Reason Why You Decided to Apply
My main reason for joining FIRST was to gain international experience, seeing it as the first step in my goal to travel widely during my four years at APU. The university's excellent support made it a fun and accessible learning experience, even with my limited background abroad. Another key motivation was to connect with students from my own grade; the program was perfectly structured for making friends while learning together. For me, the opportunity to conduct research as a collaborative group, rather than individually, was also a highly valuable and significant part of the experience.
How the Program Helped You Grow
During the program, I became more aware of the difficulty of expressing my true feelings to others. Our trip was to South Korea, and as I had never learned the language, even a simple task such as reading a menu in Korean was a painful struggle. I also learned a lot from the group work challenges. My group took a long time to build rapport, which made it difficult to share opinions freely. I want to leverage these difficult experiences to improve my communication and collaboration skills in future group projects and student organizations.
Message for Students Interested in The Program
I believe many of you reading this are at least somewhat interested but are still hesitating about whether to join. If that’s you, my advice is to just sign up. While everyone has their own reasons for coming to APU, many are seeking internationalism or a new challenge. This program is the perfect first step for that. You only get one shot FIRST; if you don't take it now, the chance is gone forever. Try it before you have the chance to regret it - might be surprisingly fun. I know it was for me. If you’ve opened this to read it, I sincerely hope you decide to participate.
LANGUAGE:
Japanese
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