of topics, curriculum demonstrations gave me ideas for effective lessons in the classroom, small group discussions led to rich conversations about primary and secondary sources, and teacher sharing introduced me to new websites. There wasn’t anything that was done that wasn’t valuable to me… I told my administrator yesterday that this was the best conference I have been to as a teacher.”
More information is available at https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/fellowships/ncta_for_high_school_teachers. Interested high school teachers can apply directly at https://forms.gle/Jd3PP8EowXyPkAyX9. The application deadline is May 6.
The 2019 East Asia Summer Institute for High School Teachers at Stanford University is made possible by the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia.
Stay informed of SPICE news by joining our email list or following us on Facebook and Twitter.
Please note: Due to unexpected funding reductions this year, we are only able to offer our high school institute in 2019. We hope to bring back our middle school institute next year.
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This paper examines how social isolation in a non-Anglophone context where English is not the main language of instruction for local students but is for international students, has unintended consequences for social capital formation among the latter. What factors influence international student network formation in such places where linguistic barriers are institutionalised and what are their consequences not only during college but beyond, in shaping students’ career plans? Using qualitative interview data with 67 international (originating from Asian countries) and domestic students in Japanese universities, we find that such institutional barriers negatively promote greater isolation of international students but positively encourage the formation of diverse multinational ties – a process through which international students gain ideas, confidence and direction regarding their post-graduation career plans to work transnationally.
As a high school student in San Jose in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I used to see Norman Mineta on occasion in San Jose’s Japantown. Once at Fukuda Barber in Japantown, Mineta was on the barber chair. After he left, barbers Takeo and Atsuo Fukuda asked me if I knew who he was. I didn’t, and Takeo told me that he was Norman Mineta, vice mayor of San Jose. Since that day, I recognized Mineta whenever I saw him in Japantown, in the San Jose Mercury News, and on television. In 1971, Mineta became mayor of San Jose, and in 1974, he ran successfully for the U.S. House of Representatives. He was reelected ten more times. Mineta also served as President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce from July 2000 to January 2001 and President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Transportation from January 2001 to August 2006. Never did I imagine that our paths would cross professionally through my work at SPICE. From 2017, SPICE curriculum designer Rylan Sekiguchi assumed the responsibility of authoring lesson plans for a project called “What Does It Mean to Be an American?”—a free web-based curriculum toolkit inspired by Mineta’s life and career.
As a 10-year-old Japanese American boy in 1942, Norman Mineta was powerless when his country imprisoned him and his family in a fit of wartime hysteria. But nearly 60 years later, he sat at the highest levels of government as the United States reeled from 9/11 and began experiencing a new hysteria. In times of crisis like these, how has the institution of civil liberties been affected by individuals like Mineta whose voices guide government policy, and how have those changes impacted the lives of Americans? This was the central question that Mineta and Sekiguchi focused their comments on during their National Council of History Education session, “Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis,” on March 16, 2019.
"Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis" session at the 2019 NCHE conference, led by Rylan Sekiguchi and Secretary Norman Mineta.
Following the curriculum preview, Mineta reflected upon his life and highlighted the striking parallels between the hysteria following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the hysteria following 9/11. His memories of the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor seemed to be seared in the back of his mind as he spoke, as he vividly recalled seeing his father cry for the first time and wondering where his neighbor of Japanese descent had suddenly been taken, and by whom. (He later learned it was the FBI.) A short time later, Mineta and his family were also evicted from their home in San Jose, California and incarcerated in Heart Mountain, Wyoming, as part of what is often called the mass internment of Japanese Americans.
Mineta also shared his memories of the morning of 9/11—being informed as Secretary of Transportation of the first plane hitting the twin towers, watching the live broadcast as the second plane hit, and then being called to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a bunker-like underground structure that lies below the White House. He recalled how he had asked one of his chiefs to draw up the new flight security guidelines that would govern aviation henceforth, and the first bullet point was “No racial profiling will be used.” He also vividly recalled how President George W. Bush, in the aftermath of 9/11, firmly declared that the United States would not let what happened to Norm and his family (following the Pearl Harbor attack) happen again. “You could’ve knocked me off my chair with a feather!” Mineta reflected.
