How do you travel internationally, learn a new language, make lifelong friends, and broaden your cultural horizons, all on a student’s budget?
One answer is scholarships. Just ask Keizan Sato.
Sato, a UWM student double-majoring in computer engineering and Japanese, spent his spring and summer at Seijo University in Setagaya, Tokyo. His study abroad was funded in part by a grant from UWM’s Center for International Education and the College of Letters & Science: Sato was in the first cohort of CIE-NRC Title VI Study Abroad Scholars, who each received $2,000 in support. The CIE-NRC Title VI Scholarship program is intended for students pursuing study abroad programs in critical language instruction such as Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian.
“I am very glad I got the NRC because it helped out a ton. It was a pretty simple application,” Sato said. “It was a really great opportunity and a great experience.”
But the CIE-NRC wasn’t his only award. Sato has received numerous scholarships from UWM, and he encourages his classmates to take advantage as well. UWM’s Panther Scholarship Portal is an online resource that lists the full breadth of university scholarships available and suggests awards for which students might be eligible based on their academics and demographics. Plus, it has an easy application process.
“Through (the portal) …I got my engineering and Honors College scholarships. Then there’s been various small bonus scholarships here and there for just a couple hundred dollars that I’ve received. All right, wonderful. I’ll take it,” Sato joked.
Those awards have helped him have rewarding experiences in college, both on UWM’s campus and abroad.
A memorable experience
Sato can’t stop smiling as he talks about those experiences. He brightens as he describes his accommodations at Seijo University in Japan (an international dormitory with both Japanese students and students from around the world) and the numerous clubs and societies available to students through the university. He speaks with enthusiasm about his Japanese language courses and his additional classes about Japanese folklore, anthropology poetry, and cinema.
The food was especially memorable, he added.
“Because we were in a dorm, I couldn’t do a whole lot of cooking for myself. … Oh no! I have no choice! I have to go eat out and try this restaurant that caught my eye!” Sato laughed.
He made many friends at the university and spent weekends exploring Japan with them. One weekend was spent in Hokkaido in northern Japan; more weekends were spent at a beach in Atami to escape the summer heat. On one memorable trip, Sato agreed to be part of an advertising video for the Kochi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku.
“We frolicked on a plain on top of a mountain. We got to stay in a hotel and do star gazing and eat a bunch of good food and do zip lines. It was a ton of fun,” Sato said.
While he loved traveling and making friends, Sato also gained a new perspective of the world and his future.
“It really was interesting to me, the difference not just in culture but in the way different people think and view the world than we do. That’s something worth experiencing and keeping an open mind about,” he said. “I got a taste of actually living in Japan. The whole idea of moving to Japan and working there and staying there is a door that is now opened.”
After all, there are a lot of technology companies in the country. Sato thinks his computer engineering major could pair nicely with his Japanese major for a future career.
Learning Japanese
Sato’s father is Japanese and his mother is American. His parents met in Japan but raised their son in Madison, Wisconsin. As a young child, Sato spoke bits and pieces of Japanese but lost most of his second language skills by the time he began attending school.
“At some point in mid-high school, I was like, I should figure out how to talk to my grandparents,” Sato said with a smile. He tried some independent study in high school, but when he decided to take Japanese to fulfill his world language requirement at UWM, things began to click.
“I took second year classes, and then third year classes. By then (my advisor) was like, hey, you can get a Japanese minor pretty easily. So, I decided to do that. And then someone came to class to advertise their study abroad program. I was like, that sounds fun. It just kept snowballing,” Sato said.
It snowballed all the way into a Japanese major, which Sato plans to finish by his graduation next fall. He’s grateful that he had the opportunity to study abroad at Seijo University, especially because the school held special significance for his family.
“(Seijo) is actually in the same neighborhood where my parents met and got married and lived. My mom said, ‘Keizan, it’s destiny! You have to go!’” Sato laughed. It helped that his grandparents live close by as well; he was able to stay with them for an extended visit a few weeks before classes began.
Sato returned to the United States in August, but with family and new friends in Japan, he’s already planning his next trip back.
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science