Exchange Student Heads Home With Fond Memories of Hartwick
Packing her bags to return to Japan, exchange student Miyu Osawa has plenty of mementos to remind her of her Hartwick experience.
“I have so many Hartwick t-shirts!” she exclaimed. “Water bottles, a jacket, hats, even a teddy bear. I don’t have any t-shirts from my university back home! Hartwick has been a very special place for me.”
Osawa, an exchange student from Gakushuin University in Tokyo, Japan, spent her junior year at Hartwick. “I knew I wanted to study someplace that was safe, smaller and peaceful,” she said. “I was originally looking in Australia and Canada, but then I found Hartwick.”
A Global Studies major, she quickly made herself at home on The Hill. “I joined the History Club, the International Club, and the Asian Culture Club,” she said. “Every day was different, and every day was memorable!”
She also threw herself into her studies. She embarked on a J Term experience with the “Populism in Central Europe” course and did an on-campus internship as a Peer Health Educator, which helped her overcome some of her language skill fears.
“I wasn’t confident about my English at first, so with every presentation, I got nervous. But being a peer health educator, having to table in front of the Commons, made me much more confident about public speaking.”
Miyu Osawa
Exchange Student - Global Studies
