July-August 2003

I took an Intensive Japanese Summer Course at the International Christian University from July 6, 2003 through the end of August. I believe this is the only 6-week intensive Japanese course for college students offered in Tokyo. The work load was been very, very intense with class from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. each day, required study sessions for two hours almost every day, weekly student/teacher conferences, and then about 5 hours of homework each night, as well as numerous projects. Let's just say that I averaged 3-6 hours of sleep per night, and had no life on weekends beyond the confines of my host family apartment. ICU offers classes from level 1 - 8, and students really have to work hard at every level. When you speak to someone in level 3, they pretty much sound advanced or fluent to a non-native speaker (i.e. me!). My homestay family was amazed that I was able to go from a,e,i,o,u on day 1 to writing 2 page essays with the 2 alphabets and complex kanji within 6 weeks. At the end of August, I moved into a nice, two-bedroom apartment near campus with a fellow Rotary Peace Scholar from Thailand.

September - November 2003

My normal graduate school classes began in September, and follow the American school calendar with a three week fall break and a 2 week winter break in December. This year, we have more options for graduate classes taught in English than last year's Scholars, which is a godsend. I took Japanese, Social Problems and Policy, Ideas on Peace, Human Rights I, and a basic seminar with my thesis advisor. The course of most interest to me was Social Problems and Policy because it was taught by the director of the UNFPA (UN Population Fund) in Tokyo, hence was closely related to my Peace Corps experiences. My 15 minute presentation in September was based on the paper I wrote for it called, "The Cape Verdean HIV/AIDS Epidemic within the African Context." The class was largely based at the UN University campus, which gave us exposure to informative lectures from specialists in the field, as well as worldwide conferences, such as TICAD III. Because of my interactions with MTV while at the 2002 International AIDS Conference, I was featured on their Staying Alive program on December, 1, 2003, International AIDS Day, as a youth that has contributed extensively to HIV education. For the three week fall break, I traveled in northern Thailand and Bangkok, which was a great way to experience Asian development first-hand.

December 2003 - March 2004

My second trimester at ICU began in December, and ended the last week in February. I continued my Japanese language classes at level II with 10 hours a week in classroom instruction, in addition to 4 other graduate level classes -- I had a full load. We had a visiting professor from Denmark (she's Japanese) who has worked extensively with the UN over the past 20 years in senior-level positions, including the director of the UNICEF office in India. I took two classes with her, one regarding "Development Policy Formulation - The Human Development Perspective" and the other focused more on micro level development, "Planning and Delivery of Social Sector Programs." Both provided me with insights into international development from an academic and professional perspective, given that I graduated in 1999 and have not kept up with current discourses in the field (despite my hands-on Peace Corps experiences).

Our group presentation for the graduate-level class on "Sustainability and Scaling Up Social Services" went really well. I was in a group with Yogi, a married Indonesian student here on a full JICA (Japan Overseas Development Agency) scholarship, and Haidee from the Philippines, who is also here with JICA's support. Together we created an amazing hour-long Powerpoint replete with animation and effects that kept our audience's attention. My final paper was on "Passive Beneficiaries Taking an Active Stance: The Role of Innovation in Sustainable Social Service Delivery." In the undergraduate class, I also presented on the "Privatization of Water Sanitation" schemes, and people seemed to love my down-to-earth analogies. I related water privatization with our lack of food options on campus due to the monopoly at ICU in food service provision.

My other remaining class was "International Cooperation," a core class for the Rotary peace studies component of our degree, which covered terrorism and many other related topics such as post-war reconstruction and conflict resolution issues. My final paper was on "The Missing Link: Women and Peace Building in Afghanistan, Real or Imagined?" Lastly, my thesis research which fell under another basic seminar with my same advisor from first trimester. For the Christmas holiday, I had a great time in the USA for 2 weeks visiting friends and family on the East and West Coast, returning with both good memories and lots of jet lag. For the 6 week spring break in March and April, I spent 3 weeks in Tokyo and a weekend in Nagano (bring on the skiing!), as well as 3 weeks in Bali/Lombok. I was in Bali for their New Year celebration Nyepi, which was a very introspective time for them and for me, as I continue to ponder my life path. The most enjoyable part of the trip was spent on a small island off the coast of Lombok called Gili Air -- a small piece of paradise. I have also applied for summer grants, and enjoyed the famed cherry blossom season in Japan that ended around the second week in April 2004.

