USI Japanese Saturday school wins eleventh consecutive award from Japan

For the eleventh consecutive year, University of Southern Indiana's Southern Indiana Japanese School (SIJS) has once again received the School Award in Writing from the Japan Overseas Educational Services. The subsidiary of the Japanese Government's Ministry of Education and Science awarded only 20 out of nearly 300 Japanese schools abroad.

"When our school started in 1997, we were only seven students with three teachers. We participated in this writing contest in 1998 for the first time," said Keietsu Nishimura, principal of SIJS. "Since then, several students have won awards and we have won the school award every year. This is owing to the students, teachers and all the people related to our school for the years since the beginning of our school."

This year, six writing prizes also were awarded to four SIJS students. A total of 40,921 literary works were submitted to the writing contest this year. 500 works were awarded.

Below are the winning SIJS students, grade level, home school and the name of the awarded literary works:

• Ren Higuchi, 6th grade, Tell City Junior High School, "Thanksgiving of compassion", "Three years have passed", "A Satchel (School bag)"
• Yuzuki Komatsu, 1^st grade, Scott Elementary School, "Grandma"
• Nana Kato, 1^st grade, Highland Elementary School, "America for the first time"
• Rikuto Kadoshima, 2^nd grade, Highland Elementary School, "Mowing"

SIJS, a program of USI Outreach and Engagement, opened in 1997 at the request of and with the financial support of Tri-State regional companies to keep children of employees abreast of their peers in Japan and help prepare students for a smooth transition when they return home.

The school currently enrolls 60 students and 12 teachers who provide instruction in Japanese language, culture and other selected disciplines on Saturdays and after the regular school day. Many SIJS teachers are a part of the exchange program between USI and Tsukuba University in Japan.

For more information on USI's Southern Indiana Japanese School visit USI.edu/SIJS.