By Sally Schwartz, Program Director

Sixteen students. From ten different DC schools. Six weeks. Twenty nine days of exploration, reflection, and discussion. This was our summer Japan in DC program, offered in partnership with the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program. The summer was intense. We were usually on the move. Some days were unbearably hot. The subject matter was often difficult, disturbing, and provocative. It was also fun, exciting, and challenged our students to move far outside their comfort zones and open their minds to new ideas, new perspectives, and a lot of new opportunities to consider for their futures.

Globalize DC created its exploratory summer Japan in DC program in 2017 as a counterweight to our intensive afterschool Japanese language and culture program, Japanese Plus. The idea was simple – give DC public high school students the opportunity to learn about Japan, not through a textbook, but by engaging with people, places, and organizations with a connection to Japan right here in their own city. That means visiting museums, think tanks, organizations, government agencies, as well as monuments, memorials, and other public spaces. Most of the students who join Japan in DC bring a passion for Japan and Japanese culture and history. Most of what they know they’ve learned online. Most have never met a Japanese person in real life. Japan in DC changes that and gives them a real world, up-close perspective on Japan and US-Japan relations. Each day students are asked to reflect not only on what new they’ve learned related to Japan and the Japanese American experience, but also about:

• Their own city and what it means to live a global city.
  
• College, career, and people-to-people exchange opportunities.
  
• Life lessons they can carry with them.

In 2026 our Japan in DC program had a special focus on the the US-Japan relationship, and in particular the question of how the relationship between our two countries evolved from war and bitter hatred during World War II to our close friendship today. This took us down an interesting path that we plan to explore further during the current school year.

This is the first year we’ve asked our Japan in DC students to contribute to our Student Blog, so the rest of the world can get a peak at what they’ve been up to during the summer and what they’ve been thinking. This was a lot to ask in such an intense program, but they put in the work, and we know they have valuable information and honest reflections to share. We hope you will enjoy reading their blog posts, and leave a comment if you are so inclined.

Special thanks to those who made our summer Japan in DC program possible:

• The Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program, which allows DC students to earn much needed summer pay while engaging in real-world work experiences. They have been great people to work with again this year.
  
• The Ralph Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University, which so generously hosted this summer’s program. We appreciate the support of Dr. Tonija Hope and Jillian Barker Langford. The setting was absolutely perfect.
  
• The United States-Japan Foundation for their generous funding to support this summer’s Japan in DC program. Their belief in the value of this work has been critical!
  
• Our Co-Teachers, Kristin Maleczka and Devin Millensifer, for devoting their summer to making sure our students were supported, entertained, prepared, and safe. I’m glad we could include Japanese language learning this year.
  
• All those who so generously agreed to meet with our students as part of this summer’s program. We couldn’t do the program without you. Our students always felt respected and appreciated – and in turn they gained so much from the experiences you offered.
  
• And to every one of our interesting and committed students, each one unique, each one gifted, who pushed through our summer work together and embraced every new experience and opportunity.

We hope you all will enjoy reading our Student Blog. More to come!