Okayama University held a Global Internship presentation session on its Tsushima Campus on November 29.

Global Internship is a practical cooperative education program offered by Okayama University that is designed to enable students to deepen their knowledge through practical work experience. This program, which marks its fourth year in AY 2018, was attended by seven students from Faculty of Law, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and DISCOVERY Program for Global Learners. This year, student interns were hosted by five companies in the forest industry and two local governments responsible for forestry services. Two students from a three-month co-op program “Co-op in Okayama,” which was offered by the University of British Colombia (UBC), Canada, also participated in this internship program, living with other participants in nearby avommodation facilities. The two Canadian students had an opportunity to work as research assistants in the laboratories of the Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science.

About 50 people, including Okayama University’s students and representatives from organizations that hosted the program participants as interns attended at the Global Internship presentation session. The program participants shared their working experience and what they learned and how they felt by living together with the UBC students. According to them, during the program, they not only learned about the forest industry, but also pictured themselves working in the future and thought about the perspectives they would take. Some of them expressed their desire to expand their horizon by studying abroad or participating in other activities, and told the audience how they would use their internship experience to improve their learning at university. The audience asked enthusiastic questions, and offered comments and advice.

Comments by representatives from hosting companies included: “We were able to engage in good daily communication with our interns not only at workplaces and but also in informal settings,” and “I’d like our interns to use their working experience to deepen their expertise at university.” A former program participant commented, “From my experience, if you look back on your internship experience a year or two from now, rather than today, you will be able to more keenly recognize how your internship experience has contributed to your personal growth.”