The following is Part 10 of a multiple-part series. To read previous installments in this series, please visit the following articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9. 

Since December 8, 2020, SPICE has posted nine articles that highlight reflections from 72 students on the question, “What does it mean to be an American?” Part 10 features eight additional reflections. The reflections below do not necessarily reflect those of the SPICE staff.

The free educational website “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” offers six lessons on immigration, civic engagement, leadership, civil liberties & equity, justice & reconciliation, and U.S.–Japan relations. The lessons encourage critical thinking through class activities and discussions. On March 24, 2021, SPICE’s Rylan Sekiguchi was honored by the Association for Asian Studies for his authorship of the lessons that are featured on the website, which was developed by the Mineta Legacy Project in partnership with SPICE.

Tai Brown, Oregon 
When I think about what being an American means to me, in my mind, it’s about how I am able to voice my opinion and be heard by others. This is a reality that many people take for granted. The ability that I, and all other Americans have, to influence the people around us with our voices and our individual opinions is something which I feel many Americans think of as more of a right, and don’t realize it is such a privilege. I recognize that I have this privilege, so even when I don’t get my way, I’m able to realize how people in some countries aren’t able to say what they want. Being aware of this freedom makes me realize how lucky I am to be an American. 

Thea Louise Dai, California 
When I think of the term “American,” my mind immediately drifts toward the American dream: a promise of opportunity and freedom that drew my parents—and so many others like them—to this country. But the United States, as I’ve grown to learn, is far from perfect. In the past few years alone, I’ve witnessed that inequalities can divide our country, violence can terrorize our communities, and systemic racism can cripple our institutions. In the classroom, I’ve read about racist housing policies, discriminatory immigration practices, and failed U.S. military missions. To me, being American means seeing the United States with all its blemishes and imperfections, and still believing in the possibility of change. Americans actively invest in the U.S.’s future by celebrating our successes and values, acknowledging our shortcomings, and fighting for the prospect of a better country.

Tadeusz Jose, California 
There is something abstract about America. Being so vast in the experiences of its people, America is hugely interpretable. And each interpretation, however contradictory to another, is justifiable and valid. To many, America has been a land of safety and success. To many, America has been a cruel home, a source of pain and anguish on the individual to the societal level. So then, how can a common identity exist between people without a common experience? How can people who live in such different Americas have a common American identity? Because our identity lies in the American ideal, not the American reality. Every American believes in this country’s promise of opportunity, freedom, and equality. I think someone who came to America ten minutes ago believing in those ideals is just as American as a founding father. Being American is believing in America.

Kai Kaplinsky, California 
I do not have a short and clear answer. I was born in Israel and raised in Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and now California. My family is both Japanese and Israeli/Jewish, and my upbringing and nationalities are filled with diversity. When I think of the United States or being an American, it means having opportunities; viewing failure as not trying or an incentive to try harder; appreciating differences; and having an impact as an immigrant. Like any other place, differences in gender, race, and ethnicity can make life as a minority challenging in the United States. But I feel that the United States, as a country, is represented by people who are vocal and trying to execute changes and are constantly moving in a better direction. I feel that what it means to be an American depends on us, and how we live our lives.

Abigail Kim, California 
To me, the American identity is like the inside of a mixing pot. I cannot think of one culture that ties us all together. We are the product of so many different cultures and people from all over the world interacting and learning from one another, eventually evolving into a broad identity labeled as “American.” As the daughter of two Korean immigrants, it’s hard for me to feel “American.” Being American in its very essence is not limited to my own experience. Even though the American identity is so inclusive, I feel as though knowing only one culture—my Korean American culture—and knowing less about the other cultures that mix into being American limits my ability to truly be an American. Thus, I think that being American is really about education: how keenly aware one is of the people who make up this country and the individual experiences we have as we intermingle with each other.