Deborah Rowland with Secretary Norman Mineta
The documentary film Norman Mineta and His Legacy: An American Story will receive a national PBS airing on May 20. Fukami and Nakatomi hope that the film and lesson plans become widely used in U.S. schools and carry on the legacy of Norman Mineta. They noted, “They are important tools to help young students grapple with the divisiveness in U.S. society today and to underscore the critical importance of considering civil liberties-related issues in U.S. history as well as today.”
I had the privilege of attending several screenings of the film. At the San Jose screening, it was gratifying to listen to tributes to Mineta from people who represent San Jose’s diverse communities, and it was especially moving to witness them and numerous Japanese Americans in attendance give a standing ovation to Mineta following the screening. An old family friend in attendance used to also frequent Fukuda Barber and we boasted about how our barber used to also cut the hair of Norman Mineta.
On January 18, 2019, Stanford Global Studies and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) hosted a book talk by Professor Michael McFaul. McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (2009–2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012–2014). He is also one of several contributing scholars to Inside the Kremlin, SPICE’s lesson plan on Soviet and Russian history. McFaul’s talk was given to approximately 30 community college and secondary school educators from the San Francisco Bay Area. Three of the educators—Nancy Willet, Phillip Tran, Don Uy-Barreta—are 2018–19 Stanford Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) Fellows, and this article highlights their reflections.
Ambassador McFaul has described From Cold War to Hot Peace as “three books in one.” First, it is a book that explains the arc of U.S.–Russia relations since the end of the Cold War. Second, it a book that describes the “reset” in U.S.–Russia relations and its aftermath during the Obama presidency. Third, it is a book about McFaul’s life that describes how his involvement with the debate team at Bozeman High School, Montana, sparked his interest in Russia and led to his subsequent study of Russia at Stanford University, Oxford University, and in Russia itself. During his talk, he touched upon all three.
McFaul’s reflections not only provided the educators with important content on U.S.–Russia relations and insights from his youth to his ambassadorship, but also prompted the educators to consider effective teaching and pedagogical strategies. McFaul’s use of storytelling, presentation of multiple perspectives, emphasis on interdisciplinarity, and sharing of first-hand accounts gave the educators a glimpse into McFaul not only as an academic and diplomat but as a teacher.
EPIC Fellow Nancy Willet, Co-chair of the Business & Information Systems Department, College of Marin, noted, “I was most impressed with Ambassador McFaul’s engaging storytelling. His first-hand insights of his time spent studying and working in Russia challenged some of my misguided assumptions and helped expand my understanding of the complexities of U.S.–Russia relations. I grew up during the Cold War and the Ambassador disrupted some of my deep-rooted misconceptions about the former Soviet Union and further opened my mind for a more nuanced understanding.” In a follow-up communication, Willet said that she is devouring From Cold War to Hot Peace and plans to share McFaul’s scholarly insights with her law students—particularly when discussing democracy and rule of law—here and abroad.
EPIC Fellow Philip Tran, Instructor of Business, San Jose City College, remarked that “Ambassador McFaul’s talk reinforced the complicated notion of human relations and the importance of an interdisciplinary study of it—including political science, business, economics, etc. Interdisciplinarity is a key to grasping a better understanding of human relations.” He continued by noting that the biggest take-away from McFaul’s talk was that it cautioned him as a teacher to “refrain from the natural ‘knee-jerk’ reactions and to seek a deeper understanding of the situation from all sides…. Even though Ambassador McFaul is a subject matter expert on U.S.–Russian relations, he displayed humility and acceptance of ambiguity in his responses to some of the toughest questions regarding the U.S. relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin.”
