Over a two-week period in July, Kyoto University hosted the Kyoto Internship Program, which was organized by the ASHINAGA scholarship foundation. The Program invited a total of 70 students from some of the best-known universities in the world -- mostly those based in the West, such as the University of Oxford and Princeton University -- to take part in a hands-on course in Kyoto Studies, providing them with opportunities to learn with Japanese students about the history, culture, and various other aspects of the host city.
Earlier in 2014, ASHINAGA President Yoshiomi Tamai paid a visit to Kyoto University, and had since been requesting the latter to assist with his organization's internship program by providing lectures and having its students involved. Kyoto University, on its part, had assumed a new role as the core institution of the local community, when its proposal for a human resources development program was adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as one of the government-subsidized Center of Community (COC) projects. As a "Center of Community", the University had gone on to develop a Kyoto Studies Program with the goal of serving the community through more effective and efficient cooperation with local partners with long-term interests of the city in mind.
In the Kyoto Internship Program, Kyoto University presented numerous lectures, with Professor Shigeru Takami, Assistant to the Executive Vice-President, acting as the primary coordinator. This contribution was exactly in keeping with the original intent of the University's COC initiative -- offering a greater number of learning opportunities that take advantage of the local characteristics of Kyoto, a city with a rich historical heritage, and, in so doing, contributing to the development of global human resources with a broad education.
The Program also benefited the 11 students participating from Kyoto University, providing them with hands-on experience in cross-cultural communication in the form of working with highly talented students from abroad, an encounter that appears to have helped the former develop their international skills to a considerable degree. Furthermore, it is hoped that these activities may help advance the goal of "serving students from an ever greater number of countries and regions" set forth in the University's 2x by 2020 Initiative launched in 2013.
 Students taking part in a calligraphy lesson |  The Internship Program participants |
