Introducing: Jessa Hutchins

School: Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC
Major: Fashion Merchandising and Textile Development and Marketing
Birthday : September 22
Age: 21
Hometown: Atlanta, Ga
Interests: knitting, textiles, fashion, traveling the world, walking across bridges, JASCers, taking naps, photography, tea and great conversations.

I was born and bred in the south (mostly north Carolina) but have grown very accustomed to city life in the north. Although I do miss southern hospitality and sweet tea ☺ I love studying in the fashion capital of America and living in this always crazy and stressful New York City. I especially enjoy being surrounded by so many different ethnic cultures. I keep my self very busy with multiple jobs and commitments. One includes a small fashion boutique on my school’s campus that I manage; I have become very attached now despite the craziness of it all.

JASC
Round Table: Comparative Law and Society
Site: Portland, Oregon

I am the newest AEC who has been called in as a replacement. So I am super excited to be a part of organizing the 60th JASC and I am ready for another amazing summer with great people

Introducing: Jenka Eusebio

Background

Birthday: September 18

Age: 23

School: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Major: Creative Writing and Literature

Hometown: Washington DC

About me

My life revolves around books. I have no sense of direction, except for when there's a bookstore around. After that point I can get just about anywhere and find my way back.

Collects: Notebooks, stationary, tea, and old postcards

Hobbies: Reading, writing stories, darkroom and digital photography, travel, cooking, and attending free orchestra concerts. On occasion I watch movies, attend poetry and fiction readings, and visit antique stores- if time permits. Currently, most of my free time goes into JASC and my beloved thesis.

Book Recommendations: Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang, Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Favorite Movies: Princess Bride, Spirited Away, City of Lost Children, and Amelie

JASC

Position: Publications Coordinator

RT: Exploring the Relationship Between Tradition and Modernity

Site: Los Angeles

Why JASC?

I'm an idealist. It's all about getting out there and showing the world what students can do, getting our voices heard and our actions noticed. Of course, beneath all these romantic notions is the fact that it's fun, the discussions are amazing, the people are great, and there are opportunities lurking at ever corner. I'm also a pragmatist to a certain degree. JASC is a wonderful building block for a future career, whatever that may be. Personally- I'm interested in cultural exchange administration, which puts me right where I need to be.

Introducing: Samantha Scully

Hi everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! I am Sam. Thank you for visiting our blog and learning more about me!!!!

Background- My family is Jamaican. I grew up eating beef patties, drinking ting (as you can see in the picture), and having a variety of American and Jamaican dishes. I currently go to Bowdoin College.

A typical week- A typical week involves 4 classes and a lot of meetings. I do JASC work, am President of my Class, on Bowdon student government, live in a social house (we do not have fraternities), and am on the student Affairs committee. I had 3 jobs but now have 1 part time and 1 fill-in position. How do I juggle it all???????.....GOD! My religious beliefs are important to me. At the end of church each week my friends and I gather and talk about the stresses of life and how God can help us through it all.

OH WAIT! I almost forgot I am the Co-Captain of the Unity step team:

Fun facts: I love the beach and the ocean but can't swim. I Love to write poetry but can only write it when i have strong emotions: Anger, pain, love, loss, and happiness at their extreme levels. I love to dance (anything but hardcore rock). I am going to be PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. I am taking an international law class which involves painful case analysis but I love it all!!!!! My hair color is coke-a-cola cherry. I have a stuffed animal EVERYONE loves (yes you love him but just do not know it yet!)

My Studies: I am a Asian studies/ History double major and will probably minor in Africana studies or dance. I am learning Japanese currently. For the past 3 years I have been documenting the rise and transformation of prostitution in Japan. It is fascinating! Especially the role Americans played in that transformation and enhancement (yeah I wrote the word enhancement). Ask me about it!


JASC!!!!!!!!- I am the American Chair of JASC. What do I do? I do anything that needs to get done. Honestly if it needs taking care of I make sure my members can do it and if they can not I need to make sure it happens 1 way or another. So its a vague but hard position at times.


Why JASC?- I LOVE JAPAN! I grew up on sailor moon and have always wanted to visit. My favorite Pre-modern era is the Tokugawa era, ,my favorite emperor is Go-Shirakawa and my favorite text.... well it is a tie between the Kojiki and Lady Nijo's memoirs. Oooooh the text in each is so full and rich with things to decipher.