Joshua Koo, California 
I am fully Korean by birth and spend every summer there. So do I feel fully “American”? That is something I’ve always wondered. Sometimes I feel like a stranger in a strange land in both countries, despite having dual citizenship. People always ask me in what country I will choose to live my adult life, and, to be honest, I don’t know. But that is the beauty of America. America does not make me choose. America allows everyone to find out who they are and live for that. I can live in Korea for twenty years and still return as a U.S. citizen, and I will feel at home. That is the dream of America: to make everyone feel at home. Not everyone does, of course, but America is the one place whose ideal is to always try.

Elise Lamb, Oregon 
To me, being an American means having the rights I am entitled to while being confident in my ability to take a stand against any who attempt to strip them away from me. Looking at the patriotism of those around me, it often feels as though the privileges of being an American get drowned out in the negative aspects of the country. However, unlike the vast majority of the world, America not only allows, but encourages independence and self-determination, placing importance on those finding their own identity and success. Of course, America is far from perfect, but it’s essential that Americans acknowledge the liberties and opportunities allotted to them, especially in a setting where those privileges are hard to find.

Alyssa Wang, California 
To me, being American means being free. This concept is shown throughout our history, from the First Amendment (the right to freedom of speech and religion), to America’s icon of Lady Liberty, and so much more. Being Japanese on my mother’s side and Chinese and European on my father’s, I have heard stories from my maternal grandparents about the Japanese American internment camps and stories about my paternal grandparents’ experiences in New York. Looking back, I feel incredibly grateful for the freedoms that we have today. Even though the United States is not perfect, we are doing our best to provide liberty and opportunities that aren’t possible in some other countries. We, as Americans, have the freedom to pursue our dreams and make our own choices. We have the freedom to determine our government, to decide our beliefs, and to define our own future.

By traditional measures, South Korea is not a large country. It ranks 28th in the world in population and only 107th in land mass. Its language is not widely spoken outside the Korean peninsula, and it does not have a large diaspora. Yet since around 2005, it has arguably become the major producer of youth culture in the world. How did this happen?

Stanford professor Dafna Zur has filmed a video to answer that complicated and important question. Dr. Zur is an Associate Professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Stanford University. She specializes in Korean literature, cinema, and popular culture. As part of her research, Dr. Zur has interviewed the main architects of South Korea’s popular culture wave, including SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man and many K-Pop stars.

Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies and SPICE collaborated on a discussion guide to bring the lessons from Dr. Zur’s video to high school and university students. The video and discussion guide are available for free on SPICE’s Multimedia page. They address the following questions:

• What is popular culture?
• What is soft power, and why is it important?
• How did South Korea become such a successful producer of popular culture in the past 20 years?
• How can we measure South Korea’s success in becoming a popular culture powerhouse? 
• How did South Korea’s popular culture evolve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? What’s the next stage in its development?
• How easy would it be for other countries to replicate South Korea’s soft power success? 

Because the main vehicle for South Korea’s rise as a soft power giant has been Korean pop music, known as K-Pop, Dr. Zur directs viewers to several music videos that illustrate how K-Pop has evolved since 1997 and where it might go in the future.

She provides deep insight into the building blocks of K-Pop’s success, which she identifies as support from the national government, the kihoeksa (entertainment conglomerate) system, technology, timing, content release strategy, and fan communities. In particular, Dr. Zur explains how the kihoeksa are able to produce high-quality entertainment at a low cost and how their scale has allowed them to invest in new technologies that keep them at the forefront of pop culture production.

The discussion guide provides context for students to understand the complexity in Dr. Zur’s video. In preparation for the video, students take and then discuss a quiz on South Korea’s popular culture. The teacher then defines key terms such as popular culture and soft power and displays charts that show how South Korea’s soft power has increased since 2000. 

Students view Dr. Zur’s video and the accompanying K-Pop music videos as homework and respond to a series of questions on the main themes of the video. During the next class period, they work in groups to develop a plan for another country to elevate its soft power by drawing on what they learned about South Korea’s success. This complex activity requires students to clearly define the factors that have led to the popularity of Korean popular culture, distinguish between the factors they believe are replicable and those that are not, and then adapt this analysis into a set of recommendations for another country that hopes to achieve the same success as South Korea. After groups present their findings to the class, the teacher concludes the lesson by asking students to predict whether South Korea will be able to maintain its soft power dominance into the future. 

