Scholarships to Two UTokyo students at Yale’s ELI

Mr. Yasuhiro Okazawa (far left) and Ms. Azusa Aoki (second from the right) with their Yale Summer School instructors.


FUTI awarded scholarships to two University of Tokyo (UTokyo) students who participated in the English Language Institute (ELI), a summer program at Yale University. They are Ms. Azusa Aoki, a second year student in Social and International Relations and Mr. Yasuhiro Okazawa, a third year student in the doctoral program of the Graduate School of International Disciplinary Information Studies.
The Yale’s summer program aims at not only teaching English to non-English speaking students but also “nurturing and inspiring intellectual growth in a community of summer scholars that promotes Yale’s tradition of academic excellence.”
Reports by the UTokyo students reveal that they have found the six-week program highly enriching. ELI students who came all over the world share ideas, interests, and cultures, thereby learning from each other.
Ms. Azusa Aoki comments on how the summer school experience helped her become an internationally better qualified professional:

Both the morning and the afternoon classes enhanced my ability to communicate and express thoughts in a more effective way. In particular, the afternoon class focused on practical situations such as a job interview and negotiation, through which I could learn a lot of manners and customs that should be kept in mind in the U.S. Such cultural differences were what I wished to learn and I wouldn’t be able to achieve it without help of native speakers.

Dr. Geeta Mehta, Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Columbia University and a member of FUTI’s Advisory Committee, commented, ”We are pleased to learn that FUTI’s International Leadership Awards have helped the awardees acquire language and culture skills that are prerequisites for successful global leadership.”


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