Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 21 (1): Ngo Outreach

NGO Outreach
NGO アウトリーチ
Cycling into the Student Ambassador
Program’s second year
Since early 2013, the LD SIG NGO Outreachcoordinators have been encouraging teachers toextend their students’ experience of English

Indeed, while two out of the three NGOs provided
more English-using opportunities than we thought,
one student commented that a problem withvolunteering was too few opportunities to use
English.

language beyond the classroom through theStudent Ambassador initiative. From April andthrough the summer vacation of 2013, nine studentsfrom Soka, Toyama, and Tokai universities became‘student ambassadors’ and volunteered at three
non-government organizations (NGOs). Their earlyexperiences - illustrated in Figure 1 as recruiting,finding NGOs, liaising, and volunteering - havebeen reported previously in Learning Learning(http://ld-sig.org/LL/20one/ngoOutreach.pdf,
http://ld-sig.org/LL/20two/ngoOutreach.pdf).
Now students have completed the “ambassador”

Figure 1. The Student Ambassador Program
Cycle

component of the program by representing theirNGOs, and the first full cycle of this program isalmost complete. So in this article, we would like toproject requires students to prepare posters andreport the latest developments, reflect on the wholepresentations for an NGO display and forum

process, and invite you, LD SIG members and your(Figure 1), which - for this cycle - was held as partof the LD SIG 20th Anniversary Conference incolleagues, to contribute to this evolving project.

To ensure that students use English, the!
One of the early challenges we faced was toensure a clear English language objective in theTokyo on 23 and 24 November 2013. All nine

program. Since the Student Ambassador Program isposters about their NGO’s activities and their own

specifically aimed at students becoming involved inexperiences as volunteers. One group of students
representing Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA)

the operations of NGOs in Japan, opportunities tostudents who volunteered at an NGO prepared

use English during the volunteering part of theprogram cannot be guaranteed, as the daily

took the initiative to recruit three students who had

language of most NGOs in Japan is Japanese. This

staff their information desk, and sell SVA’s fair

may even be the case in organizations whoseactivities are mainly abroad and whose staff aretrade goods.
Other organizations which did not host any

very internationally minded and multi-lingual.

students this time also joined in the forum to

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

not been able to volunteer to help prepare posters,66Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 21 (1): NGO Outreachencourage collaboration with students and!

teachers. These included Shine On! Kids, which

forum, a Tokyo-based participant commented thatsent their own interns and a project officer, and a
student group from Action against Child

when preparing her poster, “I enjoyed collecting
photos to illustrate my experience and enjoyed also

Exploitation (ACE). The forum featured shorttalking about how this internship could affect mypresentations and open discussion among students,

future career”. She also noted that at the display

NGO representatives, and teachers about theand forum, it was good “hearing about other NGO

benefits of the Student Ambassador Program andpossible future directions.

volunteers’ experience and what they wereworking for”.

As a venue for reflecting on their!

In a survey completed after the display andOne of the early objectives for the NGO

experiences and for using English, the display andOutreach team has been sustainability, both for ourforum seemed very successful. Two students

students, and the Student Ambassador Program

travelled all the way from Toyama University toreport on their volunteer experience with Japan

itself. According to one definition, sustainability is“the extent to which the positive effects of theTent, where they acted as guides to Japanese culture

project will continue after external assistance hasfor international students visiting Ishikawa

been concluded” (FASID, 2000). In this case,Prefecture. One wrote in her final report that:“external assistance” is the initiatives of the NGO

My experience in Tokyo is the first for me

Outreach team to facilitate connections andcollaboration between teachers, students, andand I felt so fresh and interesting. It was notNGOs. There are already signs that a good degreea serious atmosphere and I felt comfortable. Iof sustainability of this kind exists.

think I could have a precious experience so I
want to say “Thanks.” Every foreign teacher
was so kind and it was interesting for me.
Her colleague chose to make a video report, andcommented that:
After this [volunteering] experience I madeposters for my presentation. It was a little
bit difficult for me to make it in English
because my English skill is not so good, but
it wasn’t too hard because my English
teacher always helped me. … it was a really
good experience to speak English in thatplace, to talk to other university students,and teachers. It was good experience. I’mreally happy to share my experience withother people, and I’m really appreciate that

Picture: Three Student Ambassadors and Sanae
Nakajima (Right), chairperson of Free the Children
Japan, stand in front of their display at the NGO
Outreach Display and Forum at the Learner
Development SIG 20th Anniversary Conference.

I can be an NGO Outreach project member.

Newsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>67

Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 21 (1): Ngo Outreach!

One student decided to transform her

could expect to undertake - including morevolunteer experience into a full six monthEnglish-related tasks during the volunteering stage.

internship at Free the Children Japan (FTCJ).
Another commented about the importance of her!
Finally, it is difficult to get survey responsesand reports from students when they think theexperience to her future career, and her plans to“event” is already over. Having completed one fullkeep in touch with and visit FTCJ. An example ofcycle, now we have a much clearer picture of what

an ongoing NGO and university relationship is that

we can offer to all parties involved - students,

FTCJ has agreed to participate in the Global Lecture
Series at Soka University, where most of the student

teachers, and NGOs. We can now make an
Ambassador Program Calendar and use it in theambassadors study, as well as visit the campus withinitial recruiting phase, so that everyone knows thatstudent volunteers to talk about their activities.

they will be expected to answer some simple!

questionnaires and complete a final report, in order

Regarding the sustainability of the Student

Ambassador Program itself, we have encouraged
students to complete a final report on their

to reflect upon their experience and continue theflow of the Program cycle.

volunteering and ambassador experience - in either!

video or written form - for the explicit purpose ofcycle and are actively seeking an appropriate event

promoting volunteering among other interested

for Student Ambassadors to participate in afterstudents (Figure 1). This reliance on student tostudent contact will hopefully maximize student

their summer volunteering experience. Since thisreally sets the target for students’ use of English, it

initiative and NGO benefit, allowing the NGO

is important that the Japan-based event be one with

Outreach coordinators and teachers to step back aparticipants coming from a variety of countries. At

little and refocus their efforts on emerging issues.

the time of writing we are still exploring options!
Keeping sustainability in mind, several
issues have emerged. Firstly, the cost of food andand warmly welcome your suggestions. We are also
keen to hear from teachers across Japan who may

commuting in both the volunteering and the

be interested in promoting this program to theirdisplay and forum stage can mount quite

students in the current school year. As one teacher

significantly, so it would be beneficial to seek

said in the NGO forum, “My feeling is that (thefunding to offset these costs away from the student.
Secondly, some students only learnt about theirstudents) did all the hard work and I mostly met
them to say go ahead and do what they wereNGOs activities, without really having anplanning to do anyway”. We are looking forward toopportunity to engage in them; this may be linked to

you and your students joining us as we move into

time spent volunteering. We are reflecting on theour second year!

potential advantages and disadvantages ofencouraging students to allocate a minimum

References:engagement of 20 hours with their respective

FASID, 2000. PCM (Project Cycle Management):

NGOs. On the one hand, this may discourage

Monitoring and Evaluation Based on thestudents - who are already very hard pressed for

PCM Method, 2000, FASID (Foundation fortime - from joining the program. On the other, it
may allow us to negotiate further with NGOs to

Advanced Studies on International

We are now transitioning into the secondDevelopment), Tokyo.

help draw out the kind of tasks student volunteers

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

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