Join us in welcoming our 2019-2021 Japan Fellows

Please join us in welcoming our 2019-2021 Japan Fellows Sara Chang '19 and Emily Eisenstein '19 who will both go to J.F. Oberlin College in Machida, Japan and start language training this summer. We'll also be posting about our new Indonesia fellows soon.

Sara Chang is one of two 2019-2021 fellows for J.F. Oberlin University. She graduated from Oberlin in 2019 with a neuroscience major on the pre-med track. She was a four-year member and three-year captain of the women’s volleyball team. Apart from athletics, Sara assisted in neuroscience research and interned with the American Red Cross. While she has no experience with Japan, Sara studied Mandarin for 9 years and spent the spring of 2018 in Kunming, China where she achieved the advanced status per ECTFL criteria. In Japan, Sara hopes to become involved in taiko drumming, explore Japanese cuisine, and learn about Kampo medicine.

Emily Eisenstein ‘19, a psychology major and East Asian Studies minor, is one of two 2019-2021 fellows going to J.F. Oberlin University in Machida, Japan. She has a strong interest in the study of language, especially as a tool for gaining cultural understanding and building interpersonal connections. In particular, she enjoys studying Japanese and has been working toward fluency throughout high school and college. As a senior at Oberlin, she discovered a way to share her passion for language by tutoring adults in English at a local community center. During her fellowship, she intends to continue using her enthusiasm to support others in the quest for communication and cultural exchange. Meanwhile, she hopes to take advantage of the experience of immersion to pursue her own goals of fluency and finding community in Japan.