My adventure to Imari, Japan with my friends. — Chloe Sullivan

My journey to Nagasaki, Japan began in Brookdale’s international office. I had to walk past it every Tuesday for my first semester at Brookdale. The fliers always intrigued me, yet made me sad because I knew that I could never afford to study abroad.
But one day, I arrived on campus early and was bored, so I decided to entertain myself by stopping in the office to ask about their Japanese study abroad program, which I found out that they didn’t have at the time.
The woman told me to not give up. She scheduled an appointment for me to meet with Dr. Janice Thomas, the director of the international office. She was very kind and explained that even though Brookdale didn’t have what I was looking for, I could find an outside program that she would work with to get me there. She even offered some suggestions.
I did my research, and I found the one. USAC’s Nagasaki, Japan program. It was everything that I wanted. Not in a big city, close to nature, and the classes sounded phenomenal. But I still had my original problem. How could I afford this? I totaled up the costs and cried. After calculating every possible thing that could be predicted for one semester abroad in Japan, my high estimate would be just over $20,000 and my low estimate was about $18,000.
But Dr. Thomas helped me through every step of the way. She gave me a list of scholarships that were relevant to a semester abroad in Japan. And most importantly, she informed me of my odds at my chances of winning anything. For once, my burdens were what was in my favor. Female. Community college student. Low-income family. First-generation college student. Member of the LGBTQ+ community. Those are the kinds of people who win the scholarship money.
And there were more factors that worked in my favor. Japanese counts for the Gilman Critical Needs Language scholarship. Dr. Thomas informed me that I could use my Brookdale financial aid if I had enough aligning credits. And even USAC provided scholarships for those in their programs.
I ended up receiving $4,000 from the Gilman scholarships. I was lucky to win $5,000 from the highly competitive Fund for Education Abroad scholarship. I won two scholarships from USAC, which totaled to $2,500. And I received $2,124 from Brookdale in financial aid. So after totaling everything up, I had $13,624. And all it cost me were a few scholarship essays and the time I spent writing them.
I’d first walked into the international office in December of 2021, and planned for my time abroad to be the spring semester of this year. In addition to being a full-time student, I got a full-time night job and spent the whole time waiting by saving money. So by the time I was on the plane, heading to Japan, I had a little over $25,000 set aside for my studies and adventures. More than enough than what I estimated I would’ve needed.
I loved my university and every class that I took. Mondays I had intro to Japanese society and peace studies. On Tuesdays I sat in an English class as a teaching assistant, then I had Japanese Ⅰ, and traditional Japanese arts. Wednesdays were busy. I had jōdō practice, Japanese Ⅰ, Japanese modern history, and kanji Ⅰ. Thursdays occupied me with Japanese culture and international relations. And Fridays I just had one class, which was teaching foreign languages.
For the first time in my life, I got to live. I made so many amazing friends in Japan who are now my friends for life. I met someone who I never expected in a thousand years to love. I sang so much karaoke. I learned so much about a beautiful and unique culture and its history. I traveled everywhere that I could. I ate every new food that I could. I hiked up a famous mountain for my birthday. I gained experience in teaching English. I learned how to fight with a sword and a stick. I discovered myself there. I did everything that I wanted. It was all I ever wanted.
I truly never thought it was possible to be happy. I didn’t know what happiness was until I lived and studied in Nagasaki, Japan. And I didn’t think that something like that was even possible for someone like me who came from my kind of background. I had no idea that there were such possible scholarships out there that were so achievable. And I wouldn’t have ever known if I hadn’t been bored one day and walked into the International Education Center.