“There are countless people that I’ve met even before today and many of them inspired me or I learned from them,” Tsubasa said. “Every time I met new people, I was inspired and that motivated me to work more to get to the next step and eventually climb higher.”
Champaign, Ill.—Tsubasa Akatsuka walked over to his desk and picked up his iPad.
“About how many photos do you need,” he quietly and politely asked as he returned to the small round table that sat in his office and unlocked his large, black iPad.
Before this, I had asked Tsubasa if he had any favorite photos from his experiences that he would be willing to share for this profile I was writing about him.
I expected him to send me one maybe two photos and call it day.
But as he sat there scrolling through almost a year’s worth of life-long memories collected through the small lens of an iPad camera, trying to decide which ones were his favorites, I realized something.
Asking him to pick a few photos was unfair of me. Afterall, as he put it, there were so many photos, each one capturing a beautiful moment that highlighted just one mile in his journey, one time and date stamp from his adventure from Japan to the United States.
“Send as many as you want,” I said.
Tsubasa Akatsuka is a “LEAPer.” He said that’s what they call LEAP Interns.
LEAP stands for the Long-Term Education Administrators program, which brings young Japanese administrators to the United States for career training.
The training all starts in Montana.
However, that’s not where Tsubasa’s journey began.
A Taste of Traveling Abroad
Tsubasa was born and raised in Dazaifu. It’s a city that’s located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.
“It’s a very nice place with historical architecture and shrines,” he said. “It’s not a big city, but it’s a well-known city in Japan.”
However, it wasn’t until he was in college when he discovered that traveling was something he was going to do for a lifetime.
Tsubasa attended Kyushu University in Fukuoka and during his sophomore year he spent a month in England.
He was in a faculty-led study abroad program at the University of Cambridge, and he said despite spending a short amount of time there, the experience left a big significance on his life.
That was when he knew he wanted to travel.
“It was a very inspiring and unforgettable memory for me,” he said. “Not many universities in Japan have that kind of prestigious program, so I was lucky.”
A year later, representing his university’s debate club (he was the chair of the club), he participated in the World University Debate Championship and found himself in Germany, Poland, and Austria.
There he debated in English against teams representing universities from across the world.
And this is a memory he said is one of his most impressive.
“There were debaters from all over the world gathered there, it was kind of scary, but it was a good experience,” he said.
Right after he graduated in 2014, Tsubasa started a job at his alma mater as an administrator.
That’s where his real journey began.
“That’s very noble.”
Because of the job rotation system in Japan, Tsubasa wore several hats during his tenure as an administrator at Kyushu.
Despite his roles changing, his main responsibilities remained relatively the same—he was utilizing his skills and competencies to improve not just his role but his university.
And deep inside, he said he always had a desire to help his campus by contributing to its internationalization.
His opportunity to accomplish this came when he started working in the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER) at Kyushu. He was working as an accountant and one of his required duties was to run an audit for I2CNER’s satellite institute in America. For three years in a row starting in 2016, he’d travel to the states, stay a few days to check the budget and meet with his counterpart, then travel back.
The best part about all of this? The satellite office was at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign so his first time in America was spent in Champaign, Illinois at the Grainger College of Engineering.
UIUC and Kyushu University have a strong and long history of collaboration regarding energy and environmental research for reducing carbon dioxide emissions through I2CNER (which again is based at Kyushu and has a satellite institute at UIUC). In fact, two universities renewed their academic exchange agreement in 2019 in the hopes of promoting staff and student exchange and joint research between the two universities.
At the same time, the two universities also reached an agreement to be strategic partners and promote mutually beneficial and sustainable collaboration.
Tsubasa coming to UIUC for the first time in 2016 wasn’t surprising but it was coincidental considering how his path continued to lead him to Illinois.
And this entire “small world” journey all started with his desire to better his university.
“So, you wanted to go representing your university and, in a way, help better yourself so you can better the university, is that correct,” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah exactly,” he said. “That’s partly for my own professional development but also for the internationalization of my university.”
“That’s very noble of you,” I said.
“It’s my alma mater. As a university administrator I know that Kyushu University belongs (in the world) and there’s always room for improvement.”
From Japan to Montana to UIUC (Again)
Tsubasa applied for the LEAP program in 2019 and was accepted.
For background, LEAP is a 10-month professional development program that aims to help participants improve their English, learn about the U.S. higher education system, and learn about the operations and programming of international programs offices.
LEAP participants are mostly staff at Japanese universities, and they undergo on-the-job training at the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, which sponsors the program.
Montana State University in Bozeman coordinates the U.S. side of things for the LEAP program.
The LEAPers start the program by traveling to Bozeman in June.
There, they spend the first eight weeks of the program focusing on English Language study at the INTERLINK Language Center; meet with MSU campus office staff; attend a series of focused “Colloquium” presentations on topics related to university and international program operations; learn the structures of Business Communication; and participate in community service projects in the Bozeman area, according to the MSU International Programs website.
LEAPers are then assigned to another U.S. university to do an eight-month practicum experience in various departments' offices. LEAP ends with a wrap-up session in Washington, DC.
When Tsubasa was accepted, he was able to start training in Tokyo before the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 and consequently put a hold on his U.S. travel plans.
So, Tsubasa pressed pause on “LEAPing” and returned to Kyushu University in the meantime.
It wasn’t until the spring of 2022 when Tsubasa was finally able to travel to Bozeman, Montana.
Typically, MSU assigns each LEAPer to their practicum site based on their area of research or interest.
But he said in his case, Kyushu chose UIUC for him.
Tsubasa said he was assigned to UIUC based on the relationship Kyushu University already had with UIUC.
He said because of the existing strategic partnership between the two universities, it made sense to send him to UIUC so he can help strengthen the partnership and accelerate cooperation.
This is something Dr. Matt Rosenstein, the director of Global Education and Training (GET), noted.
Tsubasa reports to Rosenstein, and Rosenstein said overall there are several benefits to having a program like LEAP on campus, but the most immediate benefit is that it represents the diversity of all programs at Illinois International and partner countries.
“This program especially is an opportunity to identify avenues for strengthening our partnership with Kyushu University,” Rosenstein said. “That kind of universal partnership is dependent on establishing familiarity so by embedding Tsubasa it builds this relationship.”
When asked what it felt like looking back to his sophomore year of college to now, Tsubasa said the feeling was incredible.
“At that time, when I was a sophomore, I didn’t really have a career vision or a prospect for the future…so looking back now at all the efforts I’ve been engaged in is…incredible,” he said.
Looking Ahead
Tsubasa sat across from me at the small, round table that sat in his office and as the interview was winding down, I asked him what he was most proud of in his journey so far.
He took a moment to respond, but eventually he said out of all of it he was most proud of the people he met along the way.
“There are countless people that I’ve met even before today and many of them inspired me or I learned from them,” Tsubasa said. “Every time I met new people, I was inspired and that motivated me to work more to get to the next step and eventually climb higher.”
"That’s awesome,” I said. “I guess that’s what it’s all about right, the human experience?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Exactly.”
For the rest of the internship, Tsubasa said he wants to make the most of his remaining time here.
He also wants to develop his skill set and himself as much as possible.
And by the time he leaves, he’ll be able to add several dozen more photos to his iPad.
Analicia Haynes is the storyteller and social media specialist for Illinois International. She can be reached at 217.333.6104 or ahayn2@illinois.edu.