この記事は次の言語でも読めます：日本語
I had some precious experiences besides interviewing for my research in Seattle.
One of them is to give a talk at “Meet the Professional” hosted by ICC Seattle Office, a study abroad agency.
Meet the Professional is an event which a professional in various field gives a talk to Japanese students in Seattle area!
My session was scheduled at the last minute and it is scheduled right before I left for Seattle, so I was a little nervous to give the talk.
I have not considered myself as a “professional” of any kind.I also wondered who would had come to the talk.
When I entered the meeting room, I found some students were already there waiting for me!
Some other students joined afterwards.There were about 10 students in total.
It is a very good size for me. Thank all the students who came to the talk!
What I talked was my disability, school life in Japan, findings in study abroad in U.S.,
experiences as an employee, and reasons why I research about employment for people with disabilities now.
For one hour, I shared my experiences and how I changed my thoughts in my life.
It was the very first time to talk about my life in front of people.
I got nervous a little, but could deliver my thoughts and ideas because the audience was listening to me with passionate eyes.
I felt so grateful.
There were many people came to me to give me some feedback and ask more questions after my talk.
“My sibling has a disability and I am worried about his future career.”
“I used to worked in HR in a Japanese company, but found some issues like you talked about. So, I left the company and decided to study in Seattle.”
“I am interesting in utilizing diversity. I want to work in the related field in the future.”
I was very impressed to know that each person has a different story and different intentions to come to this talk.
Luckily I also had chances to meet some of them to talk more casually in the following week.
I believe that they are 5-10 years younger than my age, and they already have solid thoughts and ideas.
They are looking at the society with a very mature perspective.
Older people often criticize the younger generation by saying “Today’s younger generation is too much spoiled.”
But I, almost 30 years old, found that the bias is not true.
I see potential and inspirations in the young generation They are also very smart!
Later, I received feedback from the attendees.
“I could learn something I didn’t know, and get to know a new world.”
“That speech motivated me to think of employment of people with disabilities. I would like to plan my future career with what I learnt from Mizuki.”
Young people are the ones who create the future.
That is why I wanted to talk to them about the current issues of employment for people with disabilities.
When the students start working for a company which has employees with disabilities in the future,
I hope they remember what I talked in Meet the Professional and try to see abilities of the employees with disabilities.
I am so glad that I could actually have the opportunity!
Also, I not only gave a talk, but also received a lot of inspiration from the students.
I gotta work hard for the rest of six month of my research life in US. Thank you all again and see you in the near future!
- You can check our activity record from here.