SU, ICU renews partnership for service-learning exchange program

Silliman University (SU) and International Christian University (ICU) of Tokyo, Japan held a virtual signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that renewed the SU-ICU Exchange Program for service-learning, May 23, 2022 via Zoom.

The SU-ICU Exchange Program is a four-week service-learning exchange program between SU and ICU which integrates the Japan Summer Service- Learning Program of ICU, held between July and August every year.

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we sustained the ICU Service-Learning Program when we conducted the first fully online international Service-Learning in July of 2021.We are glad that for this year, we are formally continuing the Silliman University-International Christian University Exchange Program,” said Dr. Earl Jude Paul L. Cleope, SU vice president for academic affairs.

Dr. Betty Cernol McCann, SU president, said the program will strengthen and enhance the teaching and learning in both SU and ICU as students from both universities develop a “better understanding of the realities that they see” and “immerse into engaging in the life of the community” through the service-learning program.

Dr. Robert Eskildsen, ICU vice president for academic affairs, emphasized the importance of the exchange program for service-learning based on the feedback of students who have undergone the program.

“It really has a way of changing their lives, opening them up to new discoveries and new ways of looking at the world,” said Eskildsen.

Dr. Shoichiro Iwakiri, ICU president, said service is “deeply rooted in Christianity” and that there is a responsibility to “serve the common good in order to be with peace in the individual mind and life, as well as in the society.”

“I hope that our partnership with the service-learning program will provide, as it has provided, students of both universities with occasions that help them to be conscious of the meaning of their actions and thoughts based on their personal and mutual experiences. I hope that young people, with experience and learning of reciprocity in the international context, will build together a better world,” said Iwakiri.

Long-standing partnership

McCann said the MOA signing for the continuation of the SU-ICU Exchange Program is also a way to strengthen the relationship between SU and ICU.

“It’s time for (SU and ICU) to review our ties and for us to really do more so that we will be able to truly engage in activities that will also bring about a more enhanced instruction, teaching and research and extension in both universities,” said McCann.

Cleope said the SU-ICU Exchange Program was established in 2003, and SU hosted the first batch of ICU students for a service-learning program in June 2007.

SU and ICU are also partners in advancing service-learning in Asia as members of the Service-Learning Asia Network.

Prior to the exchange program for service-learning, Iwakiri mentioned that SU and ICU have been partners since 1976 for the Student Exchange Program.

Also present during the virtual MOA signing were Asst. Prof. Jane Annette L. Belarmino, SU vice president for development, enterprises, and external affairs; Deborah Mae C. Salem, SU Office of Community Engagement and Service-Learning (OCESL) focal person; Dimple Montes, OCESL social worker; Novee Maestrecampo Jr., OCESL assistant to the director; Prof. Mark Williams, ICU vice president for international academic exchange; Prof. Mikiko Nishimura, ICU Service-Learning Center director; and Yokote Hitomi, ICU Service-Learning Center staff.