All posts by Thomas Greve

Meet Brandon Serna in Summer 2011!

May 12, 2011 Thomas Greve

Hello,

My name is Brandon Serna and I’m from Denver, Colorado in the USA. I’m 22 years old and have a huge passion for travel and working with youth. I have the privilege to be the external relations manager for the 2011 WCI summer program, in which I will be working close with public relations partners, all types of media outlets, letting people know about all the great things WCI has to offer and preparing WCI for its current and future journey’s.

My passion being working with youth and travel have brought me a lot of joy and adventure for the past 3 ½ years. I’ve been working and marketing for other NGO’s that has given me the knowledge and curiosity to explore the world and what makes people and cultures unique. To say I have friends in over 30 countries and have had the opportunity to visit half of them is quite a gift!

I am also a huge fan of history and culture and to be able to experience Japan through WCI is giving both of those categories a lot attention. I believe WCI offers a one of a kind experience to travel through Japan, emerge in the culture and traditions and create life-long friends from all over the world!

May our Japanese adventures start soon,

Brandon Serna
(External Relations Manager in the Summer ’11 Road Team)

Our participants

Meet Angela Hsiao – participant in summer 2011!

May 10, 2011 Thomas Greve

Hello everyone!

I am Angela Hsiao from Taiwan, currently an eighteen-year-old student graduating from high school. And I am going to be one of the participants of World Campus – Japan program this summer!

Travel has always been my dream, and I’d love to learn and experience different cultures, cuisine, and languages. Different from ordinary touring, living with host families and participating in daily lives with the communities would provide me a unique perspective to get to understand local Japanese culture. Besides, I’m so looking forward to make new friends! Hopefully I can have fun and learn a lot during this special program.

Can’t wait to meet you in Japan!

Our participants

Meet Catherine Hsieh – participant in summer 2011!

May 5, 2011 Thomas Greve

Hello there!

My name is Catherine Hsieh, nicknamed Kate. My friends usually describe me as a friendly, caring, open-minded and easy to get along with. I am a 26 year-old girl coming from Taiwan. I like reading, exercising, dancing and also singing karaoke. Taiwan is a lovely place where people are friendly and enthusiastically.

I am very excited about having the chance to experience Japan culture with people from different countries. It would be great if I could learn about other cultures around the world by experiencing it.

I can’t wait to meet you guys in this summer!

Arao City, City Life, Host Families, Kumamoto City, Omura City, Omuta City, Suita City, Toyota City, Uda City

Everybody is waiting for you this summer in Japan!

May 2, 2011 Thomas Greve

Session 1

Nishimura family from Omura city, Nagasaki:
“3 years ago, we first hosted a girl from Germany on WCI program.
Since then, we’ve been looking forward to hosting a guest of WCI every year!
They always make us happy and bring us big energy!
I love this program from bottom of my heart.”

Matsuda family from Omuta city, Fukuoka:
“To unknown my family
Thank you for your support to Japan.
Our city has not been damaged by disaster.
We are looking forward to seeing you!!”

Session 2

Kinoshita family from Arao city, Kumamoto:
“It has been a hard time for Japan this year.
We are thinking what we can do in our everyday life for Tohoku which is the stricken area. Fortunately my hometown is more than 1,000 km away from Tohoku and there is no influence of the earthquake, tidal wave and damage of the nuclear power plant at all. And thankfully we are working, studying, hanging around with friends and living our normal life.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone from WCI and listening to the diverse stories from different countries this year again. I believe that small city like Arao will give you an opportunity to feel familiar and understand the depth of our culture.”

Ensatsu family from Uda city, Nara:
“Hello friends!!
This message is from Uda city in Nara.
You know the big earthquake occurred in eastern Japan.
But Nara is in western Japan, so it’s safe here.
We had many great time with WCI every year.
Come to join us !!
We are really looking forward to being your family !!”

Session 3

Dave family from Suita city, Osaka:
“Greeting from Suita city, Osaka! We are looking forward to meeting you and share our culture!!! There are so many things you can discover and experience here in Osaka! See you very soon!”

Kinoshita family from Toyota city, Aichi:
“We are looking forward to seeing you in Toyota!”

Our participants, Our Partners

Empowering week in one of the disaster areas in Miyagi!

April 22, 2011 Thomas Greve

Collapsed elementary school, it was only thing left in the area.

Children with some books and games that were donated

World Campus International had an opportunity to collaborate with other non-profit organization, “Kids Door” to organize a project in Minamisanriku-cho, Miyagi pref. last week. We named this project as “Kids’ Campus” and Hideto Yasui (General manager) and Yui Mihara (Operation manager) were fortunate to be a part of this experience.

This intensive experience started off with our fact-finding trip with “Kids’ Door” to the same area at the beginning of the week. On our way back to Tokyo, after meeting with some locals and other non-profit organizations that worked there, we came to the conclusion that we could arrange something for the children at the shelter.

Two days later 25 people gathered and hopped on a bus on Thursday night on April 14. Right after we arrived in Togura district in Minamisanriku-cho next morning, we got to clean a closed elementary school in other district. As both elementary and junior high schools in Togura district were collapsed after tsunami, they decided to re-use and re-open the closed elementary school in other area for the children in Togura district. Some had to move out Togura district or may have to take school bus for one and a half hour every day for this transition.

On the 16^th and 17^th we planned several “lessons” for the children to give an opportunity for them to experience what they would normally experience at their school. We had Home room, PE lesson, Lunch, English class, Math and Music class. About 30 children came from several shelters and the age range of the children were between four years to high school students.

People talk about glint in children’s eyes and it was so true. When they meet something new or something they enjoy, you see the sparkle in their eyes. The curiosity, passion and the energy that those children brought to us was so inspiring and empowering. There was one boy who was playing with Hideto’s computer. He just wanted to write a sentence to ask him, “When will you be back?”

We are planning on having another trip in May to work with those children again. This ordinary opportunity need to be provided them continuously… Smiles and spirits of kids really are the energy source!

Yui Mihara
(Operation Manager)

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