“I have learned so much about myself on this experience which has really helped me be proud of myself. I am proud of how I was able to adapt to the surroundings and find my own comforting routine in a very different culture. For the first few days I was frustrated and nervous about a lot of things, but once I was able to accept and adapt to them, I can really appreciate the changes from the United States,” reflected junior computer engineering major Hayden Morrison on the Kyoto University of Advances Sciences (KUAS) Research Internship program.
“Being abroad has forced me to leave my friends and family for two months and really put myself far out of my comfort zone and forced me to adapt. The people I have met here are all amazing, and it's truly incredible how fast we were all able to become good friends. Other than that, being able to explore Japan has been nothing like I have ever done before. I had never left the U.S. until now, and being able to see all of these amazing sites and be able to do it with these great new friends is such a fantastic experience.”
Morrison is working with KUAS Professor Zilu Liang on the “Game on for Zzz’s: Developing serious sleep games on smartwatches,” project, which is developing a smartwatch-based game that promotes better sleep hygiene habits.
“This experience will help me move forward in my career by giving me diversification on my resume. I think a lot of employers will be impressed by my diversity in summer engineering programs and will help me land more interviews. It will also give me a lot to talk about in terms of experience and working on teams,” said Morrison.
He is also a 2025 Freeman Foundation Internship Scholarship recipient, which is a scholarship awarded by the East Asian Studies Center to support students in Eastern Asia.
“I wanted to challenge myself with leaving my comfort zone, and I have successfully done that. I also have always wanted to travel, and never really had the means or motivation to do it before, but now since I've been on this trip, I think the floodgates are now open and I am going to be doing a lot more often and trying to convince others to go with me.”