We had the pleasure to visit a political science class at Keio University, the oldest private university in Japan. There we did a panel discussion between the JRP and Keio students. While much of the information we got out of the meeting was anecdotal, it was still fascinating.

When undergraduates enter a college cafeteria, they often don’t expect much. A few miscellaneous vegetables, various sets of fried foods and a reliably consistent mediocrity. As for the people, it depends; sometimes you sit with friends, sometimes by yourself and on those rare few occasions, you get the honor to sit and eat lunch with 2,000 Cadets from the Japanese Self Defense Forces.

The National Defense University feels a bit detached from your average Washington, DC national security institution. While the Capitol complex has multiple metro stops, and the Pentagon has a parking lot the size of the Tufts campus and an attached megamall, NDU is tucked away in a gentrifying neighborhood of the District of Columbia’s Southwest quarter.

This summer I visited three counties from the Southwest part of Guizhou province, one of the poorest regions in China. My project is to find scholarships for the rural girls in these communities to complete their secondary education, as a means to boosting long-term development of the local community.