Dear Tazaki Foundation,My name is Himena Meldy Miyashita and I am a GLP-GEfIL Scholar from the University of Tokyo. Thissummer, I spent my time in the United Kingdom attending the Exeter College Summer Programme (ECSP) at theUniversity of Oxford. The programme lasted six weeks from 26 June to 6 August, during which over a hundred
students from various universities worldwide took two courses of their choice. I chose to take International
Relations and International Law, as I have gained a strong interest in international law while participating inInternational Humanitarian Law competitions at my university. The courses were of a very high standard and werevery intense––there were over a hundred pages of readings required each week, and students had to balance thesereadings with preparations for classes, writing 2,000-3,000-word essays, making presentations, and studying forthe final exams at the end of the programme. After around two years of online classes at my university, the intensityof the courses felt very different to me. However, I enjoyed the courses very much. Not only were the course
contents extremely interesting, but the rigorousness of the instruction made me feel that I had retained a lot of theknowledge I had learnt. The courses in the programme have reignited my passion for learning and I hope to keep
challenging myself academically when I return to my home university.
The social aspects of this programme were also wonderful. I was able to interact with highly motivatedpeers from universities such as Harvard, Yale, National University of Singapore, Hong Kong University, The
American University in Cairo, and many more. The diverse backgrounds of the students allowed classroom
discussions to be filled with voices from different perspectives, bringing new angles to our class content. For
example, STEM students were using Physics to talk about International Relations! Outside of the classroom, thelife stories of some of these students were truly inspiring, and gave me the motivation to read and learn more, as
well as helped me find clearer direction in what kinds of research or work I wish to pursue in the future. The manysocial events organised by the programme, and the fact that we were all living together in the university’s
accommodation building allowed me to build many strong friendships, and now I have many more destinations toadd to my travel list!
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the Tazaki Foundation for sponsoring my attendance at ECSP.
The programme is long and of very high quality, hence it is not cheap. The financial support of the Tazaki
Foundation gave me the leeway to choose my abroad programme not by its price but by its course selection andduration, which were important factors to me as I wished to study a subject I wished to become more
knowledgeable in, and also immerse myself in a new environment for an extended period of time. Furthermore,
the financial support allowed me to fully enjoy the programme with peace of mind, and jump in on every
opportunity I got to explore the country with friends, or simply spend time with them––be it at cafes or ice skating
rinks. This allowed me to forge stronger connections with those around me, and learn more about the UK. I hope
the Tazaki Foundation will continue to sponsor more students in programmes like ECSP, so that they will growboth academically and as a person. Once again, thank you very much for your kind and generous support!