Thursday, I had the great honor of speaking at the American Center – Japan. It is always so exciting to speak at the American Center when I speak in another country. I spoke last year at the American Center in Jakarta. We met first with Mayumison and Richard. Then, I was interviewed by the reporter
The first thing I found out when I met Fujiwara from the US Consulate was that yesterday’s presentation was picked up by Chunichi Shimbun. This is the most influential media outlet in Nagoya, and they published an article about our presentation. The Consulate and I were so excited! Today, I went to Nanzan University, a
Today was such an exciting day, as it was my first program in Nagoya, Japan! I spoke at the International Center, at an event arranged by the US Consulate and Aichi Disability Forum. My presentation was “The Economic Benefits of Meaningful Employment for People with Disabilities.” I was introduced by the Principal Officer from the
This was my last day of work in Okinawa with Richard and Makiko; it is always sad to see it end. I love the people with disabilities I have met during my time in Okinawa! The people are warm and seeking hope! That brings me to the program today and how personal it was to
We had an exciting visit today to the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). OIST is an Interdisciplinary Graduate School with a Post Graduate five-year PhD Program in Science. The university recruit students and faculty worldwide and the language used at the university is English. OIST is so impressive and it is
We met Richard and Makiko in the morning, and traveled to meet Yutaka Takamine, the president of Empowerment Okinawa, and eight other members from various organizations related to social welfare and disability. Yukata and a few others were people with disabilities in leadership in these organizations. During out meeting, much of the conversation was about
This was a great day! I especially loved it because I spent time with high school students with disabilities, and everyone knows how I love young people with disabilities! I met Richard and Makiko early in the morning. We went to our first meeting of the day to Associa Social University. We were greeted by
Today is my first full day in Okinawa to begin our program with the US Embassy on the Economic Benefits of Employing People with Disabilities in Japan. We are beginning our trip in Naha, the capitol of Okinawa. We were greeted in the morning by Richard Roberts and Makiko Tasato from the Embassy. I first
When Robert James, Supplier Diversity Manager from Highmark, called and told me Bender Consulting was selected by Highmark as a Protégé in Governor Wolf’s newly launched Mentor Protégé program, I was thrilled. What a great honor to be selected as Protégé by the company that helped me found Bender Consulting Services. Launched by Governor Wolf,
On day six, we met Karen, the Cultural Attache, and Caroline in the morning in the hotel lobby. We then went to a coffee shop for a breakfast meeting with the media to discuss the program in Indonesia and my personal story. At first, we were worried about the reporters not showing up since it