Give-back Project Complete!

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So this week, I completed my project for giving back to my host university (Ritsumeikan)! For my project, my twin and I got the chance to participate in Ritsumeikanโ€™s Global Gateway Program; a special class designed for students planning to study abroad. While most of the students in the class were native, there were quite a few who were from diverse countries. We decided to participate in two classes; the first on May 28th during 6th period (6:00pm-7:30) and the second on June 3rd during 5th period (4:20-5:50).

As guest speakers, my twin and I decided to promote education abroad at our home university; Florida International University (FIU). It was great to talk about campus life and the many unique things at my school, including the wide variety of clubs, food, and the many options for majors and certificates. We then focused on life in Miami, so that student s who were interested would know what to expect if they did decide to go to FIU.

During the first class, the teacher had some of the students make presentations about their home university as well. After giving our presentation, we got to watch presentations about Ritsumeikan, a technology school in Mexico, Lund University in Sweden, and Egypt. It was interesting to learn about different schools around the world.

For the second class, we got to have a nice Q&A session after our presentation. It was nice to see many students interested in life in Miami, FIU, and myself!

Overall, I really enjoyed this project! It was nice to share my experience abroad with students who were especially interested in education abroad. I also made friends with some of the students at both sessions, since we all had one important passion in common; exploring the world!

Shalisha Witherspoon

Konnichiwa! My name is Shalisha Witherspoon, and I'm currently a senior majoring in IT (Software development track) and minoring in Japanese Language and Literature at Florida International University (FIU) I also work at FIU as an Undergraduate Researcher for the High Performance Database Research Center. I'm one of six children, and I happen to be a twin! I was also homeschooled my entire life. My interests include drawing, video games, programming, and above all, Japanese! Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated with Japanese culture thanks to TV and comic books. As my interest grew, I learned to draw in the Japanese art style and created my own comics. Soon afterwards, I began researching Japanese history and culture, and finally, I began studying the language. After formally studying Japanese for 2 years, I will finally fulfill a life-long dream and study Japanese in Japan this summer! The school I will be attending is Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, where I will complete my Japanese language studies and take a culture class fully in Japanese! Even better, I will be going abroad with my identical twin sister! This will be my first time out of the country, so I'm grateful to have been blessed to experience this amazing opportunity with my twin! I hope to one day work for a software company in Japan, particularly Nintendo since I'm studying game programming and have grown up playing their games; studying abroad will help me get one step closer to reaching that goal! I look forward to sharing my amazing experience in Japan!