Edmonds Community College director receives Fulbright Award to visit Japan

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Edmonds Community College’s Amanda Fletcher

An Edmonds Community College director has secured a prestigious Fulbright Award, allowing her to travel to Japan and learn more about the country’s culture and education system.

As part of the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program, sponsored by the Japan-U.S. Educational Commission (JUSEC) and both the U.S. and Japanese governments, Amanda Fletcher will spend an intensive two weeks on the island nation.

Fletcher is associate director of the Northwest Community College Initiative (NWCCI) at Edmonds Community College, where she manages grants from the U.S. Department of State for three partner colleges: Edmonds CC, Whatcom Community College, and Pierce College. She created and oversees a year-long orientation program that introduces students to U.S. culture and lets them share information about their own cultures while also attending school and getting professional training.

Edmonds Community College recently received an award of $1.87 million from the U.S. Department of State to administer the Community College Initiative program to provide professional training and degrees to students from South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Near East. The 2013-14 academic year is the fifth year of the NWCCI program.

In Japan, Fletcher will visit schools, participate in cultural activities, and meet with government officials and Japanese international education professionals.

“I’m excited about learning about what motivates Japanese students to study in other countries, which skills Japanese employers look for when hiring recent graduates, and how Japanese history and culture relate to working with Japanese students,” said Fletcher, who is originally from North Carolina, where she received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Meredith College in Raleigh. She earned a master’s degree in International Education from the SIT Graduate Institute (formerly the School for International Training) in Brattleboro, VT.

“Learning about Japan’s academic system will help me develop new perspectives on how to best serve international students here at Edmonds Community College.”

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