By Yuko Iseya

Sapporo University (SU) has a variety of exchange programs with contracted foreign universities, and their students have many opportunities to study abroad. SU has agreements for studying abroad with twenty-three universities in eight countries. This year too, many SU students have taken the opportunities to study abroad, and other students are preparing for the new semester this coming September.

On the other hand, SU also receives many international students. You can often see them on campus. There are 171 international undergraduate and graduate students at SU; 162 of them are regular students, and nine of them are exchange students from English speaking countries.

Regular international students are good at Japanese. They entered as freshmen and take the same courses as Japanese students and they will graduate from SU after four years. Twenty-two of them are freshman, seventeen are sophomores, forty-nine are juniors, and forty-six are seniors. As for graduate students, there are eighteen first year and ten second year students. They are mainly from Asian countries with most coming from China. SU and the SU Support Association aid them financially during their college life.

Exchange students study here for a short term of one year (two semesters) and they come mainly from English speaking countries. This year nine students came from five universities in three countries: United States of America, Australia, and New Zealand. They are studying Japanese, Japanese Society and Culture, Japanese Economy, Business Administration, and so on. Kenta Sugawara, who graduated from the English Department last March, assists them in both their Japanese Class and in their daily lives. He is also going to study TESOL and teach Japanese as a graduate assistant at the graduate school at Ball State University this coming September.

There are five exchange students in the Faculty of Foreign Languages. They are Meagan Smiths and Melissa Gilstrap from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Jonathan Miller from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and Amanda Gragg and Michael Skeins from Ball State University. There are four exchange students in the Faculty of Economics. They are Penitani Evelina, Lee Hsien, and Robbie Heather from the Auckland University of Technology, and Lo Samantha from the University of Technology at Sydney.

They have been studying since the Spring semester and after they finish the Autumn semester, they will return to their home countries. They are now looking forward to having good experiences in Japan during summer vacation.

The Youth Forum News asked three of them, Amanda Gragg, Michael Skeins and Robbie Heather to write for this issue about themselves and their impressions of Sapporo and their campus life at SU. They look like they are enjoying themselves here. If you see them in the cafeteria or anywhere, please speak to them without hesitation. They are very nice and friendly, so you can enjoy talking with them. It would be a good opportunity for you to speak with exchange students from overseas.

The other six exchange students will write articles in future issues of YFN. Please keep an eye out for those articles.