{"id":265883,"date":"2024-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=265883"},"modified":"2024-08-27T00:45:43","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T00:45:43","slug":"us-army-in-japan-team-recognizes-successful-japanese-college-intern-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=265883","title":{"rendered":"US Army in Japan team recognizes successful Japanese college intern program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n U.S. Army Garrison Japan leadership honored 30 Japanese students during a graduation ceremony at Camp Zama, Japan, Aug. 23, 2024, for their commitment to several U.S. Army in Japan organizations as part of a three-week internship program.
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\n Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, provides remarks during a graduation ceremony for 30 Japanese students who participated in a three-week internship program at Camp Zama, Japan, Aug. 23, 2024.
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CAMP ZAMA, Japan \u2013 Thirty Japanese students were honored during a graduation ceremony here Friday for their commitment to several U.S. Army in Japan organizations as part of a three-week internship program.<\/p>\n

Throughout the program, the interns, who represented 20 different Japanese colleges and universities, gained knowledge in various jobs with help from the American and Japanese workforce here.<\/p>\n

Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, thanked the students for their efforts and presented each of them with a certificate as they walked across the stage inside Kizuna Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past three weeks, you had the opportunity to integrate into all of our different organizations to see and learn a little bit about the U.S. Army and especially about our U.S.-Japan alliance, which is so very important,\u201d he told the interns.<\/p>\n

Hunter, who also spoke to the group at the start of the program, reminded the students about the importance of making the most of every opportunity.<\/p>\n

The colonel mentioned the perseverance of Coco Yoshizawa, a Japanese Olympic skateboarder who he met earlier this month at an event in her hometown of Sagamihara City after she won the gold medal.<\/p>\n

Despite the injuries and challenges she faced in her career, Hunter said Yoshizawa remained persistent and would often practice up to six hours a day, improving her skateboarding skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer secret strength was determination, even when she felt discouraged or didn\u2019t really feel like [practicing],\u201d he said, adding she also had a team to encourage her along the way.<\/p>\n

Hunter told the interns that he hoped that they learned a similar lesson by witnessing the teams of American and Japanese personnel who work closely on tough missions to support the defense of Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an alliance with Japan, and through that, even when we have difficulties or hard times, we\u2019re able to overcome great challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yuto Matsui, who attends Kitasato University in Tokyo, was one of more than 60 candidates who applied for the internship program.<\/p>\n

The program, which was created in 2013 and organized by the garrison\u2019s public affairs office, provides students the chance to experience an American work setting and hone their English skills with native speakers.<\/p>\n

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\n Yuto Matsui, who attends Kitasato University in Tokyo, works as an intern at Public Health Command-Pacific\u2019s Environmental Molecular Biology Laboratory at Camp Zama, Japan. Matsui and several other Japanese students participated in a three-week summer internship program to learn new skills and practice English in an American work environment.
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Matsui said he joined the program to understand more about American culture while working at Public Health Command-Pacific\u2019s Environmental Molecular Biology Laboratory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely beneficial because I want to be a researcher in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd my position in this internship provided research experience in an English environment in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since he hasn\u2019t yet traveled to an English-speaking country, Matsui said he also enjoyed working alongside his coworkers in such a unique workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team was very kind and friendly,\u201d Matsui said, \u201cand I learned a lot of American culture in a cutting-edge research environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary Crispell, chief of the lab, said Matsui and two other interns were excited to help conduct experiments, such as studying wastewater samples from Camp Zama for possible pathogen activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though they had that task dealing with wastewater, they were happy to do the work and to find out [what kind of] pathogens we\u2019re seeing in the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Crispell said the lab initially looked at having two interns, but since nearly 20 students applied for a position there, they decided to take three of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we could take every science student in the country, we would,\u201d he said, adding that he believes the program may one day act as a pipeline to help his team fill future vacancies with talented applicants.<\/p>\n

Yukiko Muroi, an intern at U.S. Army Japan\u2019s G-6 office, said she plans to seek a job at Camp Zama after she completes her political science degree at the Temple University campus in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Muroi, who was also an intern at Army Community Service last year, wanted to return here and learn another aspect of the U.S. Army mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really had a different atmosphere in the workplace and also how they worked,\u201d she said of both offices.<\/p>\n

In the G-6 office, Muroi served in an administrative role, while duties at ACS mainly dealt with providing services to customers.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights for her during her recent internship was when she had to be an interpreter to assist her coworkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not expecting that I had to do interpretation, so I was really nervous,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I did it somehow, and the staff members were really happy I was able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of his remarks, Hunter said he appreciated the Camp Zama personnel for making another iteration of the program successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a lot of hard work, kind of behind the scenes, and an extra amount of investment from everyone in this room,\u201d he told the audience.<\/p>\n

Hunter then asked the interns to pass on to other students what they had absorbed during the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way that you have benefitted from mentors now,\u201d he said, \u201cI encourage you to leave here with these skills and the lessons you have learned from your mentors and share that with everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

U.S. Army Garrison Japan news<\/a><\/p>\n

USAG Japan official website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 U.S. Army Garrison Japan leadership honored 30 Japanese students during a graduation ceremony at Camp Zama, Japan, Aug. 23, 2024, for their commitment to several U.S. Army in Japan organizations as part of a three-week internship program. (Photo Credit: Kei Sasaki) VIEW ORIGINAL 2 \/ 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265885,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265889,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265883\/revisions\/265889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/265885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}