EPIC Fellow Don Uy-Barreta, Instructor of Economics, De Anza College, reflected upon the significance of sharing first-hand experiences with students. He noted that “Reading about Ambassador McFaul’s experience is very informative, but being able to ask questions and hearing it from the source is a whole different level of experience. As he was telling us about his days in Russia, it felt like I was right next to him, and it gave me goosebumps.” Uy-Barreta found inspiration in McFaul’s talk as he prepares for his presentation on global economics at the EPIC Symposium on May 18, 2019 during which the 2018–19 EPIC Fellows will present their research at Stanford.
McFaul has given numerous talks on From Cold War to Hot Peace but this was the first geared to an audience of educators. As I observed his talk, I was primarily attentive to the pedagogical strategies that he utilized to engage the educators. For me, his effective teaching made the history and insights in From Cold War to Hot Peace come alive and feel more like “four books in one.”
This book talk was made possible by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant that provides professional development opportunities for K–12 teachers and community college instructors. Among these opportunities is EPIC, a program that provides one-year fellowships to community college instructors. Title VI grant collaborators include Stanford Global Studies (SGS), SPICE, Lacuna Stories, and the Stanford Graduate School of Education’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching. SGS’s Denise Geraci and SPICE’s Jonas Edman organized and facilitated the talk by Ambassador McFaul.
SPICE also offers professional development opportunities for middle school teachers and high school teachers. To stay informed of SPICE news, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Why does cellist Yo-Yo Ma refer to the Silk Road as the ‘Internet of antiquity’? What is globalization? What is economic interdependence? What are diversity and inclusion? These are some of the questions that high school students from Yokohama Science Frontier High School (YSFH) considered during a visit to the San Francisco Bay Area in January 2019. Alumni of the U.S.-Japan Council’s TOMODACHI Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) and SPICE staff encouraged the students to critically consider the questions during their visits to Facebook, Apple, and Stanford University.
Prior to their arrival, YSFH students shared their goals for the trip. YSFH student Ken Horikoshi, who aspires to become a robotics engineer, noted, “I will need communication skills, skills of thinking deeply, and of course, knowledge about space or robotics to make my dreams come true. So, I’d like to make an effort to improve these skills.” With the students’ goals in mind, ELP Chair and SPICE’s Rylan Sekiguchi organized visits to Apple and Facebook and assisted with a one-day seminar at Stanford.
Derek Kenmotsu talks with students and teachers on Apple campus.
Mana Nakagawa gives students and teachers a tour around Facebook headquarters.
During the seminar at Stanford, SPICE staff introduced the YSFH students to SPICE lessons from Along the Silk Road to illustrate that globalization is not just a modern phenomenon. The staff noted that in some ways, the ancient Silk Road was the first real conduit of globalization, as it connected vast lands into a trade network that spread goods, beliefs, and technologies far from their areas of origin. ELP alumna Naomi Funahashi, instructor of SPICE’s online course on Japan, illustrated this by showing how musical instruments were carried along the Silk Road and gradually adapted to cultural and geographic features of local environments. She mentioned, for example, similarities and differences of lutes that can be found in Europe, China, Korea, and Japan. She also noted a description of the Silk Road by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, founder of Silkroad, who has described the Silk Road as the “Internet of antiquity”; expounding upon this notion, Sekiguchi and SPICE’s Jonas Edman noted that by studying about the Silk Road, we can gain historical insights into how the contemporary stage of globalization is changing our world and our lives.
A highlight of the seminar featured the YSFH students giving presentations on their science-related research to the SPICE staff and visiting scholars at Stanford from Japan. YSFH student Kazuhiro Okada’s presentation on his ambition to design underwater cities stretched the audience’s notions of globalization and interconnectedness. One commented, “It would be interesting if you could someday design a subway stop under the ocean between Aomori Prefecture and Hokkaido.”
The ELP identifies, cultivates, and empowers a new generation of leaders in the U.S.–Japan relationship. Chair Sekiguchi, other ELP alumni, and SPICE staff extended this mission to the generation behind them. YSFH teacher Nobuyo Uchimura described the experiences that they provided her students as very precious ones that expanded their learning beyond the confines of a classroom, and YSFH teacher Yukimasa Uekusa noted his desire to prioritize programs such as this into the future.
