Penn State Global hosts visiting international scholars

Penn State Global is proud to host visiting scholars from our international partners. The purpose of these visiting scholars is to observe administration, instruction, outreach or research; collaborate with University faculty or staff on specific projects; conduct research in a University facility; or foster networking and facilitate relationships among partnership institutions. Two scholars, Takuya Yoshida and Youngjae Cho, came to Penn State in fall of 2022.

Takuya "Taku" Yoshida

Taku Yoshida works in the human resources office as an administrative staff at Nagoya University, Aichi, Japan. Taku will stay at Penn State from September 2022 to March 2023 as a visiting scholar. Taku is interested in higher education in the US -- in particular, how universities are working in internationalization and how they support international students. His goal is to bring what he learned back to his university in Japan and work on the internationalization of his university.

Taku is participating in LEAP (Long-term Education Administrators Program) supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan. University staff from all over Japan participate in this program. This year there are 10 participants, including Taku. 

Taku became interested in internationalization because it is both important and a challenge for Japanese universities. 

“I believe that interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds will broaden our horizons and allow us to consider things from diverse perspectives,” he said. “Japan is a homogeneous country, where people have less chance to meet with foreign people. So the internationalization of universities contributes to providing opportunities for international exchange for both students and the local community. It is also essential for universities to attract talented people from all over the world. Personally, I like to learn about different cultures and I hope that more international students will come to my university.”

So far, he has attended several events held by Penn State Global. He attended the University president’s welcome speech for international students, orientation, and a trip to Niagara Falls. Taku was especially interested in GELE. 

GELE stands for Global Engagement and Leadership Experience and is a "global" leadership opportunity. GELE explores the ability to interact across differences and learn about different cultures.

“Before I attended GELE, I imagined it would be like a casual camping event. However, I was surprised that it was designed to encourage students to think about the importance of diversity and respect for each other's culture,” he said. “Students show their culture through traditional dancing and presenting traditional events. They explained how people name their babies. It was a great cultural event and showcase.”

Taku has been to other campuses, including Abington, Altoona, Harrisburg, and Dickinson Law in Carlisle. While touring, he was able to get into contact with other students and faculty there. He is interested in how universities can support international students, particularly their mental health. 

“They face more stressors such as homesickness, language barriers, and adapting to different cultures,” he said. “Now I am facing these difficulties and this is my first time living abroad.”

He interviewed staff and he learned two main topics in mental health support: prevention and coping. In preventing this, he learned the importance of preventing isolation among international students. To him, the events he attended held by Penn State Global, like GELE, are important to integrate international students with the school. He spoke with the staff running these events and learned their thought process and difficulties. Taku also interviewed counseling staff about coping strategies. He interviewed CAPS staff members at Penn State. CAPS stands for Counseling and Psychological Services, an important service for international students’ well-being. 

Taku believes that he is impacted by every person he interviews, and his favorite part of his experience has been the wonderful people that he has met. He enjoys going out to meet with the staff and loves how people are very open to interacting with him.

“I feel part of Penn State by interacting with the people,” he said.

Youngjae Cho

Youngjae Cho works for Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea as an associate manager in the university's Office of International Relations. He participated in the staff exchange program between Penn State and SKKU. Youngjae is the 8th SKKU participant to visit Penn State and worked with Penn State Global through December of 2022.

Youngjae worked at a hospital for seven and a half years, and he applied to the staff exchange program with his university because he wanted to work at the office of international relations, where he is working now. His career goals are to manage the global programs of his university, which is why the exchange program fits his objectives perfectly. 

One of the courses he took is IECP, Intensive English Communication Program. IECP has been Penn State’s premier intensive English program, offering courses in academic English to prepare the pre-matriculated student for undergraduate and graduate studies at an American university. 

“One of my goals here is to improve my English conversational skills and it is very helpful for me to practice English,” he said.

Youngjae also participated in GELE and he enjoyed the mix of international and domestic students. 

“The students who participated in the program were very energetic,” he said. “The discussions on global citizenships were my favorite part of the program.”

He visited Penn State's Harrisburg, Altoona and Abington campuses. When he went to Altoona, he participated in a field trip with students to Niagara falls. In Abington, he met global leaders who were international students.

He was particularly interested in learning about the Global Safety Team. The team runs the travel safety network to determine what countries are safe to travel to, and they offer emergency preparedness workshops that cover emergency response protocols.

“It is not easy for individuals to find information related to the risks around the world which are important for international students and faculty,” he said. “I thought that this team was very hardworking on that end. I was very impressed with that. “

Youngjae observed two classes at Penn State: a Japanese and a Korean class. 

“Both are very interesting because of the interaction between instructors who don't use English as a first language and international students who also don’t use English as a first language,” he said. 

He believes that learning more about the working culture in the United States and how the staff interacts with students in other countries will be extremely important for his work in the office of international relations of SKKU, which also deals with students from other countries.

Youngjae credits two people who influenced him the most at Penn State: Anna Marshall and Sylvester Osagie. 

“Penn State thrives from Global relationships with other universities. Anna is a really good person and she understands what is difficult for incoming people to State College and the US,” he said. “She helped me a lot with arranging meetings with fields that I wanted to discuss.”

The meeting with Sylvester was really interesting for Youngjae because he had never known the global relations of the university located in Africa. 

“Sylvester was amazing and I learned a lot.”

Youngjae hopes to keep in touch with the people he came to know here. He also plans to do more tasks related to global safety back in SKKU.

“There is no such department in our university so I plan to build that team with my boss and we have already discussed that.” 

The Future

Taku will continue to stay in the United States through the end of the spring semester. This semester, Penn State Global welcomed Jeeyoon Jeong, the 9th SKKU exchange staff member to Penn State. Moreover, Chisato Tada, international student adviser at Penn State's University Park campus, and Wendy Moynihan, global engagement coordinator at Penn State Harrisburg, will represent Penn State Global to visit SKKU separately, each for two weeks in May, 2023. Over the years, Penn State and SKKU have had many collaborative activities such as joint workshops, delegation visits, and staff exchanges