WELL THAT IS A BIT ABOUT ME!
Best wishes,
Sam ;)

Introducing: Bethany Marsh

Background
* Nickname: B, Cabbage

* Birthday: July 1983
* Hometown: near Seattle, WA

* School: Jackson School of International Studies '08 (M.A.); Kalamazoo College '06 (B.A.), Doshisha University '05
* Major: Japan Studies (language and politics/economics)
* Job: computer support specialist, T.A. for Japan Studies classes, research assistant, nanny

* Interests: travel (Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Israel, Egypt, Canada, and Mexico so far with Greece in June 2008), body photography, salsa dancing, cooking, foreign languages and films, camping at the ocean, reading in hammocks

* Memorable Quotes: 「幸せは自分の心が決める。」
"Don't think about it so much." ~Dove chocolate



Middle Ground
* Position: 60th JASC AEC Treasurer and AO Coordinator
* RT: "Memory of Tragedy: Examining Vehicles of Bias, Education, and Peace"
* Site: Reed College, Portland, OR
* Why: As someone who wants to work in/with Japan in the future, I was especially interested in another chance to be involved in JASC. This is a truly outstanding program: not only are you given the chance to travel around a country with 70 other people, sharing experiences and exchanging opinions, but you have the opportunity to meet some of the foremost actors and thinkers in the Japan-America arena. I feel very honored to be a part of the 60th Japan America Student Conference.


Foreground:
This fall I applied for an internship program through the Technical Japanese Program at my university. If accepted, I will spend roughly a year working for a company in Toyama, Japan. Following the internship, I would like to either continue working in Japan, either for a Japanese company or as a CRT through the JET program, or join the Peace Corps in South America and build my Spanish back up before returning to Japan to live and work.

Introducing: Aya Nakanishi!

~About me~
Name: Aya, Papaya, NOT Montana. I think Japadeles should come up with a nickname for me, since that seems to be a special talent they have. :)
Birthday: July 14th, 1987 (Bastille day!)
Blood type: A
Home: Indiana aka corn state
School: UPenn '09, double major in Psychology and Hispanic Studies

I'm a second generation Japanese-American; both of my parents are from Osaka and all my relatives still live there. Every Saturday of my childhood was spent in Japanese school, so thankfully, I can read/write/speak Japanese fluently. I was born and raised in a small town in the great Midwest, where the people are always nicer. :) yay for farmer's markets and running into everyone you know at the supermarket!

Studying abroad in Seville, Spain in Spring '08! Yay for cultural exchange. I'll come back and teach y'all flamenco or something. ha.

@ JASC
Secretary; I mean Head of Verbal Transactions
Publications
Recruitment
MT site
RT: Minority Issues: From Social Discrimination to Social Contribution

Loves:
JASCers
Chocolate (major sweet tooth)
Bakeries
Fresh baked bread
Sticky rice
okay, so food in general
My dog
sleeeeeeep and dreams, yay
Korean dramas
long conversations
crunchy leaves in the fall
warm hats in the winter

Why JASC?
...Why not?

Why wouldn't I want to experience the most intense summer of my life all over again? Why wouldn't I want to see my dear Japadeles again, and meet other amazing people like them? Why not engage in meaningful, eye-opening conversations? Why not challenge yourself? Why not provoke others to do the same? Why give up the chance to have so much fun?

A Very JASCer Thanksgiving (and by 'Very' I Mean 2 Out of 72...)

Forever proving that ECs are capable of hanging out without talking about JASC business (we did watch the 59th video though, which was awesome -- THANKS RYAN!) I spent Thanksgiving this year horrifying Nancy with my family's barbaric treatment of crustaceans. We thought we'd give the turkeys a year off for once, so instead we subjected our delicious lobsters to futile hope of escape across the floor, torment by my cat and various forms of limb separation usually reserved for black-belt martial artists. Nancy also enjoyed (I hope) her first bagel & lox, among her first tastes of NYC, and handing me one of the most tremendous ass-whoopings that the game of Scrabble has ever seen.

So we had 2 JASCers this holiday, and I know we can keep building bigger and bigger gatherings in the future! For all you 59th alums and future 60th JASCers out there reading this, JASC is about a whole lot more than a one-month conference. We just had a mini-reunion in Boston the other week (somebody write about it, please!) and whether planning or just reminiscing, none of us can get JASC out of our heads! I love you guys, and I hope to see you all at the next gathering!



Introducing Joshua Evan Schlachet (Josh, Schlacher, Schlac-Daddy, or what have you)

Occupation & Place of Residence: So, as convinced as you may have been from my profile that I'm an accountant from Afghanistan (the give-away may have been that this is the JAPAN-AMERICA Student Conference), I am, in fact, a student from Jersey, which is probably less cool, but also less likely to land me on a watch-list.

