EDL Student 

I am Kazuyo Nagahama, a Ph. D student at The University of Tokyo.
I studied in Tsukuba for 4 years during my master’s course, and I also worked full time as a teacher at a primary school in Tokyo for the first two years. It was a goodopportunity to be able to choose the EDL course in my third year, even though I am Japanese. In Tsukuba, I met many foreign colleagues from all over the world, and we were able to debate and discuss our research, environmental issues and socialize as well. We still have contact with each other after graduation and exchange information when necessary, I suppose this is our EDL heritage! I appreciated all the professors’ support and encouragement in facilitating our ability to think, discuss and write in English with both macro and micro eyes.

I am a RA (research assistant) at my present university and TA (teaching assistant) at a SSH (super science high school) in Kanagawa. My work includes a science workshop for children with their parents and reviewing educational mathematics material for teachers. I also support an environmental NGO Earthwatch (http://earthwatch.org/), fortunately the Japanese branch is located in the Univ. of Tokyo, and I can organize workshops and events that are concerned with environmental research projects. I hope my project will be uploaded to the Earthwatch website in the near future.

After my graduation from university, I would like to be a better teacher and undertake both rigorous research and provide effective education.

Participation in the EDL program in Japan was one of the luckiest and memorable times in my life. During my time as an EDL member, I received excellent lectures provided by invited professors from different counties in the world, certainly pushing us towards a high quality education and future career. The program provided us with many other opportunities such as the international and domestic internships, and EDL debate. Among these, the EDL debate was the most interesting for me because I could find many new but sometimes complicated ideas from future leaders through heated discussion. The internships really opened my eyes. Two years in the EDL program advanced my life personally and professionally. I always believed that we are ready to create our bright future through this program. If you are really prepared as an environmental diplomatic leader please do not be silent but be active in environmental problem solving fields after completing this program. Please have a good relationship with each other now and in the future. We are able to keep in touch at an international level and collaborate in solving environmental issues between our countries. Lastly, two things I would like to advise EDL members to do are take advantage of the unique opportunities offered in this program and do your best.

I'm Takuya Shiraishi, an EDL graduate of March 2012. Since April, I have been working for IC Net Limited, which is a consultancy firm mainly contributing to strengthening the social aspects of assistance to developing countries. At this firm, I joined the survey team for the JICA "Preparatory Survey for Northern Region Rural Development and Local Governance Improvement Project" as an Environment and Social Considerations Specialist. It is a project formulation survey for a future Yen loan project in Northern Bangladesh. My work is to examine, through field and literature surveys, adverse impacts on the environment and society that may be caused by the infrastructure construction portion of the Project, and to suggest necessary actions my counterpart in Bangladesh must undertake to fulfill the requirements of national laws and JICA policies.
Knowledge and experience in scientific and social aspects of environmental problems are indispensable in the above work. I learned these issues effectively and efficiently in the EDL program, which certainly enables me to approach a problem from different perspectives. I believe your present dedication in the EDL program will also lead to success in any type of future work!