New Director of the Asian Studies Center Announced
The Dean's Office has announced the appointment of Dr. Kim Reimann, Associate Professor of Political Science, as Director of the Asian Studies Center, effective January 5, 2010. Dr. Doug Reynolds, Professor of History and Director since Fall 2006, is stepping down from the position.

2 Korean Exchange Students Join The GSU Community:
Georgia State University welcomes Jong-In Sun and Eunsil Ahn to Atlanta. Both girls are exchange students from sister universities in South Korea. Jong-In is a junior double majoring in Sociology and Business Management at Ewha Womens University and enjoys playing the piano, watching musicals, and learning about other cultures. Jong-In is also interested in learning about television production. Eunsil is majoring in Mass Communication and Journalism at Hanyang University and enjoys reading and photography.

5 GSU Students Accepted to the JET Exchange Program
Congratulations to our graduates selected by the JET program who will be heading off to Japan to teach! According to Yuki Takatori, head of GSU's Japanese Language Program, out of the 39 exchange teachers from the southeast chosen through an interview process, 5 are GSU students giving the university "high representation" in the program. The 5 chosen graduates are...

Lindsey Gradolph (Asian Studies)
Adam Kendall (Asian Studies)
Ryan Fowler (Applied Linguistics)
Marybeth Bucklen (Spanish)
Josh Morrison (Religious Studies) 

If you are interested in the JET program check out their website at...  www.mofa.go.jp/jet

SPRING 2009 NEWS AND EVENTS

GSU Asian Studies Majors Dominate Japanese Speech Contest- Again!
For the past 17 years, students of Japanese from various colleges in
the Southeast have gathered together in Atlanta to compete in the
Japanese Speech Contest. This year, the contest “belonged” to
Georgia State University.
    The event, held at Agnes Scott College on March 28, 2009 and
sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan, the Japan-America Society
of Georgia, the Georgia Association of Teachers of Japanese, and the
Japanese Chambers of Commerce, was dominated by the three GSU students
who competed, all of them Asian Studies majors.
    Andrew Sorn won first prize in the lower level division; Jeff Nelson
took first – a free round trip ticket to Japan - in the upper level
division, with Adam Kendall coming in second.
    Actually, this is the second time GSU has won first prize in both
categories; during the past 17 years, twelve prizes have been won,
including seven firsts. Credit for the most recent success of GSU’s
Japanese section goes to former instructor Chiaki Kajiro, who, beginning
six years ago, built a strong team annually through training programs
tailored to each contestant’s strengths and weaknesses, a practice
passed down through her successors to Mizuki Mazzotta, the current
instructor and a valuable new addition to our program.
    Behind these successes is Dr. Yuki Takatori, Georgia State's noted
teacher of Japanese who built up our Japanese language program after
coming to GSU in 1996. Congratulations, Dr. Takatori! And
congratulations, outstanding students.