Pictured, from left, Jennifer Lorenzo, ASU music student; Yuka Terayama, Gunma University student; Miki Kobayashi, Gunma University student; Gunma University Professor Chiho Sugo, Adams State President Cheryl D. Lovell, ASU Music Department Chair Beth Robison, Ph.D.; James Doyle, Ph.D. associate professor of music; Tracy Doyle, Ph.D. professor of music; and Chelsea Todd, ASU music student.
Students from Japan and Adams State will now have additional opportunities to learn from each other, as Adams State President Cheryl D. Lovell signed a Memorandum of Understanding between Adams State and Gunma University, Maebashi-City in Gunma Prefecture, on February 18.
The agreement will formalize a relationship between the two universities, with the intention of leading to more substantial exchanges between students and faculty. Gunma University Professor Chiho Sugo, along with two Japanese students, and ASU music faculty and students witnessed the MOU signing ceremony.
“I am so pleased we have started this relationship,” President Lovell said.
Tracy Doyle, Ph.D. professor of music, and James Doyle, Ph.D. associate professor of music, began the international relationship several years ago. “On Dr. Tracy Doyle and Dr. James Doyle’s third visit to the Gunma campus, in December, the agreement was settled for Gunma students to come visit Adams State,” Sugo said. “I am excited the MOU will enhance the future exchange of students.”
Students from Gunma University have expressed a strong interest in an exchange program, and the agreement will allow Gunma faculty to apply for funding to visit Adams State. “We have been doing so informally for the past few years, but a formalized agreement will potentially lead to semester-long exchanges for students,” said James Doyle.
In the fall of 2019, Sugo and Gunma University sculpture professor Koshi Hayashi will spend two weeks on the Adams State campus as part of the Artist In Residency program.
Doyle hopes to lead a two- to three-week trip in the summer of 2020 for students to study Japanese language, culture, and education at Gunma University as a general education transfer. “Gunma University has a great faculty and warm, inquisitive students. The feeling at Gunma is very similar to Adams State and I look forward to our students experiencing Japanese culture and education,” he said.
