LIMESTONE, Maine — The entire MSSM community recently welcomed 10 students and their faculty chaperones from the Hikone-Higashi High School in Hikone, Shiga, Japan. The weeklong visit offered an opportunity to bridge communication between the Hikone-Higashi High School and the Maine School of Science and Mathematics with the hope MSSM students will visit them in the future.
“My colleague Kaz and I were looking for an opportunity to build relationships through cultural exchange,” Koshuka Tanaka, Academic Programs Coordinator at the American Information Service, said. “We reached out to Mr. [Luke] Shorty, MSSM’s executive director, to make this partnership happen. This was definitely a successful first step in building a relationship between the Maine School of Science and Mathematics and its Japanese counterpart, the Hikone-Higashi High School.”
Throughout the week, the Hikone-Higashi students shadowed various MSSM students as they attended class. They also had an opportunity to explore Aroostook County. Their first field trip was to the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle for some snowshoeing. The students then proceeded to visit the Frances Malcolm Science Center in Easton for a presentation on the Hubble Telescope. The students also visited the University of Maine at Presque Isle to hear and participate in a lecture from Tim Brooks, the founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project.
One of the highlights of the week was a Skype videoconference that took place between the Japanese and MSSM students with the faculty of Hikone-Higashi High School. Even though the Japanese guests were over 6,500 miles away from home, there was no sign of homesickness among them.
“It has been a fun week,” Kohei Nishimura, a student from Hikone-Higashi High School, said.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to see the American way of teaching. I also played a lot of sports while I was here. All of the MSSM students have been kind and I’ve enjoyed talking with and getting to know all of them,” Nishimura said.
“I love MSSM,” Akari Yoshida, Japanese student, said. “I loved it all. I enjoyed every subject here. I want to attend this school.”
Hiroshi Kozaka, one of the faculty chaperones from Hikone-Higashi High School, said he was impressed with students at MSSM.
“I couldn’t believe how mature the students at MSSM are. They live away from home at such a young age and seem to be adjusting well. Our students at Hikone-Higashi look forward to hosting MSSM students in the near future,” Kozaka said.
The partnership between the Maine School of Science and Mathematics and Hikone-Higashi High School first took place in March 2014 when Alan Whittemore, dean of enrollment, approached Takashi Ohama at the Japan Science and Technology Agency in Washington D.C. From there, Ohama introduced Hikone-Higashi to Kaz Momii, also a member of the JST, who in turn introduced Yasoki Aoki, the principal of Hikone-Higashi High School, to MSSM.
“To see these 10 young people integrate themselves so quickly allowed our students to see and appreciate our school through their eyes. I never expected tears to be shed upon their departure. What an experience!” Whittemore said.
Hikone is located in the Shiga Prefecture of Japan, about 5 hours west of Tokyo. It has a population of 111,799 residents.