The discussion guide contains a complete transcript of the video and is appropriate for advanced secondary students and university students. 

The video lecture and guide were made possible through the support of U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center funding under the auspices of Title VI, Section 602(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

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The following is a guest article written by Marie Fujimoto, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. Fujimoto enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

In the course “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” I was intellectually and emotionally challenged by the lectures of Dr. Mukai and our guest speakers. I was impressed by the pedagogical materials on Angel Island Immigrant Station by SPICE’s Jonas Edman and Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Executive Director Edward Tepporn. I also grew frustrated to hear that not all schools recognize the value of teaching the diverse history of the United States. Listening to Dr. Liz Baham’s story of many African American children never aspiring to higher education due to systemic racial discrimination that is deep-rooted in U.S. society, I once again felt helpless. 

I am fully Japanese but have an international background. When I was 13 years old, I went to England by myself to learn violin in a music boarding school. I was lucky to be surrounded by supportive teachers and peers. But still, I often recognized that I was an “outsider” because I was short with darker skin, hair, eyes, and had a strange accent, even though I rarely spoke in class in the first place. 

After two years, I came back to Japan and completed high school in Tokyo. I then decided to attend the New England Conservatory in Boston, attaining a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance in 2021. In school, there were many international students from China and Korea, and there were also Asian American students. At first, I felt comfortable to be with people who looked similar to me. However, I gradually realized that some Asian Americans went through hardships because they were not “American enough.” I sometimes heard stories of music teachers making comments on race, such as “Asian musicians have techniques, but not hearts.” These teachers were not at the New England Conservatory. I loved all the professors I met at NEC. However, classical music also has a dark history of privileging White, male, and European musicians. 

In Japan, diversity is also difficult to embrace for many, but in a different way. Compared to other countries, Japanese are generally very good at noticing small differences, creating strict social norms. This may be contributing to a Japanese society that is uniform, organized, and clean, but people are constantly pressured to be assimilated into that mainstream. And it’s not always easy for people who cannot do so for whatever reason. Once, international students told me that they were hurt by the way some Japanese interacted with them. They felt that they were treated as “outsiders.” That said, I could also see that these Japanese did not mean to be offensive at all. And that’s why I think we have a problem in our society that needs to be addressed. 

Despite social and political challenges, all of the guest instructors in our class did not give up on their goals in life, including teaching students in the United States of its diverse history. They clearly do not want more children to be confused, ignored, or alienated in school and beyond—as they often felt as students—so they have emphasized the importance of giving a voice to the traditionally unheard. This empowered me.

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Since last year, I started coaching the International Youth Orchestra at the Tokyo College of Music. It is the first orchestra in the Eastern area of Japan for pre-collegiate students with diverse national and ethnic backgrounds in Japan. Applying some of the pedagogical skills that I learned from the course, I try to create an encouraging community within the orchestra together with my co-workers. In the beginning, students seemed intimidated, but now they help each other and ask for extra support. I also collaborate with music teachers and Yukiko Tsubonou, Professor Emeritus at Japan Women’s University and Executive Director of the Institute of Creativity in Music Education. Our collaborative work is to design music classes for public schools and special needs schools, where every student can participate actively with improvisation. I bring my violin to a classroom, and students and I explore music-making spontaneously. Music can go beyond boundaries not only between countries but also within countries like Japan. 

Education can either divide or connect us, and it depends on the mindset of teachers. So, I will keep listening to voices and explore possibilities that music can have in education. I will keep moving forward, as Dr. Mukai and all the guest instructors have done.

