In recognition of the one-year anniversary of the March 11, 2011 Great Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and resulting nuclear disaster, on March 9-10, 2012 Oberlin Shansi and Oberlin College will present a multi-disciplinary symposium focusing on the global impact of the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan. Learn more.

With the approach and recent arrival of a new year, many of us have probably been reflecting on some of life's essential, and most basic, questions. What are my hopes and dreams? How can I better myself this year? Will the Tarheels win the NCAA championship, and if yes, will Harrison Barnes stay another year? And most importantly, what is happiness?

Recently, there have been reports of radiation detected in Japanese baby formula, another sign that the effects of the March 11 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster are far from over. Arisa Williams (OC '06) has started collecting donations to help Japanese parents feed their children with safe foods. Her project is called "Safe Food to Japan."

To donate and learn more about this project, visit Arisa's website: http://sfjapan.wordpress.com/

As it has done for more than 100 years, Oberlin Shansi recently appointed 8 to its core program that sends Oberlin graduates to partner institutions in Asia on two-year fellowships. Selected for China were Ricardo Barrios, Veronica Colegrave and Amelea Kim. Naila Paul and Christina James will be heading to India. Cory Rogers and Santino Merino will spend two years in Indonesia while Lissette Lorenz will be in Japan.

The two-year fellowship program, open only to Oberlin graduates, is just one of the programs that Shansi sponsors. Oberlin Shansi also provides for five in-Asia Oberlin undergraduate grants a year, funding for Oberlin campus programs, as well as, a faculty exchange program that sends OC faculty to Asia and brings Asian scholars to Oberlin.

Come and hear about Joseph Monticello's summer trip to Japan, sponsored by a Shansi In-Asia Study Grant.

Joseph spent this past summer in Japan studying traditional Japanese shamisen and shinobue. While immersing himself in music, his experience couldn't help but also be affected by the recent events of 3/11.

Oberlin College students:

During spring class registration (starting Nov. 7, 2011), sign up for the first module mini course EAST 158 - Fukushima: Lessons Learned (1 HU, CD). The class will lead up to the spring symposium "Fukushima: Lessons Learned?" that will coincide with the one year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, tsunami, and Great Tohoku earthquake.

This course also counts toward the ENVS major!

Shansi fellows both new and old have eased into their respective fellowships and resumed--or found new--rhythms. At this point, it would seem that we could say the dust has settled.. but does it ever really? Here's a brief anecdote about settling into life in Indonesia from Sara Kadi. For more stories on daily hilarities, check out the fellow blogs--both old and new!

Interested in studying muay thai kickboxing in Thailand? Or volunteering with an environmental nonprofit trying to mitigate climate change in Tajikistan? Or maybe you're graduating from Oberlin College and want to immerse yourself in another culture by learning and living in Asia.

Come to one of Oberlin Shansi's Fellowship and In-Asia Study Grant Information Sessions! All three dates are listed below:

Tuesday, September 13 at 4:30pm in Wilder 112
with snacks!

Wednesday, September 21 at 2:30pm in Wilder 115
with snacks!

Saturday, October 1 at noon in Wilder 115
with bagels!

The start of summer not only tolls for beach-side drinks with tiny umbrellas, travel in foreign lands, and freedom, it also marks the completion of another round of Shansi Fellows and the start of a new group’s new journeys. One of Shansi’s requirements for Fellows is the submission of an Annual Narrative.

Second Year Narrative
By James Barnard (Taigu, China 2009-11)

If you had asked me a year ago to imagine what I would be doing at the end of my fellowship, I would have guessed that I would be teaching English, studying Chinese, spending time with my friends and looking for a job. I would not have guessed that I would be honored at a fancy dress ball, awake from a gunshot wound in a strange place, be committed to a hospital for a tropical disease, be abandoned in the mountains in the middle of an epidemic, involved in a gunfight, captured by Communist agents, find myself fighting off murderous assailants, or forced onto a raft at gunpoint in the middle of the night! But its all in a days work for an Oberlin-Shansi fellow, because in my last semester at Taigu I found myself working as a Chinese-speaking actor!

Jenna Lindeke is wrapping up her final year as a Shansi fellow in Himachal Pradesh, India. This story is about the support she and her local community put together for a middle school in Japan in the form of 1000 gorgeous paper cranes. Read about Jenna's wonderful efforts--literally joining worlds--and the compassion of one community for another.