On March 20th, 2015, TeamUp coconvened a 40-member panel of leaders from U.S. and Japanese colleges and universities at the American Center Japan in Tokyo. An additional 20 leaders in educational, cultural, and international affairs attended the session. Over a three hour panel, the educators discussed current growth opportunities in separate sub-panels: “Innovations Partnerships Designed for the 21st Century Student,” “Identifying, Establishing, and Maintaining Partnerships,” and “Internships: Fostering a Global Workforce.”
TeamUp is a year-long campaign to increase the number of American and Japanese undergraduate students studying in each other’s country by expanding relevant, active, mutually beneficial and innovative agreements among American and Japanese institutions of higher education. TeamUp is a CULCON-inspired initiative of the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation and the U.S. Embassy Tokyo under the leadership of Ambassador Caroline Kennedy.
One product of the TeamUp campaign will be the web-based RoadMap, “a guide to increasing U.S.-Japanese student mobility though strategic academic partnerships.” RoadMap helps inform colleges and universities of any size or scope as to the best practices and models needed to establish successful strategic partnerships.
Following the panel, participants joined Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, and CULCON Co-chair Ben Makihara at the Ambassador’s residence for a networking reception. Joining the private, public, and educational leaders in cultural and educational exchange were also a cohort of students participating in U.S.-Japan exchange programs.