Application Deadline for 2010
Technos International: February 8, 2010
Again in June 2009, the Tanaka Memorial Foundation provided an extraordinary opportunity for two students from Bates to experience Japan with other young adults for two weeks. Please see the link to the application. Preference is given to first and second year students. The Foundation offers complete support for two students and one faculty or staff member to travel to Japan for Technos International Week. As in past years, twenty-four students and ten faculty members from Bates, nine other US colleges; Pembroke College in Oxford, England; and Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand gathered at Technos College in Tokyo and travel together. The experience culminates in a final week of interaction in Tokyo with Japanese students and faculty at Technos College. Technos College students plan and organize many of the activities both at Technos and along the way.
The goal of the visit is to foster international exchange and understanding. Bates students are introduced to Japan, its people and culture. The language used is English. Students in past years have found the experience rich and sometimes life-changing.
Students travel to Toyko, the Japanese Alps, Nagoya, Takayama, and other cities. They spend two days at a mountain camp, two days at a traditional Japanese Ryokan with hot baths and Tatami rooms and return to Tokyo on the famous Bullet Train. During the second week in Tokyo, international students visit Technos College and spend time with Japanese students at Technos College.
Brendan Culliton '12 said about 2009 Technos International Week:
My first week in Japan was more or less a dream come true to me. I’d been waiting for the chance to go since the ninth grade. And here I was—in Kichijoji, buying rice balls from an EZ-Mart, in Shibuya, going in and out of twenty story shopping malls and back into the street to peruse a little bohemian shop, and there I was, at Technos college, surrounded by hundreds of college kids who thought it was the neatest thing since cheap sushi that we were here. The parks were amazing, the temples we amazing, Tokyo itself was, wait for it...immaculate actually.
Casey Andersen '12 said about her 2009 experience in Japan:
The Technos program attracts students from various regions of the country (including the west coast, east coast, and the mid-west) and the world (New Zealand, Taiwan, and England). We all met in Tokyo to work together with the Technos College students. Throughout the day the Japanese students prepared and led various cultural activities such as tea ceremony, manga class, and calligraphy class. The Technos students worked alongside us during these activities, creating a friendly and open environment that enabled all of us to talk and get to know each other on a very personal level. During this time, I learned a great deal about how the culture in Japan compares to that in New Zealand, Taiwan, and England, and how these cultures relate to ourAmerican culture.
When they return, Bates students are expected to communicate their experiences in Japan to the Bates community through visits to various classes and present a poster during Parents Weekend in fall of the next year. Applications and a letter of support from one member of the Bates College faculty are due by noon on Monday in Lane Hall 121. Please contact Dave Baker at dbaker2@bates.edu, if you have questions.
8/2009
