UHMC to Participate in US-Japan Exchange Program

Tokyo, Japan. Maui Now stock photo. June 2016

Dr. Debra A. Nakama, vice chancellor of Student Affairs at University of Hawai’i Maui College, has been selected to participate in TeamUP 2016 Roadmap campaign, a Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange-inspired (CULCON) project of the US-Japan Bridging Foundation.

The US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, unveiled the Roadmap campaign during a plenary session in May 2015 at the National Association of International Educators conference in Boston.

The selection of Dr. Nakama—one of only six educators selected nationwide and the only one from Hawai’i—was announced by UH Maui College Chancellor Dr. Lui Hokoana, who will accompany Dr. Nakama on a trip to Japan later this month.

The TeamUp campaign encourages and builds connections between US and Japanese institutions and aims to foster relationships and to increase mobility of undergraduate and graduate students studying in each other’s country.

In his recommendation letter for Dr. Nakama, Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa expressed the importance of the program to both UHMC and to Maui County as a whole.

“Maui’s unique, multi-cultural heritage has welcomed thousands of immigrants from Japan who now make up a strong portion of our richly diverse community,” the mayor wrote. “We are truly a community that welcomes international students and I would like to take this opportunity to extend a personal invitation to students from Japan to study here. Such educational partnerships, as we have with UHMC, are important in fostering goodwill and international relations, sustainability, diversified agriculture and efforts to preserve the environment.”

Dr. Nakama will attend a TeamUP familiarization tour in Japan and Okinawa later this month. The tour includes visits to the US Embassy in Tokyo as well as campus visits in Tokyo, Fukuoka and Okinawa.

For more information about the TeamUP Roadmap and International student exchange at UHMC, email [email protected] or call (808) 984-3515.