Fall 2005 Bridging Scholarships Applications Are In

More than 400 applications for Bridging Scholarships arrived in the ATJ office at the beginning of April. They are from undergraduate students who will be studying abroad in Japan beginning the Fall semester of 2005.

Thanks to the continued support of the Japan- US Friendship Commission, which supports the work of the ATJ-based Bridging Project Clearinghouse, and the US-Japan Bridging Foundation, which funds the scholarships with contributions from more than a dozen American companies and organizations, we will be able to provide scholarships to 70 of the students who applied. A 12-member selection committee is reviewing the applications, and will announce the winners at the end of May.

The Bridging Project has awarded more than 500 scholarships for study abroad in Japan since the program began in 1999. A recent survey by Bridging Project director Susan Schmidt showed that many of the past recipients have kept and developed their connections with Japan and the Japanese language in a number of ways: going on to graduate school, participating in the JET Programme, landing jobs with companies in Japan or that work with Japan, working in international education—even becoming Japanese language teachers!

Funders of the Fall 2005 scholarships include Boeing Japan, Citigroup, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, The Freeman Foundation, Lockheed Martin, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Pricewaterhouse‌Coopers & Chuo-Aoyama Audit Corp., Shinsei Bank, The Starr Foundation, and Weyerhaeuser. Several of these companies not only support the scholarship program financially, but also sponsor events for the students while they are in Japan. Two such events will take place in May: a reception in Tokyo hosted by Shinsei Bank and a panel discussion and reception in Kyoto hosted by Citigroup.

Information on the scholarship program, and a list of the most recent recipients, can be found on the ATJ website at www.colorado.edu/ealc/atj/Bridging/scholarships.html.