(upbeat music) - i went on the japan education trip. it was a trip in honor of taylor anderson. we went to tokyo, ishinomaki, hiroshima, and kyoto.
Showa Memorial Park, - we saw tokyo, the current capital. we also went to kyoto,which was the old capital for more than 1000 years. and we also got the opportunityto go to ishinomaki,
which is where taylor anderson taught and where the tsunamihit and was devastating. and then we also, didthe trip to hiroshima, to see the peace park and learn more about the atomic bomb and how it affected japan. - the point of the trip was to compare public education in america with public education in japan.
so we went on about eight school visits where we went intoclassrooms, walked around, met the principal, justgot all the information about every school we went to. - each time we walked into a school, we all felt very welcomed. the teachers were excited to see us. the principals were excited to see us. a lot of them had been visited by
professor mudd and roberson when they came a year and a half ago. so he had on his randolph-macon gear, in the schools there werethese hats and pictures and things like that,so that was pretty cool. interacting with the studentswas also really cool. they were mostly elementaryschool age students, and most of them did not speak english. but just getting to communicate with kids,
despite the language barrier,and interact with them, and just kinda see what they do, was really exciting. - the most impactfulexperiences from the trip were talking with students, were talking with theprincipals, the vice-principals, and the administration, and having the opportunity to have that one-on-one interaction.
we were both very engaged and interested. - professor mudd and professor roberson were the perfect people for this trip because they know education forwards and backwards so, every time we went somewhere, they would ask those questions that we wouldn't think of or kind of give us an idea.
- i would encourage otherstudents to go travel abroad because you have a unique experience that you won't be ableto get anywhere else even if you go abroad by yourself. especially on a j-term trip, you're there two or three weeks, and everything is wellorganized, prepared, and you're not lost, you're guided and you're able to gainthose interesting experiences
you wouldn't have anywhere else. - when you do a j-term especially, you get the benefit ofbeing with other students from randolph-macon, beingwith randolph-macon teachers, so if you're nervous about it, you have people from your homebasically coming with you. - but so different fromreading about a country in a textbook or you go see avideo on youtube or something. when you're actually there experiencing it
and feeling the culture, it's a completely different experience. and thankfully, you don'thave to do a whole year abroad or a whole semester abroad, if that's too much for you. i think that might havebeen too much for me. but because we have j-term, you can travel for two weeks or a month and it's the perfect time span to travel.
- it encourages you tolook more and think more about what is cultureand how it is conveyed and how important things like religion, or philosophy, or even things like math are to a different country,in a different setting. - i'm hoping to be a future educator so seeing how differentcountries do education has always been an interest of mine. we're so entrenched in theamerican education system,
that we don't realize sometimes that other countriesjust do it differently. so, getting to experience first hand, how a different country doestheir education program, really resounded with meand left a lasting impact on how i see myself as a future educator. - it was just such a great experience. it kind of sparked aninterest in japan in me, that i hopefully can continue on.
i'm really thankful i got to go and i'm still thinking about it all the time. and everyone's asking me how it went and i'm just verythankful that i could go.
(upbeat music) - i went on the japan education trip. it was a trip in honor of taylor anderson. we went to tokyo, ishinomaki, hiroshima, and kyoto.
Showa Memorial Park, - we saw tokyo, the current capital. we also went to kyoto,which was the old capital for more than 1000 years. and we also got the opportunityto go to ishinomaki,
which is where taylor anderson taught and where the tsunamihit and was devastating. and then we also, didthe trip to hiroshima, to see the peace park and learn more about the atomic bomb and how it affected japan. - the point of the trip was to compare public education in america with public education in japan.
so we went on about eight school visits where we went intoclassrooms, walked around, met the principal, justgot all the information about every school we went to. - each time we walked into a school, we all felt very welcomed. the teachers were excited to see us. the principals were excited to see us. a lot of them had been visited by
professor mudd and roberson when they came a year and a half ago. so he had on his randolph-macon gear, in the schools there werethese hats and pictures and things like that,so that was pretty cool. interacting with the studentswas also really cool. they were mostly elementaryschool age students, and most of them did not speak english. but just getting to communicate with kids,
despite the language barrier,and interact with them, and just kinda see what they do, was really exciting. - the most impactfulexperiences from the trip were talking with students, were talking with theprincipals, the vice-principals, and the administration, and having the opportunity to have that one-on-one interaction.
we were both very engaged and interested. - professor mudd and professor roberson were the perfect people for this trip because they know education forwards and backwards so, every time we went somewhere, they would ask those questions that we wouldn't think of or kind of give us an idea.
- i would encourage otherstudents to go travel abroad because you have a unique experience that you won't be ableto get anywhere else even if you go abroad by yourself. especially on a j-term trip, you're there two or three weeks, and everything is wellorganized, prepared, and you're not lost, you're guided and you're able to gainthose interesting experiences
you wouldn't have anywhere else. - when you do a j-term especially, you get the benefit ofbeing with other students from randolph-macon, beingwith randolph-macon teachers, so if you're nervous about it, you have people from your homebasically coming with you. - but so different fromreading about a country in a textbook or you go see avideo on youtube or something. when you're actually there experiencing it
and feeling the culture, it's a completely different experience. and thankfully, you don'thave to do a whole year abroad or a whole semester abroad, if that's too much for you. i think that might havebeen too much for me. but because we have j-term, you can travel for two weeks or a month and it's the perfect time span to travel.
- it encourages you tolook more and think more about what is cultureand how it is conveyed and how important things like religion, or philosophy, or even things like math are to a different country,in a different setting. - i'm hoping to be a future educator so seeing how differentcountries do education has always been an interest of mine. we're so entrenched in theamerican education system,
that we don't realize sometimes that other countriesjust do it differently. so, getting to experience first hand, how a different country doestheir education program, really resounded with meand left a lasting impact on how i see myself as a future educator. - it was just such a great experience. it kind of sparked aninterest in japan in me, that i hopefully can continue on.
i'm really thankful i got to go and i'm still thinking about it all the time. and everyone's asking me how it went and i'm just verythankful that i could go.