The following is a guest article written by Sonosuke Nagai, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. Nagai enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

This course began with a story that strongly attracted my interest. It is a story of a Japanese immigrant woman who married a U.S. soldier and moved to the United States after World War II. This story that was captured on video included interviews of the Japanese war bride and her family members looking back on that time. This particular story—as well as those of most Japanese war brides—informed me that though they were able to live productive lives, it was difficult for them to establish their identities in their new homes in the United States. I had never known about Japanese war brides before this class. In each class, Mukai presented theoretical models and studies on issues concerning topics like identity, providing me with deep insights. I was especially surprised that SPICE and former long-time journalist with The Washington Post Kathryn Tolbert collaborated on the development of curriculum on the topic of Japanese war brides for students in the United States. This made me reflect upon diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI-related issues in a Japanese context.

I also learned other topics in this course such as culturally relevant curriculum, women’s empowerment, and multiple intelligences. The discussions were very enlightening for me as I am conducting research on diversity in universities, including in the United States.

Through my research, I have learned that the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in U.S. society has been a history of struggle, even though the United States is a very diverse society. In this respect, there is a significant difference from Japan, where diversity-related goals are often focused on the need to acknowledge the growing diversity within Japan, which is often perceived as homogeneous. I believe that Japan needs to promote issues related to not only diversity but also to equity and inclusion as well.

Diversity-related issues in Japanese society often focus on women and people with disabilities. They certainly have a history of social disadvantages that have yet to be resolved and require ongoing efforts. Furthermore, I feel that Japanese society also needs to look at people who have not extensively been discussed in the context of diversity, such as Zainichi Koreans in Japan. I feel that Japanese society should pay more attention to the identity of Zainichi Koreans and others like Zainichi Chinese. It was this course that made me think about these issues.

This course has provided me with cultural experiences and insights that have made me more aware of the importance of respecting diverse perspectives and continuing to set goals related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. I will continue to pursue my own research with high motivation.

The following is a guest article written by Shuoyang Meng, a PhD student at the University of Tokyo. Meng enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023. 

I am a third-year PhD student at the University of Tokyo, and I conduct research in the field of higher education under the supervision of Dr. Hideto Fukudome. After having completed the SPICE-CASEER course “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education” at the University of Tokyo in fall 2022, I enrolled in another joint session, “Comparative Higher Education Management,” at Stanford University in January 2023. Scholars and administrators of Stanford were invited to speak on various educational initiatives of the university during the session.

For me, the most important inspiration that I have drawn from “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education” is the possibility of communication and mutual understanding between countries and cultures. For example, Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings’ theory of culturally relevant pedagogy was reviewed in one of the classes, and it emphasized the appropriate understanding of students’ cultural identities when teachers help with their growth and achievement. Mukai introduced the concept of global citizenship in the session and elaborated on the underlying principles of being a global citizen. In addition, Dr. Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu was invited to give a guest lecture on the possibility of enhancing compassion in today’s society by discussing the essential concepts of mindfulness and heartfulness. These examples have shown me that there is something in common in different cultures. It constitutes the fundamental values of human society based on the premise of open communication and understanding between countries and cultures. As a student from China in Japan, this premise is personally very critical.

In “Comparative Higher Education Management” at Stanford, I also found something in common between higher education in China, Japan, and the United States. Since the course was aimed at learning the development of undergraduate education in the United States, the lecturers shared several initiatives regarding undergraduate education at Stanford. The most impressive of which for me was Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) for freshman students. COLLEGE offers classes covering various areas from STEM to the arts and a timespan from ancient times to the present. It provides the newly enrolled students with an opportunity to think about the meaning of the education they are going to receive. They consider questions like, “Does it only mean a diploma which guarantees a decent professional career?” The faculty members who find enthusiasm in such modern liberal arts curricula are welcome to teach the courses, and they help the students to reflect on questions that transcend individual academic disciplines—how to achieve a good life, what citizenship means in the 21st century, and how today’s global issues should be understood and addressed.

COLLEGE has shown me an effective example of how we can integrate general and professional knowledge in higher education, which is one of the common agendas for specialists in higher education around the world. It is necessary and fruitful that researchers from different parts of the world observe the resolutions to those common issues and organically utilize the experience to develop higher education together. During his first appearance in the course “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education” at the University of Tokyo, Mukai mentioned that one of the goals of the joint courses is to foster a desire in the students to find academic opportunities at Stanford and other universities in the United States. The joint courses have indeed motivated me to pursue a post-doc opportunity at Stanford upon completion of my doctoral studies at the University of Tokyo and to see and learn more insights into social issues. I anticipate the discovery of yet more commonalities despite some of the differences among higher education in China, Japan, and the United States.

