31/03/2023
A Filipino alumni gathering was organized on 15 March 2023 in University of the Philippines Diliman for the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic. It was hosted by Prof. Crispin Diaz of UP (D.E. in 1998) and Prof. Hironori Kato of UTokyo (B.E. in 1993) that had met in the same building a few decades ago.
Six Filipino alumni, eight Japanese alumni, and 19 Japanese undergraduate students joined the event.
For a preliminary event, some of the undergraduate students delivered presentations about their studies in a project-based course. They summarized unique features and lessons of Japanese infrastructure-related policies that are potentially useful to other countries and had insightful comments and questions from the alumni.
The alumni event started from a video message of Prof. Kimiro Meguro, the president of our alumni group, and a message from Ms. Ayuko Akaike, the secretary general. Prof. Kato and Prof. Diaz then shared the recent news and trends in each country, especially the situation of our international student program and graduate program admission.
A dinner party was arranged in a patio with unique and cozy atmosphere. All the participants, particularly Filipino alumni and Japanese students, had livery conversations and deepened our alumni relations.
We do hope this kind of event would regularly take place, and each alumnus and the alumni network grow together.
Posted by Shunsaku Komatsuzaki (B.E. in 2003)
