In CIC, first-year students are required to take discussion-based courses taught by instructors in four specialized fields of study, enabling them to gain a comprehensive awareness of these fields. Students discover which area(s) interest them, cultivate more extensive knowledge, and tie their studies into their Advanced Seminars.
An Advanced Seminar is, to put it simply, a course for transforming issue awareness into scholarly inquiry. By exploring previous research, presenting their own opinions to their fellow seminar members, and receiving feedback, students discover a multitude of perspectives, further enhancing their knowledge and motivation for their next presentation. Over and over again, I ask students, “Why is that?” The topics which students work with often don’t have clear answers, necessitating consideration from a diverse array of perspectives. Accordingly, I ask all of my seminar students, “Are there any other perspectives?” encouraging them to think even further ahead in order to draw out views which might differ from those of the presenting student. Through the repetition of this process, students gain multifaceted and critical thinking skills, and independently reconstruct their own knowledge and views. Acquiring multifaceted thinking skills expands your communication repertoire. As students cultivate a personal store of diverse communication methods, they prepare to find employment or enter further education.

Another characteristic of CIC’s curriculum is that students can gain knowledge in a broad array of scholarly fields and engage in interdisciplinary learning. For example, a student might approach a given topic from perspectives such as psychology, communication studies, and sociology. First and foremost, intercultural communication requires the ability to adapt and use a variety of different methods. If one communication channel doesn’t work, it’s necessary to make use of another, and doing so demands multifaceted thinking skills. “We are all different and we are all wonderful” is an amazing philosophy. So, how can different people work together and cooperate to achieve something? The answer is something you can investigate as part of your Advanced Seminar studies. It is also something you will need to continue to consider in a variety of situations out in the world after graduation.

When I served as a group leader in the university’s dance club, I experienced how much influence a leader has. I struggled to find a style of leadership which would not put stress on my team members. Then I learned about servant leadership (a leadership style which empowers team members) in professor Ishiguro’s Group Communication course and this led to me choosing stress and leadership as my research topic. Through the Advanced Seminar, I engaged in a deep exploration of this topic and decided to turn what I learned into my graduation research.

In my research, I started by interviewing several friends about their stress, discovering that stress arises dependent upon how one interprets things. I worked out the commonalities and differences, and during the process, engaged in detailed consultation with professor Ishiguro to determine whether I was being biased by my own ideas on the topic. Professor Ishiguro provided literature and other materials to conceptualize things for me, enabling me to move forward confident that my research was based in fact. Amid my studies, I began being able to implement servant leadership in my club activities and realized that what I was learning was practical as well.

I think everyone experiences times in their life when they feel that interpersonal relationships are difficult. When suchtimes come, if you take the time to calm yourself and evaluate that “I believe A but they believe B” and understand why “people who believe B think as they do,” it will change your evaluation of whether or not to accept someone. In other words, the thinking that “I can’t get along with that person” or “I can’t understand that person” will disappear.

Diverse students are enrolled in CIC and the languages they speak and the things they are researching are all different. It’s an environment which makes it easy to think, “We are all different and we are all wonderful.” For myself, once I realized that “we are all different and we are all wonderful,” it made my own desires about what I wanted to do clear. In a global age, these kinds of communication skills are important, and I’m glad I learned them in CIC so that I can live a better and more enjoyable life.