Cold Days, Warm Smiles: Visiting Students from Kurashiki City College

Back on one of Kansas City’s harshest winter days this year, 9 students from Kurashiki City, Japan arrived at Kansas City International to participate in our Early Childhood Institute program in collaboration with the UMKC School of Education, Social Work and Psychological Sciences. 

This program was an opportunity to expose young students to global issues related to early childhood education. Our visiting students got to experience classroom learning opportunities and interactions with early education faculty. As well as, students got the chance to interact with and participate in hands-on observation with children at the Berkley Child and Family Development Center. 

Due to the harsh low temperatures and winter storm, this program was forced to move online for the first two days, due to campus being closed. On Thursday morning, February 20th, the students finally made it to Volker campus in below freezing temperatures. 

They were warmly welcomed into the Education Building by Dr. Gina Paese, who arranged the entire curriculum for this program. The students spent the next four days studying learning through play, application of early childhood constructivist theories, and creating engaging educational environments. The program was delivered entirely in English with translation assistance from the group’s chaperone.

On Saturday, our Student Support Specialist and Director ventured out with the group into the city for some fun. They visited the Kansas City Museum, Union Station, and had dinner at Jack Stack Barbecue. They may have only been here a short time and during the worst of our winter weather, but we made sure they would get the chance to see and learn about Kansas City.

The program concluded the following Tuesday, with the Applied Language Institute hosting a closing ceremony for the participants. We had pizza and a berry chantilly cake, which was a hit with this group. Following lunch, we did a fun “guess-the-character” activity and handed out certificates confirming their participation for each student.

The students were also gifted a UMKC beanie, a way to commemorate their extremely cold visit to the Midwest. The gifts were received with squeals and everyone immediately rushed to put it on their heads. It was lovely afternoon filled with laughter and smiles, despite the many changes that occurred to their highly anticipated program.

We look forward to welcoming back students from Kurashiki City College in the future. They were a delight to host.