This content was published: May 22, 2012. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC participates in cultural exchange with Japan school
Story and Photos by Nicole Tobin.
Portland Community College’s Office of International Education hosted two groups of science majors from Osaka Jikei College in Japan during the week of May 7, at the Rock Creek and Cascade campuses.
The 54 students were on a study tour to learn about their field as it is studied and practiced in the United States. They attended lectures by PCC faculty and invited guests, visited various sites in Portland related to their field and to performed practical, hands-on labs and cultural exchange activities with PCC students. Groups from two different academic programs at Osaka Jikei College participated this year, one from Vision Care and one from Bioscience Technology. The students from Japan visited an eye bank, the OHSU Primate Center and the Portland State University Center for Life in Extreme Environments. Plus, they got to learn how to country line dance, toured the PCC learning garden and taught their U.S. counterparts calligraphy and origami.
Many PCC students from Japanese language courses and science courses participated in the events, and faculty and staff from Bioscience Technology (Rock Creek), Ophthalmic Medical Technology (Cascade) and the Office of International Education were heavily involved in this partnership and program. This is the third year that PCC hosted the vision care program and the first year that it welcomed the bioscience technology students.
This sounds like a wonderful program! I wish I had taken the opportunity to visit another country when I was in college.
This is a great program and helps international students really enjoy their time here. Miss Tobin also does an outstanding job and is always so upbeat and positive.