International Experiences

14 LMU students along with Dr. Curtiss Takada Rooks and Min-Jung Kim in front of the Itsukushima Shrine in Japan while holding a white banner that reads KAKEHASHI PROJECT
14 Tomodachi Inouye Scholars traveled to Japan for an eight-day, international leadership development program over spring break of 2024.

AAAS faculty frequently offer and lead classes abroad. Just recently over 2024 spring break, our 14 LMU TOMODACHI Inouye Scholars along with co-directors Dr. Curtiss Takada Rooks and Min-Jung Kim '15 traveled to Tokyo and Hiroshima, Japan as part of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs's Kakehashi Project. Please visit this website to learn more about our 2023-2024 TOMODACHI Inouye Scholars Program. 

In the spring of 2019, Dr. Curtiss Takada Rooks took his course “Transpacific Japan” on a ten-day trip to Japan as part of BCLA’s Global Immersion Program. As a class, students explored the lives, histories, and experiences of both the Japanese and Japanese Americans and explored themes of resilience, resistance, and reconciliation using a diasporic transnational lens. Students also built a class website to share their experiences and research. More information on the course, the trip, and the students' work can be found here.

The China summer trip takes place in May of each year. In 2016, Dr. Robin Wang offered the Philosophy and Religious Rituals course which was cross-listed with Philosophy, Theological Studies, ASPA, and Honors. It was designed to bring Chinese and LMU students together for two intensive yet rewarding weeks that combined lecture, discussion, and field experience by investigating religious rituals from Christian and Chinese traditions.

In the summer of 2014, Dr. Rooks led the first TOMODACHI Inouye Scholars program at LMU. 23 students went to Japan for a ten-day visit as part of the international leadership development program.