2018 Trip to Japan from the Bronx

I teach in the Bronx and I would like your help.  My name is Emi Yamasaki, and I was born in a small rural village in Japan.  When I was a child, I could not imagine a life outside other than being a farmer in my village.  At 16, my teachers took me to visit the United States for two weeks -- and that experience gave me the ability to envision a life different than my own.  Many of my Bronx students have the identical experience in reverse-- they can’t imagine life outside of the borough they’ve spent their entire lives in, many not going far beyond their immediate neighborhoods.

At Bronx Collaborative we started a rarity-- a three-year Japanese program in the Bronx.  Talented, smart, and hard working students studying Japanese now have a travel opportunity abroad, but which we can’t fully afford.  Don’t they deserve the same chance to broaden their horizons and develop new dreams beyond their current imaginations through experiencing a ten-day foreign study-stay in Japan first hand?  

During the trip, students will immerse themselves in Japanese life, especially through a homestay with a Japanese farming family and attending school.  Many of the students who have never left the urban space of the Bronx will enjoy farming for the first time in their life, living with a family, attending school, and, together with their Japanese peers, seeing many of the most important cultural sites in Japan.

This will allow the students, who have been studying Japanese language and culture at home, to bring their studies to life by creating a self-designed research project mixing observing Japanese culture more carefully and interact with Japanese people more actively -- and result in a product they can share with their many classmates who cannot join the trip.

Unfortunately, the cost of this international trip is far beyond the budgets of my students and most public schools.  Over 82% of Bronx Collaborative students qualify for free or reduced price lunches (live below the poverty line), making it a Title 1 school and Bronx, New York contains some of the poorest congressional districts in the United States. Although my school has a focus on experiential learning and uses its Title 1 funds on many valuable grade-wide trips, the expense and range of this trip for select classes means that the school can not completely fund it without your help.

The school has worked hard to keep down costs.  Examples include homestays where we save the cost of a hotel and staying at another school’s dormitory.  However, Japan is an expensive country to visit, and the cost per student is approximately $3,500.  Unavoidable costs such as airfare (approximately $2,000) or the cost of meals not eaten with host families are currently making this trip out of reach for my students.  Since we are bringing 15 students and 3 chaperones, the total cost for the trip will be around: $ 45,000.

Although the school is subsidizing and students are working hard at fundraising it is not realistic to raise this large amount of money all on their own.  The students very much appreciate any help you can give them to fulfill their short term dream -- to immerse themselves in Japanese culture -- and help them develop new dreams beyond their imaginations!  Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu (Thank you very much)!!!!!