Visiting Universities as a part of Career Education

The first-year students of Senyo Senio High School formed groups of 20-80 and visited various universities last Thursday; Osaka University, Kobe University, Wakayama University, Nara University of Education, Mie University, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, the University of Hyogo, the University of Shiga Prefecture, and the University of Tokushima. I led 40 students to Nara. Our bus entered the college gate and turned right to stop just in front of Yamada Hall (Students Hall). Its auditorium became our base of the day. After a short account of the university, we were divided into 2 groups of 20 students, and visited the University Library, Information Processing Facilities, and the Center for Educational Research. After the tour, we had lunch at the cafeteria. They were holding Oita Prefecture "Fair", and I resolutely had "tori-dukushi don" (an all chicken bowl of rice, topped with 2 kinds of chicken somethings and a boiled egg). A professor specializing in Special Needs Education gave us a rough sketch of the university in the auditorium, and, later, an alumnus of Senyo who studies at the university gave us a short introduction of his campus life and answered questions of our students, that is, his juniors. The bus left the woody campus sometime after 14:00 into the hot air of the town, and it took us a little bit more than an hour to get back to our school.