The Facts...
School Info: Cornell University '08, Culinary Institute of America Alum
Major: History & East Asian Studies
Birthday: 6 March 1982 (yes, I'm old...)

JASC Info...
Site: Los Angeles
Roundtable: Communicating Environmental Ethics
Positions: Publicity, Recruitment
59th JASC Roundtable: Pacifism & Belligerence

Favorites...
Movies: Savage Instinct, No Retreat No Surrender, Future War, Tokyo Drift, Quick & The Dead...let's just say all the worst garbage that would make most normal people claw their eyes out
Interests: Japanese history, cooking, writing, traveling
Quotes (should I have just pasted my facebook profile?):
"Going back to when we were children, I think most of us thought that justice came into being automatically, that virtue is its own reward, that good would triumph over evil. But aswe get older, we know this just isn’t true. Individual human beings have to create justice, and this is not easy because the truth often poses a threat to power, and one often has to fight power at great risk to themselves."
--Kevin Costner, JFK

You've already gotten a couple fantastic plugs for JASC from Hidemi and Nancy, so let it suffice to say that JASC is something incredibly special to me, both for the experiences I had and especially for the people I had the pleasure of meeting. These are my lifelong friends, and the intense month we spent together was only the beginning. I can't wait to meet all you soon-to-be 60th JASCers and watch us all make these same unbreakable bonds.

Introducing Hidemi Tanaka~

About me!

Name: Hidemi Tanaka

College: Macalester College '09

Birthday: Aug. 26 1986

Blood Type: AB

Favorites!

Food: White peach, kimchi

Music: 19, Eric Clapton, jazz, blues

Drink: CC Lemon, whole milk

Movie: Old Boy

Book: Catcher in the Rye

About Hidemi in 60th JASC!

Position: Vice Chairperson, Liaison, Webmaster

Site: Missoula, Montana

Roundtable: Corporate Social Responsibility in Development

My father is Japanese and my mother is Korean. I was born in Houston, but lived most of my life in East Asia (Hong Kong, Osaka, Shanghai, Kaohsiung). I'm now a junior at Macalester College. In my free time, I ride my bike, drive my car, shop for clothes, play guitar, sing, sing some more in the shower, and nap!

Why JASC again?

The 59th JASC was just amazing, and honestly, I wanted to experience JASC again. Except this is a chance for me and the fifteen other ECs to make the 60th not just even better than the 59th, but the BEST JASC ever.

What is JASC?

JASC is a month of intense everything. Intense debating, intense walking, intense teamwork, intense leadership, intense professionalism, intense emotions, but most important of all, intense bonding. As Nancypants already mentioned, JASC is all about the people. The people you will meet in this conference will result in long-lasting friendships, and every single delegate you meet will be just as interesting as you are. What you gain from this experience all depends on how much you put into this experience. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, and it is just thrilling to know that another great summer is awaiting. Prospective delegates, you will certainly realize your own hidden potentials and skills, and you will find new opportunities for your future through this social, professional, academic, emotional experience.

Introducing: Nancy Yang

Name: Nancy.

I will also answer to: Thumper, Nancypants

Institutional Affiliation: Harvard, '09
Interest: civil society in East Asia

Always Wanted To Be: Vigilante
Will Probably Be: Lawyer


Round Table:
Ethics: Holding Science Accountable to Humanity
Site: Boston
Other JASC responsibilities: Transportation, Recruitment


Q: Where are you from?
A: Born in China. Grew up in Dallas. Educated in Boston.

Q: What do you enjoy in your free time?
A: NPR, The Economist, Questionable Content, and Chuck Norris Facts. I like sleeping. I take the pursuit of happiness seriously. And I also blog obsessively.

Q: Who is your favorite superhero?
A: I'm torn between Spiderman's nerd cred and Batman's angst. Batman wins because he is the only superhero I know who does not actually have a superpower.

Q: What is JASC?
A: Four weeks spent constantly in the company of other delegates tend to produce strong feelings. We debate together, sleep together, bathe together and, on one sad, unfortunate day, vomit together. It takes a strong, wintry heart to remain indifferent to a fellow delegate after this. This is not to say I fell in love with everyone, but I got to keep the friends that I did (and still do) adore. JASC is all about the people. Come to the conference to meet some amazing fellow students, befriend them, and then spend Thanksgiving with them afterwards.

Q: Why do you introduce yourself in this contrived Q-and-A format?
A: ...