Stanford e-Japan is an online course that teaches Japanese high school students about American society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations. The course introduces students to both American and Japanese perspectives on many historical and contemporary issues. It is offered biannually by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). The Fall 2018 cohort was the seventh group of students to complete Stanford e-Japan.
In August 2019, three of the top students of the Fall 2018 Stanford e-Japan distance-learning course will be honored at an event at Stanford University. The three Stanford e-Japan Day honorees—Sakura Hayakawa (Katoh Gakuen Gyoshu Senior High School), Ryotaro Homma (Kaisei Senior High School), and Taiki Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Uji Senior High School)—will be recognized for their coursework and exceptional research essays that focused respectively on “Importance of Youth Political Participation and Citizenship Education,” “The Abolition of the Electoral College: A Synthesis of the Positive Aspects,” and “The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Is a New Framework Necessary?”
Mayu Fujinami (Keio Girls Senior High School) and Tatsuya Sugiyama (Saitama Prefectural Urawa High School) received Honorable Mentions for their research papers on “The Importance of Paternity Leave for Gender Equality” and “Design Thinking: Lessons from the U.S.,” respectively.
Applications for the next session of Stanford e-Japan (Spring 2019) are currently being accepted through February 24, 2019. More information is available at stanfordejapan.org.
To stay informed of SPICE news, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
SPICE offers separate courses for U.S. high school students. For more information, please see the Reischauer Scholars Program (online course about Japan), Sejong Scholars Program (online course about Korea), or China Scholars Program (online course about China).
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Stanford e-Tottori is a distance-learning course sponsored by the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Tottori Governor Shinji Hirai and Superintendent Hitoshi Yamamoto of the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education were instrumental in its establishment. Offered for the first time in 2016, Stanford e-Tottori presents a creative and innovative approach to teaching Japanese high school students about U.S. society and culture.
Hana Hirosaka of Tottori Higashi High School with SPICE Director Gary Mukai
Stanford e-Tottori instructor Jonas Edman recently recognized three of his top performing students for their exceptional coursework. They are James Banville (Tottori Keiai High School; Principal Shigeo Nikaido), Hana Hirosaka (Tottori Higashi High School; Principal Masato Omuro), and Kosei Kamada (Tottori Nishi High School; Principal Eiju Yamamoto). Since the launching of Stanford e-Tottori, Edman has encouraged his students to think in an internationally minded manner—that is, to consider different points of view and to realize the importance of diversity and cross-cultural communication. Reflecting upon his former students over the first two years of Stanford e-Tottori, Edman noted that “James, Hana, and Kosei were always open-minded to various points of view and demonstrated strong critical thinking skills… and I was also impressed with their regular attendance in class despite their extremely busy schedules. I am so proud of all of the Tottori students’ accomplishments, but those of James, Hana, and Kosei especially stood out.”
James Banville with Principal Shigeo Nikaido of Tottori Keiai High School
Each of the honorees received a plaque from SPICE/Stanford University, and Edman expressed his hope that this honor would help them with university admissions as well as inspire them to someday study in the United States. As part of the admissions process to Waseda University, Banville spoke about what he learned in Stanford e-Tottori during an interview. He was admitted to Waseda and will begin his freshman year this spring. Hirosaki and Kamada are now in the midst of the university application process and they, too, plan to showcase their participation in Stanford e-Tottori.
Takuya Fukushima, Office Director of the English Education Advancement Office of the High School Division at the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education, expressed his profound gratitude to Edman and feels that these honors have made Stanford e-Tottori more visible in Tottori Prefecture. “With wonderful guidance and skilled facilitation, Edman-sensei has done a great job to foster the students’ interest and participation in discussions… the students’ positive attitude and willingness to participate in lessons was something that I had been long waiting for. It was the moment when I could feel, ‘Oh, Stanford e-Tottori rose one step higher.’”
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