MURRAY, KY - Sarah Wade, a four year Japanese Language student at Calloway County High School and Valedictorian of her senior class, has been selected to participate in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Memorial Invitation Program for U.S. High School Students. She will be going to Japan for two weeks beginning July 8.

The purpose of this program is to commemorate the efforts of the JET program participants (Taylor Anderson and Montgomery Dickson) who lost their lives in the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. The Japan Foundation has invited American high school students who are studying the Japanese Language to Japan in order to provide them with an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Japanese language and culture, in the hope that they will serve as a bridge between the two countries in the future. The program, run in cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be limited to 20-30 students from all over the U.S.

Ms. Masayo Nakamura, Japanese Language teacher at CCHS, said, “I am so glad that one of my students was accepted the program again this year. Sarah is an excellent student so I believe that she is going to learn a lot in Japan and I hope that she will share her experiences when she comes back to Calloway County. I also hope that Sarah’s participation in this program serves as motivation for all other high school students who are learning the Japanese language.”

Last year, Dominik Mikulcik- CCHS Class of 2011, another of Ms. Nakamura’s students was selected for the same program.