The following is a guest article written by Kana Yoshioka, PhD student at the University of Tokyo. Yoshioka enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

I am a first-year doctoral student at the University of Tokyo studying Japanese higher education. I took “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education” offered in fall 2022. We discussed important topics such as teacher professional development, multiple intelligences, and culturally relevant curriculum. In addition to offering lectures, SPICE Director Gary Mukai also invited several guest speakers to our class. One of the most impressive lectures was by Kathryn Tolbert, who spoke about a documentary film called Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: The Japanese War Brides, which she co-directed with Lucy Craft and Karen Kasmauski.

The term “Japanese war brides” is defined as the women who married American soldiers and immigrated to the United States after World War Ⅱ. More than 45,000 Japanese brides went to the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s; however, such history, including Japanese immigration history to the United States, is rarely taught in Japanese schools. There is only a brief introduction to the history of Japanese immigrants to Brazil in junior high school history classes and geography textbooks. Naturally enough, I had never learned anything about the history of “Japanese war brides” in school. However, I believe that studying the history of immigration is important and should be taught in schools to broaden students’ perspectives and have them grasp the diversity of the world.

Therefore, as part of my coursework in “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” I decided to develop a lesson plan on Japanese war brides for Japanese junior high school history classes. I began by reviewing the descriptions of Japanese immigration in as many Japanese junior high school history and geography textbooks as possible. In addition, I viewed Japanese War Brides: An Oral History Archive, collected by Kathryn Tolbert, and reviewed serialized newspaper articles from 1987 about Japanese war brides in order to help determine which oral histories might capture students’ interest. From those many stories, I chose two stories to recommend to Japanese junior high schools. The first included a reference to the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, and the second included the topic of racism in the United States. I thought that these two stories would be important because I feel that it is important for students to grasp the journey of Japanese women within the larger historical context of World War II and the post-war period.

In one class period, my lesson can help to familiarize students with what happened to the Japanese war brides. Also, I suggest that teachers pose the following fundamental questions to their students.

• What did you learn about the Japanese war brides in the United States?
• How do you feel about the stories?
• Do you have any relatives who immigrated to another country?
   

I recommend the “Think-Pair-Share” pedagogical strategy as a useful way for having the students think about these questions. First, students think about the questions for a few minutes, and then in pairs, share their opinions with one another. I also recommend the third question, “Do you have any relatives who immigrated to another country?,” as homework since it is important for each student to discuss the topic with his/her family.

This course gave me a precious opportunity to rethink schools in Japan. I strongly felt that we should study more about the history of immigrants like “Japanese war brides.”

Reference:
Sirouzu, T., & Eguchi, Y. (1987, January 3 - February 15). “Kokusai Kekkon America no Sensō Hanayometachi” [International Marriage: Japanese war brides in the United States]. A morning edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo.

The following is a guest article written by Yuting Luo, graduate student at the University of Tokyo. Luo enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

Can you imagine hearing for the first time that your ancestors had contributed significantly to another country’s development? For me, as a native of China who lived in the country for more than 20 years and now as a student in Japan, it was a unique cultural experience to hear from Gary Mukai about Chinese immigration to the United States and their significant contributions to the United States.

I never imagined that my ancestors had worked in the United States as railroad workers on the Transcontinental Railroad. It was a history I had never learned from a Chinese textbook. The following words from Mukai impressed me the most: “I think that the history of Chinese railroad workers and their contribution to the United States should be known more widely not only in the United States but also in China.”

In the first class of “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” Mukai introduced the topic of “culturally relevant curriculum” and I realized that culturally relevant curriculum for Chinese Americans can help to create emotional connections between them and their ancestral homeland, China. Similarly, I began to think about the relationship between Japan and China, and have since thought of this question: In order to help build a more amicable relationship between the two countries, what types of culturally relevant curriculum could be offered to Chinese studying in Japan and Japanese studying in China?

