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American Press
17 hours ago
- General
- American Press
Foreign exchange student reflects on year in the US
This year's DeRidder Rotary Club scholarship recipients are Helena Thompson, Grace Lovitt, Gabriel McKee, Victor Storer, Hunter Gill, Mikayla Bonds and Collin Nortman. Five of the recipients are pictured with Club President Erin Chesnutt. (Special to the American Press) The Rotary Club of DeRidder has given out more than $500,000 in scholarships for over 60 years — and they awarded $20,000 more this month. Scholarships were presented to seven students who were required to write an essay, achieve an ACT composite score of 19 or higher, maintain a 3.0 grade-point average and create a short video introducing themselves and stating where they plan to attend school in the fall. Club President Erin Chesnutt said this is the second year the program has been offered to students attending traditional colleges and universities and those entering vocational or trade schools. This year's recipients are Helena Thompson, Grace Lovitt and Gabriel McKee of Rosepine High School; Victor Storer of Merryville High School; Hunter Gill and Mikayla Bonds of DeRidder High School; and Collin Nortman of East Beauregard High School. The guest speaker for this month's Rotary Club meeting was Dou Sugisawa, an exchange student from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, who has been studying at Comeaux High School in Lafayette. She was hosted by Paula Mendoza, who is the Rotarian Club of Lafayette treasurer and Rotarian District Youth Exchange Officer. She has hosted Sugisawa — whose father is a rotarian in Japan — for 11 months. 'I got to see the world through Dou's eyes and experience things that we normally take for granted. She is the most courageous person I've ever met; she's jumped into everything I would put in front of her,' Mendoza said. Sugisawa finished her sophomore school year in Lafayette with a 3.9 GPA and took the ACT test for fun and made a 23. Mendoza said Sugisawa can accomplish anything she sets her mind to and considers herself lucky to have witnessed her extraordinary growth. Sugisawa was Mendoza's first rotarian foreign exchange student. Mendoza said a month before Sugisawa's stay with her, they started emailing back and forth. They met for the first time in Baton Rouge the day Sugisawa arrived in America. Mendoza said she has learned a lot from Sugisawa — such as the different customs between the two countries and how Americans can be louder and more boisterous while the Japanese are traditionally very quiet. Mendoza said the first few weeks Sugisawa was with her, she'd ask her how her day had gone in school. She said Sugisawa initially told her she doesn't like to talk about 'personal things.' Within three weeks, however, Sugisawa said she would look forward to telling Mendoza about her day at school. Sugisawa also started calling Mendoza 'Mom.' 'Before she got here, she had written in one of her letters, 'I don't like to be touched, if you want to hug me, please ask first,' and I wrote back, 'This might be trouble because you're coming to the south, the land of huggers,' and now months later, she hugs everybody,' Mendoza said. 'In Japan nobody hugs, I don't even hug with my own father, mother or siblings. People are so friendly here, even in the grocery stores. In Japan you don't talk to strangers in the grocery store, but I like this style,' Sugisawa said. Sugisawa said in Japan people show love and care in other forms. 'People show affection more privately and will take care of you, cook for you, it's more of an act of service,' she said. Sugisawa said she has experienced a lot while in the States — including seeing an alligator and learning to make a roux. Crawfish etouffee is her favorite Louisiana cuisine, and she said she will be taking Mendoza's crawfish etouffee recipe back to Japan with her. Bread pudding is her favorite dessert, Mendoza said. 'Everywhere we went she'd try the bread pudding if it was on the menu.' Sugisawa's experience in an American school is very different from that in Japan. She said the biggest difference is how here students switch classrooms each hour, whereas in Japan the teacher switches classes and the students stay in the same classroom, with the same students all day. 'It's not just switching classrooms, either, the relationships are also different because I'd spend all day with the same classmates in Japan,' she said. Field days and pep rallies are also not held in Japan. 'I think students at Comeaux High School have more freedom than at my school at home because my school in Japan has a very strict uniform, you are not allowed to dye your hair, wear any kind of jewelry or wear makeup in school,' she explained. Mendoza and Sugisawa traveled a lot while she was in the states. Both said a trip to Colorado was their favorite. 'Even though where she lives, in Sappara, they get the snow, they don't go skiing or play in it, it's all about education,' Mendoza said. Sugisawa will be taking a two-week East Coast trip with other foreign exchange students before flying home to Japan this summer. She will get to experience Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., South Carolina and Disney World in Florida. Sugisawa is most excited to see the Statue of Liberty. Sugisawa said she looks forward to returning home and seeing her parents and three siblings again. Mendoza plans to visit Sugisawa next year in Japan.
Nikkei Asia
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Nikkei Asia
Wanted: 30,000 animators. Japan's anime future at risk
TOKYO -- Aina Sugisawa's story of getting her foot in the door of Japan's anime industry is one studios hope to replicate. After studying at an academy run by Tokyo-based TMS Entertainment, she went to work for the studio as a contract employee. Sugisawa, who has been in the industry for a year now, recalls watching the end credits of the latest installment of the long-running Detective Conan series, "One-eyed Flashback," at a theater earlier this year. One of the names that scrolled by was her own.
