CEHD International Student Community (CISC) President credits microgrant with understanding world’s education systems

Satomi Mitani is a fifth-year PhD student in the comparative and international development education program in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD).

Her research revolves around the internationalization of higher education, international student studies, and study abroad. She hopes one day to get a position, either in the U.S. or in her home country of Japan, as a faculty member or other professional in higher education.

In addition to her PhD studies, she is one of the founding members and former president of the CEHD International Student Community (CISC). During the pandemic, while serving as president of the University-wide Council of International Graduate Students (CIGS), she recognized that each college had distinct needs and that a college-level group was necessary. “It’s great to have some spaces to connect and learn from each other,” she says.

Now in its fourth year, CISC hosts several events for students throughout the year. One of its greatest achievements, Mitani says, is the Colloquium on the World’s Education System Series, a place where students can present and talk about their home country’s education system. “We are often featured when talking about our culture or country, but we also have our own academic disciplines and expertise,” she says. “For the colloquium, the focus is not on our ‘culture,’ but on ‘education.’”
Aiding Mitani with her studies and with CISC were the John and Grace Cogan Graduate Research Fellowship Award, an OLPD Education Iconics Fellowship, and a Diversity Advisory Council Microgrant. “Having the fellowships helped me develop my research far much better than I originally thought,” she says.

The microgrant assisted with the launch of the colloquium. “It helped us increase the visibility of international students and gave us a feeling that we’re supported, that the college is caring for us,” Mitani says. “It’s meaningful for me personally and for international students as a whole.”

Mitani says this support makes her feel like she is part of a flow connecting the past to the future. “That means I’m doing research using past people’s work and being supported by past students who have been successful,” she explains. “And that support makes me feel I have a responsibility to pay it forward to future students and through my scholarly work.”