海外の大学や大学院を受けようと考えている人へ

私は一時期海外の大学で正規で学ぶことに憧れている時期がありました。もちろん今もその気持ちは変わらないですし、日本の大学院を受けつつ、海外の大学院を調べたりなんかしています。あくまでも個人的な意見ですが、今の時代あえて海外で学ぶ必要はないと思っています。特に理系科目は昨今日本で十分に質の高い勉強ができますし、アメリカやイギリスに引けを取らない環境設備があります。一方で社会科目に関しては、「大学院で学ぶ必要はない」というような風潮がこれまでの日本にあったと思います。事実、今の５０、６０代の大学の教授で社会科目で博士号を持っている人は多くないです。私が専門的に勉強したいと考えている国際開発（紛争、難民、労働）などの分野はまだアメリカやイギリスの方が進んでいると実感しています。ですが日本も何かと頑張っているので、そういった意味で海外の大学に執着する時代でもないのかと感じています。しかし海外で学ぶことはそういった一側面からの評価ではなく、様々な点で意味のあるものだと感じています。私自身オーストラリアで1年弱学び、中国へ留学しましたが得ることはかなり多くありました。

実は、私は大学２回生の時に米英の大学への編入を受けたことがあります。結論を先に言えば私は大学に留まることにしました。留まるに至った主な経緯は、アフリカでインターンシップをした経験が大きかったと思います。さっきPCを整理していると当時編入先に送った志望理由の一部が出てきたので参考程度に載せておこうと思います。この文章の一部を修正したものを実際に送っています。今思うと穴だらけの文章ですが、これでもなんとかなりました。

When I was in high school I realized that I really like to study and learn from books, however I just did not completely satisfy with what they offer in school and its education system. Therefore, during my highschool times I do self-study more than learning from formal school. In principal, this is what leads me to travel through many countries in the world. I wish to learn directly from my experience in meeting people and talk to them to understand many kinds of things that I have read from books, newspapers, websites, etc. I found that these experiences have enriched my way of thinking differently from other Japanese students in the university. After high school I stayed in Australia for several months and I took some agriculture courses and learn how people in Australia is able to manage their crops with minimum amount of water. During my stay in Australia, I had the opportunity to meet a few amazing people who changed my life and even inspired me to have a big dream in life: Working for the United Nations. From thereon, I have been travelling throughout many countries and stayed at many homes. In some homes, things are so different with my everyday life in Japan and thus I found motivation to figure out how to make changes in those homes. I began to develop a few focus of interest from issues I saw during my stay and began to learn more deeply about a few things. I definitely have a big interest in development studies which includes the complex social transformation of change. I realized that in order to make changes at homes, people need education and agents of change. I began to grow interest in the education - how to make a system that allows everybody to access knowledge and makes everyone eager to study more. I also realized that women are very important agents of change in society and mistreatments of women close a lot of opportunities for a society to start its transformation of change. I also grow interest in international relation as I think it is necessary to understand the relationships among countries, the roles of states and organizations including their foreign policy. Last year, I had an opportunity to participate at the 38th UNESCO General Conference in its Headquarters in Paris, France. I was able to follow a few side events, had discussions with UNESCO officers and countries' delegates. I found out that UNESCO has placed its global priorities in two important matters, i.e. Gender Equality and Africa. Although I have never been to Africa before, but I read many books about countries in Africa, problems with gender and education, etc. The General Conference was attended by many delegates from African countries and I had opportunities to collect information and share some thoughts. I even was invited to a few African gathering events which was even attended by UNESCO Director General. I understood that Africa is the best place to study on development studies and therefore I decided to get a hands-on experience by having internship in UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa in Harare, Zimbabwe during March and April 2016. I wish to focus on education and women studies during my internship and learn directly from the people. I hope by having internship there, I can learn directly from UNESCO officers and senior managements as well as how exactly people in the UN is working to bring transformational change in a society.

志願書の他に推薦状や成績証明書も準備しましたが、そちらは手元にないので今回は志望書だけを載せました。