Sumire Daikai, staying in New York as an intern from Yokohama City University, contributed the following article about overseas internship efforts at Yokohama City University:
Yokohama City University (YCU) has a slogan of “START IN YOKOHAMA, GO GLOBAL” and puts the focus on sending globally-minded people to the world.
YCU has four campuses in Yokohama and about 5,000 students. It’s relatively small in my country but the teachers and students are close to each other, so we can receive friendly lectures.
YCU has some global programs:
・ “Short-term / long-term study abroad” from 3 weeks to 1 year
・ “Overseas field work” to support exchanges with overseas universities and interviews with local companies
・ Practical programs that offer “volunteer experiences” and “internship training” around the world.
Their international activities were evaluated and YCU was ranked 16th in the world in the world university ranking with less than 5,000 students, and 2nd in Japan.
Two years ago, data science faculty was established at YCU in the metropolitan area for the first time. And YCU continues with faculty development with a goal of new personal training that relates to the needs of the times.
This time, we will focus on the Yokohama City University Overseas Internship. There are many students who are interested in working abroad at our university, and many of them take part in this program using long vacations to expand their mind. As this program has been expanding to many locations around the world every year, I was chosen as the first New York internship student. So I had a three-week work experience at a construction and design company called NAN (National Alliance New York). NAN is a company which is responsible for everything from design and construction to aftercare for companies which are planning to open a new store in New York, regardless of whether they are Japanese or American. The restaurant I assisted at had a clay wall unique to Japan, so you could feel the Japanese atmosphere. And it was designed to suit the climate of New York. NAN spreads the good points of Japan to New York from every design and construction work, and I had the impression that they played the role of a pipeline between Japanese culture and American culture. I was able to see the NAN site, which is a bridge between Japan and overseas, and had an interesting experience that I had never seen before.
Some of the overseas internships at the YCU are supported by the graduates of our University. As I learned about the connection between Japan and the United States in this New York internship, I would like to become a person who can give my juniors overseas connections someday.
Learn more:
