ASP Spring Semester 2012 Graduation Ceremony
May 26, 2012 (Sat.)
On the 26th of May the Graduation Ceremony for the 2012 spring semester was held in Kansai Gaidai’s Tanimoto Memorial Hall.
The graduating students, many of them dressed in Japanese or Western formal wear for the occasion, received their certificates from President Tanimoto and were greeted and congratulated by their Japanese friends and host families.
Equally impressive were the speeches, in Japanese, by some of the international students, whose stories and experiences from Kansai Gaidai moved the audience to laughter and tears.
The graduation ceremony featured prominent guest speakers such as, the Ambassador for the Kansai region Mr. Yuichi Kusumoto, the American Consul Mr. Gregory Kay and the Australian Consul Ms. Anita Hancock (the latter a Kansai Gaidai alumni) who inspired the students and explained the value of international exchange studies.
The festivities continued with a grand graduation party. Surrounded by Japanese delicacies the students had an opportunity to say their goodbyes to former class mates and teachers, and enjoy the Taiko drums and dance exhibitions that both exchange students and Japanese students participated in.
The campus was soon covered with the flashes and clicking of cameras as the students used this opportunity to take commemorative photos together with class mates, friends and host families.
All in all, the ceremony was a very popular and successful end to an equally successful semester.