At present the APU Student & Alumni Association, and more directly its executive members, organize and hold various events, manage the association's website, and make decisions relating to the effective and proper running of the association. The role of the student-run 'Student & Alumni Association Executive Committee' is to act as a bridge between the alumni association and current APU students, helping with alumni association sponsored events, holding various events on campus for current students, and in general trying to increase awareness about the association and getting news out to APU students from their time of enrolment.
This Fall, the alumni association sponsored various events in the Kyushu, Kansai and Kanto regions, with the main event being the 'APU Kyushu Alumni Association Convention, held in Beppu on Saturday, October 28, coinciding with the first day of the APU Tenku festival. Enjoying being reunited again, the 40 participating alumni, faculty and current APU students all had a wonderful time.

As a member of the executive committee during her time at APU, Ms. KADOWAKI launched the 'Dream Support Project' (Yumepuro for short), a project that is still one of the executive committee's main projects. Yumepuro is a job hunting support project aimed at giving second and third year students the opportunity to talk to fourth year students and alumni already out in the workforce about their various job hunting and employment experiences, helping eliminate any worries and concerns they might have about job hunting and working after graduation.

One of the main objectives of the APU Student & Alumni Association is to create awareness and increase participation in association events by current students and alumni, in particularly the international student body. When thinking about ways to achieve this, we came across the problem of differing perceptions that people have of alumni associations in Japan and abroad.

In order to build an alumni association that meets the ideals of the majority of the APU students, it is first necessary to spread the word about the association and make it better known. However, because APU is such an international university, there are cases where contact is lost with students who return to their home countries or who go abroad to work. What things are important to the future of the APU Student & Alumni Association?

GOTO:	I became a member of the executive committee because I thought it would give me the opportunity to expand the number of contacts I have within the APU community. In reality, I was able to not only strengthen ties with graduates and students in years above me but also with students in the same year as me, relationships that could only have been formed because of the student alumni association connection. The association shouldn't just be for graduates. If we make an association that allows participation by students still at APU, then even after we graduate it will be a 'student and alumni' association, meaning that graduate members can participate in the same way as they did while they were still students. For this to happen we must continue to pro-actively spread the word about the APU Student & Alumni Association.
KADOWAKI:	It is also important to have a 'system' that allows members to participate of their own accord after they have graduated and left APU. For example using the website as an avenue for exchange.
GOTO:	A lot of people agree that the web is our most important tool if we want to communicate with those APU alumni who are based outside of Japan. The website has recently been redesigned so that more students and alumni have access. Our aim is for a fun but informative website that includes, among other things, ongoing postings of essays by current students and alumni.
KADOWAKI:	If we can use the website as a posting board to send information, then it will become possible to organize social events for members who are in Tokyo, other parts of Japan, and abroad.
David:	There are a large number of APU students studying on exchange in the United Kingdom, and apparently an APU Association has been set up over there. If students who were about to go on exchange could get in contact with other APU students and alumni in the country they were going to, then they could learn more about the country, which would no doubt make their preparations a lot easier and lessen some of the worries they have. More importantly they would have someone to meet up with when they got there. The various pipelines and website will no doubt play an important role in maintaining the networks already set up in these different locations.
GOTO:	It can be said that APU is Japan's first truly international university. With an increasing number of graduates, the key will lie in how to strengthen APU's basic networks. If we work together to expand these networks then in ten and twenty years time there will be active APU Student & Alumni Association networks all over the world. That would be amazing! It's exciting just thinking about it.
KADOWAKI:	I found that APU provides its students with the kind of environment that transcends race and religion. We learn to understand each other as people and this is something that might one day lead to the solving of real problems facing the companies we go to work for and the places in which we choose to live. Some of these experiences will be able to be shared because of the association. I hope everyone will share their ideas with us and help in improving the APU Student & Alumni Association.