April 2004 - June 2004

This trimester has been a very, very busy one. In addition to locating and organizing a summer fieldwork experience related to my thesis, I have also been researching my thesis and future fellowships, as well as attending my regular classes that include: Japanese III, International Organization, Environment & Behaviour, and my basic seminar. You can view my final powerpoint presentation for my Environment & Behaviour class here, which was titled,"Bridging the Educational Gap: The Role of Life Skills Programming in Improving Girls' Lives" -- a 20 page related paper was also required for this class. Furthermore, you can view my final project for Japanese III, and judge for yourself how far I've come after learning just a - e- i - o - u last summer!! My final research presentation hand-out related to small dog fashion in Tokyo. You need to imagine the 2 slides printed on a single sheet of paper (double-sided), and then folded with the image of the Yorkshire terrior in the coat on the front of the brochure and my photo on the back! In addition to this very important dog-related research (joking), I've been contacting many people in India to get donations of supplies needed for the youth leadership camps and projects I will be conducting there this summer (read below). So far, I've had a very positive response from Indians, as well as support from Americans working in the same field.

Summer 2004



This summer, I volunteered at an NGO in rural Gujarat, India that is focused on creating a top rate educational system in their region while providing other necessary services to local residents (see my photo on the Rotary International website). I had the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with their program managers and staff to do the following projects: academic curriculum development, strategic funding assessment, delivery of primary-care medical services, facilitation of a life skills camp, design and implementation of an enormous student-created mural, and submission of a portable mural for the People to People International 2005 Global Youth Mural Contest.

More specifically, as part of curriculum development, I attempted to organize two separate boys' and girls' empowerment camps, modeled off of what I did successfully in Cape Verde. However, with each one over 5 days in duration, they were impossible to implement because of their school calendar that does not have a traditional 'summer' break between June-August. I did organize a one-day life skills camp for 30 of the teenagers in their campus hostel, who had a great time doing icebreakers, learning the steps to making a good decision, discussing love, and learning to debate and support their ideas. All of these are very important life skills that are under-valued in most traditional school curriculums. I also worked with the 10 students in 10th grade to complete a beautiful portable 2'x 4' mural for a contest in the USA within only 3 hours that eventually won first place in the secondary school division of an international mural contest based in the USA.

As part of my daily teaching responsibility, I spent 3 weeks collaborating with another art teacher on having over 400 of the total 800 school children do small paintings on paper that would later be transformed into a 'Singing Tree' mural for the library that is 8'x 8' (see photo gallery for images). In my free time, I also taught a mural painting class to a few students who painted one classroom with educational and Disney designs to be enjoyed by other children. The most rewarding part of my experience was spending time with the children who, despite receiving a quality education, do not always receive the affection they deserve. There's nothing like getting and gives kisses to 20 young girls before they jump into bed at night! The children are a true delight to work with, always offering honest praise to the people who teach them, guide them, and give them love.

September 2004 - November 2004

This is the beginning of my second year in the ICU Masters degree program. I decided not to take the undergraduate Japanese classes for 2 hours a day (plus 4 hours of homework) in order to ease my schedule this term. I submitted an application for a Fulbright fellowship to shadow a few renowned Ashoka Fellows (social entrepreneurs) in Mexico from September 2005 - June 2006. The application took 6 weeks to put together, including the essays, acquiring recommendations, getting support letters, and ironing out the other details. I also took 3 graduate classes and an advanced thesis seminar: Economic Theory, Business and Government, and International Organization II.

This term was quite introspective for me, as well as draining, because it took 3 months to recover from a skin infection I caught in Gujarat, treating the 140 hostel kids without latex gloves (Note to self: never do medical treatment on anyone without the proper protection...you just never know). I was on antibiotics for 6 weeks that had horrible side effects, and, as a result, lost over 10 lbs. (it's ok, I had enough to spare).