I was born and raised in Shenzhen, China, in the 1990s. My beautiful hometown, Shenzhen, benefited from the Reform and Opening-Up Policy and developed rapidly. Due to the location of Shenzhen, which connects mainland China with Hong Kong, more and more Japanese companies began to establish themselves in this city in order to access low-cost labor. Yet, despite this social context, it was not until I entered junior high school that I began to directly learn about Japan. Unfortunately, the only means I had to learn about Japan was from my history teacher.

After entering high school, my encounter with Japanese literature, including Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era, led me to develop a positive interest in the country of Japan. Later, wanting to read original books on my own, I enrolled in the Japanese language department of Shenzhen University. I worked hard on my Japanese language studies and learned more about Japan through the Japanese language. The more I studied Japanese and learned about Japan objectively, the more I fell in love with Japanese culture. Of course, I love my country, China, too. I began to feel some connection to Japanese identity inside of me, and I realized that I could feel some empathy for the Japanese. It wasn’t immediately clear what this empathetic connection was specifically. However, I could only say that Japanese literature prompted me to feel a connection to Japanese identity, even though I am not Japanese.

I sometimes feel uncomfortable with this connection and sometimes wonder how I would feel if I had been introduced to curriculum in secondary schools that introduced the fluidity of identity and also the importance of considering diverse perspectives. While learning history in one’s own country is crucial, it is also important to see one’s own country through other countries’ lenses. In particular, a historical perspective that respects mutual recognition may improve one’s self-esteem and world outlook. Moreover, from a broader perspective, recognizing each other’s contributions can also lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the world. From my perspective, one’s identity cannot be fixed merely based on the place of birth or one’s skin color. In an increasingly global and diverse world, one’s identity is becoming more fluid and constantly switching, and will keep switching.

As Immanuel Kant mentioned in Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, “It is never too late to become reasonable and wise; but if the knowledge comes late, there is always more difficulty in starting a reform.” Likewise, it is never too late for me to be more inclusive and wiser. Therefore, I will continue contributing to a more diverse and inclusive world by studying international comparative education.

Launched in summer 2022, Stanford e-Sendai Ikuei is a collaborative course between the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School. The program offers Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School students the opportunity to develop their English and critical thinking skills while examining their roles on a global scale. Stanford e-Sendai Ikuei is one of SPICE’s local student programs in Japan.

On October 28, I had the privilege of travelling to Sendai, Japan to attend the closing ceremony for the 2022 inaugural class of Stanford e-Sendai Ikuei. The trip was a precious opportunity to meet the students in-person for the first time, after five months of learning together over Zoom. While there, I considered the educational journey the students had taken that led up to this moment of accomplishment.

Stanford e-Sendai Ikuei was designed to challenge students to examine the world from new perspectives as they consider their own role on the global stage. To this end, the class was structured into three main topics: diversity, global citizenship, and entrepreneurship.

For the first topic, students examined diversity through the framework of the United States’ history of immigration and richly diverse population. Guided by guest speakers, the class engaged in thoughtful conversations on why stereotypes take root and how biases grow through systemic oppression. Students analyzed the work done by change makers and activists in the pursuit of inclusion and equity. Finally, students were able to reflect on the concept of identity and contemplate what their unique perspectives bring to the table.

In the second section of the program, students applied their self-reflections and understanding of diversity to discussions on what it means to be a global citizen. Lessons focused on establishing a general understanding of global issues and international collaboration and encouraged students to consider the global issues they hold important. Invited guest speakers generously shared their personal journeys of finding their passions to exemplify how the students might engage with global issues on a local and grassroots scale.

After feeling a bit overwhelmed by the weight of the world, students were eager to understand how to make these problems approachable. In our final unit on entrepreneurship, the class explored how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs applied a growth mindset—which normalizes and embraces failure to achieve success—to stay innovative and reach for new solutions. Students practiced their own innovation skills through Design Thinking and learned how to collaborate as a team to create stronger ideas. Lastly, the students considered how to take care of their mental health and well-being as they pursue their goals through practicing mindfulness and finding supports.

