Welcome, Orientation Team!
Welcome Week is just around the corner! FIUTS is very excited to introduce (at last) our practicum exchange intern, Holly, as well as two interns from Japan, Maaya and Satomi. All of them have been working hard and are absolutely instrumental in helping us put together our quickly approaching orientation weeks for incoming international students! Wave and say hello when you see them! Here they are, introducing themselves to our community:
Holly, the Orientation Assistant!
Name: Holly Schneidmiller
Hometown: Walla Walla, WA
Year: Graduate Student at SIT Graduate Institute
Major: International Education
About me:
I love learning about different cultures and meeting new people. My interest in travel started when I was very young because of my family. My family also likes to travel, so we often take trips together both domestically and abroad. I have lived and worked in Great Britain, Japan, and Ethiopia. I was an English teacher in Japan for 3 years and an English teacher trainer in Ethiopia for 2 years. I still enjoy mentoring and helping people practice English. After returning from Africa, I decided to pursue my Master’s Degree in International Education so I could continue to work with people from all over the world. I was interested in interning at FIUTS as the International Student Orientation Assistant while working on my degree so I could return to the Pacific Northwest while continuing my education. I’m so happy that FIUTS allows me to interact with people from all over the globe and I look forward to meeting so many new people at the fall orientation!
Name: Maaya Tsuji
Hometown: Osaka, Japan
Year: Junior
School/Major: Political Science
About me: Hi, my name is Maaya. I am a junior student in my university in Japan, and doing an internship during my summer break. I am studying political science, but I also really love to go abroad and meet new friends all over the world! Meeting new people always makes me motivated and I'd notice that I haven’t accomplished anything yet but I can do anything in the future. Also going abroad gives me opportunity to experience what I can’t expect if I keep staying in my own country, so I am very glad to be here also FIUTS. I have been to the US, Canada, Taiwan, Korea, and Thailand. Most of them were just short trips, but every single time I could learn about their culture, which made me so excited! I like to try new things, especially trying to eat ethnic food that I have never tried, so if you have any recommendation, tell me about it and let’s go to eat out together!
Name: Satomi Taguchi
Hometown: Saitama, Japan
Year: Junior
School/Major: Dokkyo University (in Japan) / English
About me: Hi, I’m Satomi and I’m a summer intern at FIUTS. I am born and raised in Saitama, which is located in near Tokyo. In Japan, I’m a junior and studying English, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communications. I like studying English and communicating with people from around the world, and that’s why I’m doing the intern here. I’m really excited to spend this summer in FIUTS and learn new things. Also I would like to acquire leadership skills, event organizing skills, and cross-cultural communication skills through this internship program.
I love listening to the music, playing the drums, walking around and exploring new places. Since I’m staying in Seattle only in this summer, I would like to join many FIUTS events and enjoy my life in Seattle as much as I can.