December 2004 - February 2005

This was my last term at ICU where I finished my final 2 required classes and jumped into my thesis research on social entrepreneurs. Peace Studies II was taught by Professor Gavan McCormack, who is a well-known scholar on Japan/North Korea. I learned a lot about Japan's imperialism during WWII that occurred in the puppet state of Manchuria and beyond. My research for the class focused on the bio warfare experiments that the U.S. covered up in 1945 with an immunity for medical data deal...Interestingly enough, I was able to draw a very interesting unknown parallel betwen the Holocaust and Unit 731. The head of both Auschwitz's human experimentation program (Dr. Mengele) and the head of Unit 731 in Manchuria (Dr. Ishii) were BOTH eventuallly hired (covertly) by the USA to share their research (and, in the case of Mengele, to continue it...).

For my second class, Peace and Conflict Resolution, we focused on the various debates concerning human security, conflict resolution, democratic peace, etc... My final paper focused on the securitization of HIV/AIDS in the context of human/state security theory. Over the winter break, I went back to Bali to meet with a handful of Ashoka's social entrepreneurs on Bali, Lombok, and Java. Although I was there where the earthquake/tsunami occurred, I was not affected at all on my small island (Gili Air). Not only was I able to gather some data, but I relaxed and read a few books for my thesis -- it was a very productive 3 weeks!

In late January, I received my official rejection letter from the first round of selections for the Fulbright to Mexico, and was later told I really had too much international experience. The Fulbright is meant to encourage Americans to do independent research abroad while engaging in a cultural exchange. At the age of 27, I've already studied abroad for a total of 6 (always without my family), so I was really overqualified in the travel area. Winning would have meant spending my fifth consecutive year abroad! Although I was totally disappointed (it was a childhood dream of mine), I am not defeated. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason, and took this as a sign that I have more important things to accomplish. As my mother says with great optimism,"Whenever a door closes, others open!" In typical Elektra fashion, I always had a Plan B, C, and D, so, alas, there will be no shortage of things to do come graduation!

March 2005 - June 2005

I returned to the USA for 2 weeks to attend the NYU and Harvard Social Enterprise Confernces, since they are both obviously related to my thesis. The whirlwind tour of NYC, Boston, and SF allowed me to meet some social entrepreneurs, and also visit friends and family in the three locations. In addition, I was able to attend a speech given at Babson College in Wellesley, MA by perhaps the most renowned social entrepreneur today, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (his microlending programs have pulled over 67 million people out of poverty).

After returning to Tokyo, my focus was on synthesizing my data and really writing my thoughts on social entrepreneurs as leaders. I read classic and contemporary business books on both business and social leadership, and focused on a few key case studies. I completed the thesis in mid-May, and successfully defended it shortly thereafter. ICU held its Annual Rotary Seminar on May 29th, which included over 50 Rotarians, professors, and guests in attendance. Each Rotary Fellow in Group II presented their research findings from the past 2 years in 10-15 minutes, followed by panel discussions. The overall theme of the seminar was "The Evolving Concept of Human Security: Building Peace in the 21st Century," so subsequent panels focused on grassroots approaches, regional dimensions, and dialogue for human security. This seminar also gave us an opportunity to thank the Tokyo Rotarians for their ongoing support. Their generosity funds approximately 80% of the total worldwide fellowship costs associated with running 7 international study centers.

Above and beyond academia, since April, I have been busy planning my life after graduation by applying for jobs and exploring career options in the USA and abroad. I hope to locate a job at a corporate foundation, NGO, government agency, or international development firm where my skills can best be utilized. I'll be returning to the USA in July.

July 2005 - September 2005

Ode to the good ol' USA! I visited friends from Seattle to NYC. I have been busy getting in shape, researching my future business, and strategizing my next geographical career move. My heart also goes out to those affected by Hurricane Katrina (and always to those in Iraq, both American and host country nationals).

October 2005 - February 2006

I have relocated to Manhattan, and currently work for a firm, writing, editing, and designing their documents for publication. My impetus for moving here has been primarily to take advantage of the wonderful classes at FIT in advertising, design, and fashion business. My five-year plan includes establishing myself at a firm that values and rewards me for my innate creativity, keen aesthetic sense, and propensity for leadership. Living in New York City has given me such great access to unlimited resources that have allowed me to further my personal and professional endeavors!