The program culminated in a final research project where students had the opportunity to take a turn in the instructor’s seat and teach the class about the issues that sparked their passion and curiosity. With a 3–5 minute presentation written and delivered in English, students challenged themselves to apply the communication skills, analysis, and self-reflection they had practiced throughout the course. They rose to the challenge with determination and compassion.

During the in-person closing ceremony, students came up one by one to share their reflections and lessons learned. Many of their statements echoed a similar tune—a confession of a nervous and intimidated mindset at the outset of the program, a desire to push themselves in order to broaden their skills and perspectives, and a goal to continue their learning journeys with empathy as their guide. Hearing the inaugural class’s conviction and sense of growth, I am grateful to have been a part of their education as young leaders, and I look forward to seeing where their curiosity takes them next.

I am enormously grateful to all of the Stanford e-Sendai Ikuei guest speakers for their shared knowledge, experience, and mentorship:

• Esther Priscilla Ebuehi, Birth Equity Analyst, Cherished Futures for Black Moms & Babies
• Kenji Harsch, Associate Clinical Social Worker, Fred Finch Youth & Family Services
• Makiko Hirata, Professional Pianist and SPICE Instructor
• Rebecca Jennison, Professor, Kyoto Seika University
• Sukemasa Kabeyama, Co-Founder and CEO, Uplift Labs
• Gary Mukai, Director, SPICE
• Jennifer Teeter, Lecturer, Kyoto Seika University
• Samanta Vásquez, Social Worker, Office of Refugee Resettlement
• Sam Yee, Senior Program Coordinator, GPI US, and the GPI US Design Team
   

I would like to give a special thank you to Principal Takehiko Katoh, the Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School staff, and my partner coordinator at Sendai Ikuei Gakuen Rina Imagawa for their endless support and assistance to make this course possible.

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The following is a guest article written by Elizabeth Plasencia, graduate student at UCLA who studied at the University of Tokyo in fall 2022. Plasencia enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

I am a second-year Master of Public Policy student at UCLA and studied abroad at the University of Tokyo during fall semester 2022 as an exchange student. I was born in Jalostotitlán, Jalisco, Mexico and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Since my admission to UCLA, I wanted to gain a global perspective during my graduate studies. I decided to challenge myself both culturally and intellectually while embracing a spectrum of commerce, creativity, and community in Japan—beyond the fabric of red, white, and blue.

As part of my research in policy studies, I decided to enroll in the SPICE-CASEER course, “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” specifically to learn about educational policy, especially in the areas of ethnic studies and the multi-dimensional purposes of critical pedagogies in the classroom. The SPICE-CASEER course expanded my learning experience through the lens of my classmates’ perspectives, which greatly helped to broaden my interest and appreciation in educational policy and advocacy for educational equity. In addition, for my course research project, I decided not to limit my coursework and research to one specific policy interest. Since my broad interest lies at the intersection of ethnic studies, immigration, and education policy, I decided to explore this intersection through students at the University of Tokyo. I became culturally aware of students’ academic journeys through social and economic factors in their home countries. These stories were derived from interviews of students from Japan, China, Singapore, Mexico, Ecuador, Iran, India, and Saudi Arabia who represented a broad range of disciplines including engineering, education, and policy studies.

Understanding global citizenship is the starting point needed to sharpen one’s toolbox to prepare for the workforce, and taking courses such as this one allowed me the opportunity to study at a research institution such as the University of Tokyo as an international policy novice.

My experiences abroad allowed me to experience a transformative journey of personal development; become flexible and adaptable; witness identities transcend into classrooms from all corners of the world; and embrace a multi-dimensional perspective within policy studies. I learned that public policy reaches a different level of sophistication when pertaining to societal goals and global citizenship through policy makers, researchers, teachers, and students.

