Saint Paul Intercultural Institute

THEY'RE COMING BACK!!!

In March, 2020, our winter group of students left just as the pandemic began. And now they are more than ready to return and will be arriving in 4 months!

MORE THAN EVER, we need your help! We have a record-breaking number of winter students coming – 68. We are taking a leap of faith to find welcoming folks like you to make this life-changing experience possible for these students.

If you’ve only hosted previously in the summer, our winter program is basically identical in format. The only difference is that some of the outdoor activities are different. The canoe trip takes much longer. 😉

Here’s the scoop:
 Dates: February 18 to March 13
 Transportation Help Provided
 Stipend Provided
 Bethel 8:30 to 4:30 M-F

One of us will be contacting you directly in a few days, but if you want to jump right in now and be sure to get a student, shoot us an e-mail and we’ll reserve him/her for you!

Thank you!

Mark & Sharon ~ [email protected]

Missing this...😢

Where’s Walter?

We had the privilege of having former Vice President and Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale, pictured below, speak to our Japanese students a few years ago. He gave a fascinating presentation about his life and about Japanese-American relations. He patiently posed for photos afterwards and chatted with students.

“I’m missing out on the best years of my life!” That is the feeling expressed by students in Japan, just like in the U.S. Covid has put normal life on hold, and for students that includes international study abroad. We have just learned that this coming summer will also mean no Japanese or Chinese students coming to Minnesota. 😕 Hopefully things will be back to normal in 2022!

In the meantime, a former host family just recently shared with us their photos from way back in 1998. This was the first year that we (Sharon & Mark) were in charge of the program. Hopefully these will bring back some memories for you “old timers”. And you winter hosts with a sharp eye will catch a glimpse of a young Kazu, who was the TA for Rikkyo University. All of you will get a kick out of how much clothes and hair styles have changed, both for the students and the hosts! 😊

Sadly, we have learned that all four summer Japanese/Chinese universities have cancelled all study abroad programs, so we will not be having the chance to welcome students to Minnesota this summer. We are so sorry about this, as we know many of you were already looking forward to it, as were we.

On a positive note, we finished our winter program in the nick of time, with the students leaving on one of the last Japan flights out of Minneapolis.

We look forward to hopefully welcoming students again next year February 19 to March 15, 2021!!! :-)

We finished our winter program today and sadly said goodbye to 44 students from the University of Niigata Prefecture and Kwansei Gakuin University. What an amazing group of students and an amazing group of hosts!

December 2019: Yearly reunion of 2008 Rikkyo students, which this year included another case of "Minnesota Magic"! Satomi & Kenta got married recently. Kenta was not able to attend due to his job as a journalist. He was away for work in Okinawa.

Canoe Trip yesterday with 69 students and 34 volunteers on the St Croix River. The students are from Rikkyo University, Kumamoto Gakuen University, Chongqing University of Science and Technology and, for the first time, students from Yamanashi-Eiwa College.

Rie Kaneko came back for a visit. She participated in the program 14 years ago in 2005, and spoke about how the experience changed her life and gave her confidence to pursue a career where she uses English for her work every day. Sooooo great to see her again!! 😄