We’re thrilled to announce that our SY2018-19 Japanese Plus afterschool program launched on Saturday, September 29. Since then, our new DCPS and DC public charter high school students have been meeting twice a week (Wednesdays 4:30-6:30 pm and Saturdays 9:00 am-12 pm) at Columbia Heights Education Campus to pursue their avid interest in Japanese language and culture.

Japanese Plus is a citywide afterschool Japanese language, culture, and career exposure program open at no cost to DC public school students. Globalize DC created this program to address the lack of Japanese language programs in DC public schools

Twenty (20) students were selected for this year’s program through a citywide application process. We have ended up with a great group – dynamic, dedicated, curious, friendly, and a lot of fun! They represent ten different high schools from both DCPS and the charter sector – Banneker, BASIS DC, Capital City, DC International, Ellington, McKinley, Phelps, Washington Latin, School Without Walls, and Wilson.

You can learn more about each of our Japanese Plus students here.

We also encourage you to follow our Student Blog to learn about the Japanese Plus experience through the eyes of our students.

Special thanks again to the United-States Japan Foundation and Japan Foundation-Los Angeles for their generous financial support of this year’s Japanese Plus program. We could not offer this life-changing opportunity without you.