Meet Our Alumni
Clint Bergstrom, Class of '08 – Winner of the Liu Family Distinguished Award in Asian Studies.
Clint began his study of Chinese as a freshman seeking to fulfill his language requirement, but it wasn’t long until he discovered that he really enjoyed the language, and then he was hooked. One class led to another until Clint found himself spending a semester in 2006 at Peking University in Beijing and majoring in Chinese. Upon returning to campus, he continued taking a broad range of Asia-related courses and getting involved in a variety of extra-curricular activities that included the 2007 and 2008 Asian Film Festivals, the Lunar New Year Celebration, and the EALC Student Advisory Committee. This year’s selection committee, in granting the award to Clint, was particularly impressed by his strong academic performance, reflected in part, through a continually rising GPA and a broad array of Asia-related courses.
After graduation Clint will be working at a small printing and office supplies company in Taipei, Taiwan.
Ryan Daniels, Class of '08 – Distinguished Student in Chinese Studies
Ryan began his career in Chinese at Notre Dame where he has taken a broad range of both language and Asia-related courses. He is one of the first students to take advantage of the Department’s most advanced language offering, “Language Across the Curriculum” which was offered by Professor Liangyan Ge as a part of his regular course “Heroism and Eroticism in Chinese Fiction.”
During his time at Notre Dame, Ryan bas been heavily involved with the Asian Film Festival in both 2007 and 2008; he served for a semester on the EALC Student Advisory committee; and he has been a regular participant in the Chinese Language Tables.
Particularly outstanding in Ryan’s dossier is the number of off campus opportunities of which he has availed himself during the summers. In 2006, he spent two weeks in China on a program "To Serve an Ancient Village in China: Historical Preservation, Religious Life, and Teaching English,” under the directorship of Professor Jonathan Noble. During that same summer he also won a place in the Columbia University Summer Language Program in Beijing for which he earned 8 credits of Chinese. Then, during the summer of 2007, he was chosen as one of three students who participated in the first Notre Dame Summer Language Program at Fu Jen University in Taipei, Taiwan, for which he again received 8 additional credits of Chinese.
As he prepares to leave Notre Dame, Ryan is being celebrated as a featured student in the University’s forthcoming recruitment video for students interested in Asian Studies. Fall 2008 will see Ryan once again in People’s Republic, where he will begin graduate school in Chinese studies at the prestigious Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China.
John Cappa, Class of '08 – Distinguished student in Japanese Studies
John had his first experience with the Japanese language in Kimiko Suzuki’s First Year Japanese class during the same semester Lili Selden introduced him to Japanese film and literature in a freshman seminar. Two years later, Noriko Hanabusa and Deborah Shamoon revitalized his interest in Japanese language and culture in Third Year Japanese and Introduction to Japanese Popular Culture, respectively. John became a Japanese major to improve his language skills and absorb as much knowledge about Japanese culture as possible.
For two years John was involved in producing Notre Dame’s Asian Film Festival. Last year, as a member of the Student Committee, he assisted the faculty chairpersons in executing the Festival’s programming. This year, as Student Co-Chair he was intimately involved in every step of the Festival, from picking films to contacting a guest speaker and directing the advertising campaign. He also moderated a discussion along with other student committee members. In addition to his participation in the Asian Film Festival, John was also a frequent participant at the Japanese Conversation Table and met regularly with a Japanese conversation partner.
Next year John will be working in Japan as an English teaching assistant in the JET Program. Afterwards, he plans to attend graduate school in Japanese Studies and work toward becoming a college professor.
I took first year Japanese as a freshman to fulfill my language requirement, and then decided that I really enjoyed it. I made Japanese one of my majors mostly as an excuse to continue taking Japanese language classes.
Shiga-sensei’s year-long first-year Japanese class (EALJ 111 in Fall ’04 and EALJ 112 in Spring ‘05) really was the deciding factor for me.
I studied abroad in the Fall of 2006 at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan, which greatly increased my fluency. I’ve also been tutoring a student who will be studying at Nanzan next semester, which has given me a different perspective on the teaching side of Japanese. Now, I plan to go to graduate school to study literature.
Matthew Schultheis
Class of '07
Major: Chinese and Economics
"After taking some courses in high school that gave a brief introduction to Chinese history and politics, I became interested in learning more. I decided to give Chinese language a try in order to fulfill my university language requirement, and I haven’t stopped taking it since!
"Before I began my study abroad experience in Shanghai, two other students and I did a research project in Yunnan Province. This project, directed by Professor Noble, provided the opportunity to interact with some of China’s ethnic minorities. I learned at least two significant lessons from this experience. First, I learned the extent to which tourism influences the culture of local people. Second, with Professor Noble’s guidance, I learned about the challenges and triumphs of doing real research. "
John Paul Lichon
Class of ' 06
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Tim O'Shaughnessy
Class of '06
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