  {"id":55117,"date":"2017-01-19T14:22:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=55117"},"modified":"2019-02-27T16:48:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T02:48:09","slug":"uh-community-college-business-student-gains-first-hand-experience-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/01\/19\/uh-community-college-business-student-gains-first-hand-experience-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community College business student gains first hand experience in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kcc-studyabroad-hondascholar.jpg\" alt=\"mosaic of Japan seanic spots\" width=\"620\" height=\"204\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kcc-studyabroad-hondascholar.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kcc-studyabroad-hondascholar-260x86.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"clear-photo\">Sometimes, the most valuable lessons aren&#8217;t learned in the classroom, but in other countries with different customs, cultures and languages. The <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> Community Colleges<\/a> offer experiential education opportunities through study abroad, which provide students with unique learning experiences.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kelsy Sonobe-Morita<\/strong>, a  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr><\/a> business major, embarked upon a year-long student exchange program in partnership with the campus and Nagoya-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aichi-u.ac.jp\/foreign\/english\/\">Aichi University<\/a>, Japan. Sonobe-Morita gained a valuable opportunity to delve headfirst into Japan&#8217;s language and culture, while also gaining experience in international business.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&#8217;m Japanese American and I&#8217;ve always wanted to kind of get more in touch with my culture and where I came from,&rdquo; Sonobe-Morita explains. She always loved Japanese culture&#8212;devouring manga and anime as a child, attending anime conventions as an adult and even cosplaying some of her favorite characters. &ldquo;I&#8217;m definitely excited to learn Japanese, it&#8217;s been on my bucket list since forever!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>For Sonobe-Morita, who spent much of her life in foster care, studying aboard is one of many opportunities that she knows, better than most perhaps, she should not take for granted. &ldquo;I definitely wouldn&#8217;t be where I am today without my foster care agency. They&#8217;ve done so much for me and even though I aged out of foster care, they&#8217;re still paying for my support a lot, including tuition (at <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> Community College).&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It was at <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> that Sonobe-Morita found out about the Aichi University exchange. She has big plans for the next steps in getting her business degree&#8212;either transferring to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa, a mainland university, or a Canadian school.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&#8217;m extremely blessed and privileged to have been chosen for this experience,&rdquo; Sonobe-Morita says. &ldquo;I&#8217;m learning a lot, not only about the Japanese language, but also myself.\u00a0In the next several months I&#8217;m excited to see what the future has in store for me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Learn more about <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges&#8217;s study abroad opportunities<\/h2>\n<p>The Aichi University exchange program is one of the many study abroad programs made available to students by <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges. It is a result of the system&#8217;s pledge to extend education opportunities outside of the classroom. These immersive programs give students a unique perspective on the world and their studies, presenting complex challenges, real-world lessons and unforgettable experiences that go far beyond the possibilities in a traditional educational setting.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/studyabroad\/honda.php\">Honda Study Abroad Scholarship<\/a> provides between $2,000 to $8,000 to students who wish to study overseas and incorporate an international educational experience into their academic program.<\/p>\n<p>Interested students can apply for these programs at the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community College <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/studyabroad\/index.php\">study abroad website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Applications are now being accepted for the 2017&#8211;2018 academic year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr>&#8217;s Kelsy Sonobe-Morita, will experience culture, language and education through <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr title\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr>&#8217;s study abroad program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[134,63,724,71],"class_list":["post-55117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-international","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-study-abroad","tag-uh-community-colleges","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55117"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91605,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55117\/revisions\/91605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}