The Things You Can Do with the Ogawa Award!

Arroyave as a volunteer teacher of comparative English and Japanese literature last summer in Ishikawa, Japan, an experience also funded by the Ogawa Award.

2023 Ogawa Award Winner
Juan Felipe Arroyave on FIUTS And Japan

I arrived in Seattle in the fall of 2012 to start a graduate program in Hispanic Studies. I didn't know anybody in the city. My English back then was even worse than it is now, and I was genuinely contemplating life without any social or cultural outlets beyond school.

Back then, among the orientation events organized by UW and FIUTS, was a mini-soccer World Cup. I remember walking down to the IMA field all by myself, trying to pick up any Spanish along the way.

Interestingly enough, as soon as I walked into the turf I bumped into a team of mostly Saudi students. They were missing a couple of people and, compared to the other teams, looked a bit less athletic and organized. Soon after introducing ourselves (and mutually struggling to pronounce each other's names) the first game started.

We lost the final match on penalties. By that time, however, we had already come up with field positions, nicknames, and even goal celebrations for our team. During my first two years here, I spent every weekend with my friends Abdul Almutairi and Mo Alangari. They were my first muslim friends; my first Saudi friends; perhaps more importantly, my first Seattle friends. 

Eventually I met other Latinos in school through events like FIUTS Wednesday Lunch, but I couldn't have settled in Seattle if it weren't for Abdul and Mo. FIUTS provided me not only with a landing space in the city but also with a community and support network for which I will forever be grateful.

Thereafter, winning the Ogawa Award was a watershed moment for me. It triggered a number or breakthroughs in my research, allowed me to travel to Spain and Japan to talk about my academic work, and helped me make very significant professional and personal connections. It is impossible to overstate how grateful I am to the Ogawa Family and FIUTS, and how far reaching their efforts to promote understanding among people from different nationalities were: Thanks to the Ogawa Award I could, as a Colombian national, engage with Japanese literature in North America, and present my work in Europe and Asia. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Arroyave presenting Japanese literature in Spanish translation at Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.