Two UNC Greensboro students have been invited to participate in the Japanese government’s KAKEHASHI Project, a prestigious exchange program intended to promote friendship and mutual understanding between the people of Japan, the U.S., and Canada.
Chloé Neunsinger and Samantha Sherwood were selected based on their superior performances in the Greensboro Japanese Speech Contest, which is organized each spring by Dr. Yosei Sugawara, a UNCG professor of Japanese and Asian Studies.
As participants, both students will receive an all-expense-paid, 10-day guided tour of Japan over the 2021 winter break. They have already participated in the project’s virtual exchange program over summer 2021.
Read more about each of these students:
Chloé Neunsinger
Chloé Neunsinger won first place in the advanced level for her Japanese language presentation in the fifth Greensboro Japanese Speech Contest. View her entry here. Neunsinger is a senior majoring in speech pathology who discovered her love of the field while studying abroad in Fukuoka, Japan in 2019.
In addition to her studies at UNCG, she works as a dance teacher at Artistic Motion School of Arts in Greensboro, and is the founder of the nonprofit, “The Dance Lab Co.,” teaching dance to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Samantha Sherwood
Samantha Sherwood won first place in the intermediate level for her Japanese language presentation in the fifth Greensboro Japanese Speech Contest. View her entry here. Sherwood is a junior majoring in International and Global Studies with an Asian Studies concentration and a minor in creative writing.
She plans to continue studying Japanese language and culture in graduate school and hopes to work as a translator in the future. Since transferring to UNCG, Sherwood said, “UNCG has provided me with so many opportunities that I hadn’t even considered a year ago, and I’m excited to see where the next two years lead!”
Story by Elizabeth Keri, College of Arts & Sciences
Photography by Martin W. Kane
Headshots provided