Stanford e-China endowed me with a lifelong thinking-into-action mindset—Design Thinking. Over the ten weeks of the course, Stanford e-China (SeC) exposed our class of students to cutting-edge technologies touching many corners of global society: health tech, green tech, finance tech, artificial intelligence, and on and on. Sitting in front of our small display screens, we travelled miles and miles from different Chinese cities to meet at the door of Silicon Valley. Along this academically rigorous journey, the Design Thinking mindset braced our flight. At the same time, a spirit of collaboration pushed us further and higher, aided by the inspiring, personal stories of experts in various tech fields.

From friendly classmates to amiable instructors to prestigious professors, every individual in our SeC family was full of friendliness and insight, the key to the unceasing flow of energy that perpetuated the whole course. The program’s encouraging theme accentuated the spirit of “coopetition” between the world’s two tech giants: the United States and China. The reading materials that instructor Carey Moncaster helpfully provided strengthened my global awareness, delving into interesting U.S.–China “coopetitive” innovations in, for example, industrial (semiconductor chains) and green (renewable energy resources) technologies.

Another memorable takeaway was the spirit of the whole cohort. The class never ran out of questions and discussions. Each student being intellectually curious, we hit on meaningful questions that unveiled greater nuances about the topics; our patient and enthusiastic instructors and professors always provided rich explanations, juicing up the content with animated examples and demonstrations. Every one of us, students and teachers, was sincere and passionate about sharing personal perspectives and learning from each other. Without a doubt, the learning atmosphere of SeC boosted my confidence and engagement in academic discussions and highlighted the value of a cooperative, communicative classroom.

Yet another high spot of the program was the exciting collaboration between our cohort and students from another course, the China Scholars Program (CSP). Before the collaboration session, it was intriguing to learn how Stanford supported students across the United States to probe into the Chinese cultural, social, and political contexts. Distanced miles apart over the Pacific Ocean, it was a golden opportunity for us, both American and Chinese students, to work together, cross-culturally, on the global issue of environmental sustainability. Despite the significant cultural gaps, it was inspirational and warming to find existing bonds among us: we have the unanimous aim as global citizens to protect Mother Planet and promote a spirit of collaboration. In fact, the clashes and exchanges of perspectives resulting from our social and cultural gaps fruitfully added to the diversity and progression of our ideas.

It was remarkable to see the universality of Design Thinking through the collaboration. On the one hand, the SeC cohort systematically studied and applied the different steps of Design Thinking, specifically in the scope of technological innovations. On the other hand, the CSP students closely examined the contemporary Chinese contexts, making it easy for American students to empathize with the Chinese group. Together, we devised different sustainable legislations and products, for example, pipe filter masks to reduce vehicle exhaust and fintech applications to manage crowds of people at recreation sites. The experience itself magnified the power and significance of empathy, an essential step of Design Thinking, in every problem’s solution.

At the end of the course, it was an honor that my final StressOFF project (which aims to reduce Chinese teenagers’ academic stress through a virtual assistant application) got acknowledged and helped identify me as one of the course’s honorees! The journey did not end there. Genuinely concerned about Chinese high school students’ academic anxiety, I assembled a couple of schoolmates who were also interested in the topic. Together, we entered and won a neuroscience business pitching competition with our PANHUG business proposal, a hugging machine product with multi-dimensional soothing functions. But the greater importance of Design Thinking came to me later.

Near the end of the course, Ms. Moncaster brought us the book Designing Your Life, by two Stanford professors, which added a new dimension to my understanding of the Design Thinking mindset. Design Thinking can be applied to more than technological innovations or the launching of business projects. It relates to undergraduate majors, work opportunities, health routines, and relationship management. Just as technological innovations integrate into every corner of society, Design Thinking lives in every corner of life. It was such a blessing for me to join Stanford e-China and plant a Design Thinking seed.

Design Thinking is the compass of life. It is a lifelong, human-centered mindset. As a young girl who sometimes becomes directionless about the vast future waiting ahead, Design Thinking empowers me with confidence and control over my life. It pushes me to actively feel and think, empathizing and formulating what I sincerely want to pursue. Design Thinking impels us to act.