Opening Retreat: June 20-21, 2010

My Nikkei Community Internship experience started off with a trip down to Los Angeles for the opening retreat of this summer internship program. The 11 Norcal interns flew together to meet up with the 8 others from Southern California. After a few introductions and icebreakers we participated in a scavenger hunt of Little Tokyo. Through this activity we had the opportunity to get to know our way around Little Tokyo and a chance to bond with our fellow team members. I was able to learn about the various art pieces and memorials built through the area and I also had the chance to try natto for the first time –an experience I must say will never happen again. After the scavenger hunt we learned about the Nikkei Declaration and met Chris Aihara, the executive director of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC), who spoke a little bit about her organization and the community. We also had the opportunity to meet with Debbie Ching, a nonprofit professor for the Master’s program at CSU Northridge. Mrs. Ching led us in an Organization Life Cycle workshop and left us with some helpful information in the areas of networking and communication. The day ended with a lecture on the various acronyms and organizations throughout the different Japantown communities, followed by the alumni dinner where we were able to meet previous participants and talk to them about their experiences.

The next morning we were given a talk by Alan Nishio, the current president of the Board of the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation. Mr. Nishio used his sense of humor as he spoke to us on the Japanese-American Community in its past, present, and future stages as he continues to be a greatly involved member and leader. Following his talk we had the NCI Opening Reception where we put Mrs. Ching’s networking skills to good use. Several important community members as well as NCI alumni attended and we had the chance to talk with and learn about how each are involved in the Japanese-American Community. This luncheon concluded the Opening Retreat of the Nikkei Community Internship, giving us interns a lot to look forward to over the next 8 weeks.