Why Did I Apply?

Having lived in International Student Shared House, I wanted to continue to support international students from the standpoint of being a dormitory student, so I applied. Unlike International Student Shared House, I wanted to be involved with dormitory students of different ages and nationalities. I also thought that having the responsibility of working as a Kuwanoki RA and being involved with the university staff would be good training before I start to work.

What I Learned as an RA

Moving into Kuwanoki Dormitory, I learned “communication skills” and “group management skills”. As the highest-grade student, I am aware of my role in organizing the RAs. Therefore, in order to understand the characteristics of each RA, I communicated with all of them on a regular basis and tried to notice their personalities, strengths, and growth through conversations and facial expressions. In addition, while enhancing group awareness through team building, I was able to enjoy working with each of them while demonstrating their talents by assigning tasks that took their strengths and weaknesses into consideration. In this way, I was able to naturally acquire these abilities by interacting with RAs who had the same sense of purpose in their daily lives.

What I Gained from Living in Kuwanoki Dormitory

I have made friends from all over the world through living in Kuwanoki Dormitory. There were many opportunities to interact with international students in the dormitory, and we often hit it off as we talked at events and in the Common Room. In addition, I was able to deepen my understanding of different cultures by listening to the stories of each country from the dormitory students and seeing how they live.

Message to Applicants

I think that living in the dormitory for international students is a feeling of “studying abroad while being in Japan”. The number of Japanese people in the dormitory is rather small, and working as a minority can be a valuable experience. I would like to encourage those who have experience studying abroad, as well as those who have never studied abroad, to be brave enough to try out to live in the dormitory for international students.