Every year for the past several years I have helped coordinate and partake in an international exchange program with the Wakase High School students of Japan. It all started out in 2013 when I was asked to help with this exchange by Prof. Kubo as a guide to show the Japanese high school students around the UC Berkeley campus after his lecture. I was more than excited to help out with this exchange and was able to make great connections to the organizers and high school teachers. Since then, a new group of students have been able to visit the UC Berkeley campus and every time I have been honored to partake in the organization, trying to make the exchange more engaging for the the Japanese students. From what started as just a guide around the UC Berkeley campus has now turned into a more interactive event where this year the students presented their independent and group research projects in poster presentation form in front of several graduate students. I engaged with them in both Japanese and English discussing their projects and giving them feedback.
I truly believe that science is an internationally shared pursuit that has no boundaries. I hope to bridge as many gaps that we tend to have in the scientific community (between countries, between disciplines) and promote a more integrated, interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to scientific endeavors.
