Holding the Keio SFC Summer Immersion Program | Yo Nonaka, Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance
The "Keio SFC Summer Immersion Program (SIP)" was held from June 30 to July 7, 2025, where international students spent a week at SFC to experience campus life. This year, 10 undergraduate students from universities in Indonesia participated.
Of course, SFC faculty members and laboratories have individually built networks with domestic and international educational institutions in the past, but this is the first time that inviting short-term international students has been undertaken as a campus-wide initiative. While Keio as a whole holds short-term international student programs at the Mita Campus, this implementation at SFC came from the expectation that a short-term program would be particularly meaningful at SFC, which has extensive language education and residential facilities.
In particular, language education is one of the major pillars of SFC, and each language laboratory provides various learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. Since we invited Indonesian students this time, the program was implemented with the Malay-Indonesian Language Laboratory acting as the host. As the person in charge of the Malay-Indonesian Language Laboratory, I was involved in the planning and operation of this program along with other faculty members and SAs.
During the one-week period, the 10 participants attended Malay-Indonesian language classes several times and interacted with the students enrolled in them. In the beginner class (Intensive 1), SFC students conducted campus tours in small groups while attending to the Indonesian students. On the night of July 2, nearly 100 people, including SIP participants, Malay-Indonesian language students, and Indonesian students from GIGA, gathered at the β Dome for Indonesian Night. After eating Indonesian food together, the SIP Indonesian students dressed in traditional costumes from various parts of Indonesia and performed traditional dances and games.
With the aim of experiencing the learning characteristic of SFC, SIP participants joined the seminars of Professor Vu Le Thao Chi and Professor Satoko Oki. In Professor Chi's seminar, they experienced discussions on risk management, and in Professor Oki's seminar, they participated in a workshop related to disaster prevention.
In addition, each student worked on mini-research that could be conducted during their one-week stay at SFC. Each student set a topic in advance, conducted interviews with students at SFC to collect data, and gave a presentation on the final day. On the weekend, they also participated in the Tanabata Festival, helping to attract customers around the booth serving Indonesian food set up by the Malay-Indonesian Language Laboratory, and watching fireworks together on Saturday night, fully enjoying student life at SFC.
During the one-week program, the 10 SIP participants stayed at β Village Dormitory 2. Malay-Indonesian language SAs also took turns staying overnight, experiencing communal living by eating and sleeping together, which seems to have become a very good memory for both parties.
Although it was the first short-term international student program implemented at SFC and we were feeling our way through many things, I feel that the harvest was very significant. First, I would like to mention the high level of satisfaction among the participating Indonesian students. In the survey conducted after the program, all 10 participants answered that they were "very satisfied" with the program. In the free-response section, there were heartening comments such as, "The SAs and professors were very supportive and I was able to enjoy myself from the bottom of my heart. The environment at SFC was wonderful," and "I want to recommend it to my friends, so I hope it becomes a program held every year," making me feel certain that it will be good publicity for SFC.
For the students taking Malay-Indonesian language classes, having the opportunity to widely interact and talk with Indonesians of the same generation was a valuable experience. It was a good opportunity to learn to what extent they can (or cannot) converse with native speakers in the language they are studying, and at the same time, I believe that having the chance to directly touch Indonesian culture and values through Indonesian Night and other exchange activities was a meaningful time that could not be gained elsewhere.
Furthermore, in this program, Japanese students learning Indonesian and Indonesian GIGA students collaborated as SAs to create and liven up the program, support the participants, and play the role of conveying the learning at SFC. I feel that this was a program that could only be realized because SFC is a place where both Japanese and international students learn together.
The program fully utilized SFC's human and facility resources, such as the stay at β Village, holding events, participating in seminars and language classes, and support by SAs from the language laboratory where Japanese students and GIGA students collaborated. Various points for reflection and challenges have also become apparent, but while exploring improvements, I would like to consider implementing it again from next year onwards.