{"id":41610,"date":"2016-05-24T08:47:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T23:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/?p=41610"},"modified":"2016-06-16T18:39:24","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T09:39:24","slug":"alumni-voices-make-decisions-about-how-to-steer-your-own-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/news\/41610","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Voices: \u201cMake decisions about how to steer your own life\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with alumnus Junya Ikenaga<\/b><\/h3>\n
What I learned from being a Resident Assistant<\/h6>\n

\"ikenaga_career2016_2\"<\/p>\n

My future goal was to work abroad, so I took advance of Waseda’s international curriculum by studying English and volunteering abroad through WAVOC, but what influenced me the most was my four years at the Tanashi dormitory\u203b<\/sup>. Approximately 30% of the students living there were international students, and I was surprised by how fluently they spoke Japanese and English along with their mother tongue and how clear their future visions were. Seeing them, I felt a sense of urgency, and this motivated me to make assiduous efforts towards academics and extracurricular activities, which led me to a fruitful student life.<\/p>\n

To share what I learned from living in the dormitory with underclassmen, I decided to become a Resident Assistant (RA)<\/a>. As an RA, I always remembered to be a role model for everyone. Also, I took initiative to communicate with international students and made sure to include them in my group of friends. I had opportunities to speak in front of others, naturally training me to have leadership.<\/p>\n

I chose to work for a shipping company not only because I wanted to work internationally, but I also enjoyed marine sports and felt the ocean close at heart. To be honest, other trading and international companies had offered me a position, but I had difficulties making a decision. When I reflected upon my career objectives, I realized I was attracted to those other industries only because they sounded exciting. When I asked myself about what I really wanted in life, my honest answer was to work at sea. I felt relieved and everything fell into place afterwards.<\/p>\n

Currently as navigator, I must give orders without hesitation to veteran crew members who have worked in this field long before I was born. I believe the leadership and communication skills I have honed as an RA are a big help. Make decisions about how to steer your own life. This is what my superior said to me on my first day of work. I would like to dedicate these words to the newly admitted Waseda students.<\/p>\n

\u203bUntil 2013, the Tanashi Dormitory acted as an international student residence. When Waseda International Student House (WISH) was completed, the Tanashi Dormitory changed its name to Tanashi Konpeki <\/i>Dormitory, now housing student athletes.<\/p>\n

Considering the feelings of others at an international dormitory<\/h5>\n

There were times at the dormitory where I had to intervene and mediate troubles occurring between students due to cultural differences. I listened to both sides and carefully examined the core of the problem behind what was happening on the surface level. Simultaneously, I questioned myself whether I was unconsciously making judgements based on my bias as a Japanese national. This experience trained me to put myself in someone else\u2019s shoe.<\/p>\n

\"ikenaga_career2016\"<\/p>\n

A role leading people of different religious and cultural backgrounds<\/h5>\n

As a navigator who works in a multinational environment present day, I stay extremely aware of having understanding for others. For example, when people celebrate Christmas on board, what Christmas means changes depending on your religious affiliation. I believe it is important to stay open minded and embrace differences in culture and values.<\/p>\n

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Junya Ikenaga
\nMitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.
\nSchool of Political Science and Economics, Class of 2012<\/p>\n

Pick Up<\/strong> Resident Assistants (RAs)<\/a> are student leaders who support student life of those living in dormitories. You will have an experience to gain a global perspective as you face students who come from various backgrounds with different values from Japan and around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Interview with alumnus Junya Ikenaga What I learned from being a Resident Assistant My future goal was to work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":41406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,117],"tags":[45,342],"class_list":["post-41610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-topic","tag-alumni-en","tag-voice-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}