Hi everyone, my name is Hanna Otani. I was born in the US then moved to Japan when I was one. Then I moved to the US again at the age of 6 and stayed till I was 12 years old. After that,  I went back to Japan to go to middle and high school. I wanted to utilize English as my strength, so I chose to enter International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo. After graduation, I continued to pursue education studies at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

During my college years, I participated in volunteer camps and interned at development consultancy and NGOs. 

Frankly speaking, I was not interested in the issues surrounding developing countries at the beginning of my college years. I participated in the volunteer camp in Vietnam because after spending years in Japan during middle and high school, I wanted to explore what is going on outside of Japan. Until this program in Vietnam, I had never been to Southeast Asia although I was always interested in the area. Since my college offered a longer summer vacation than other Japanese universities, it was easier to schedule such a program. After this experience in Vietnam, I realized that being able to go to school is a privilege, not something granted to everyone. This experience inspired my career choices, as I began to think I wanted to change such education systems in the future.

ICU is a liberal arts college, which means that we take time learning a wide variety of fields before deciding on your speciality to nurture more well-rounded understandings of the world and humanity. As such, it took me a while to choose my major. I chose education studies because I loved spending time with children, and I wanted to learn practical solutions to change educational systems.

Outside of my studies, I joined a Samba circle and moved into one of ICU’s unique dorms. Students live together in the dorms, and they’re run by students as well. This communal living is meant to challenge and rebuild our views, which I enjoyed. We did have many conflicts because some residents had very different mindsets and schedules. However, we were always willing to work through our differences through discussions. I learned so much from this experience.

In the summer of my 3rd year, I went to France for one year to study the language, education and geopolitics. Back in elementary school, I was a minority in the United States as an Asian. In France, I was more aware of my minority status because I wasn’t able to speak French much. When you think about it, Japanese people as a whole are minorities on the global scale. This environment inspired me to think deeply about what kind of impact I want to give to the world as a minority.

At ICU during my undergraduate studies, I began to deepen my interest and experience  in education and development through my internships at a development consultancy and NGO. To pursue my studies further, I went on to Harvard Graduate School of Education after graduating from ICU. At Harvard, we value implementation of acquired knowledge into practical actions. In that spirit, my assignments included joint research papers and projects with World Bank, United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF), and Teach for America. I found these experiences valuable because I was able to implement my knowledge into practical actions.

What do you wish you had done in college?

I was able to experience different approaches to education through volunteer camps and internships in the education/development field. But at the same time, you need to have a diversified perspective to see the essential part of the problem. To develop it, I wish I had taken interest in other lines of work and interned at a wide variety of corporations.

Privilege only students have

I suggest meeting the recruiters face-to-face. Boston Career Forum is a great place to start. Also, create a network in the university community to share career information. Most importantly, be proactive and collect information. When you reach out to your fellow interns and senpais at university for career advice, you will learn so much about their work as well as what they did in school. I talked to so many senpais as an undergrad and graduate student. Also, being in a dorm helped a lot because I was able to talk with senpais very casually and get useful information fairly easily. Professionals love to talk to students about their work and their time at school, so listen in to get inspirations for your future. This is a privilege only students have.

Critical Thinking

Specific skills would vary depending on the industry, but all of them require this: the ability to see the root cause in any issue that may arise. Some people call it Critical Thinking. To be better at it, try to see the true nature of the issue. Use all the perspectives you can think of. This diversified perspective would help you in problem-solving.

Ability to ask questions

Another important skill is asking questions without hesitations. This is true regardless of the industry. If you don't really know what you’re doing, you will keep doing it wrong, which is very inefficient. Once you graduate, the professional world is full of things you don’t understand. Needless to say, you should search what you do not know to some extent before you ask. But When you ask, you start learning. Not knowing isn’t a bad thing, so don’t hesitate.

I joined The Nippon Foundation because I thought it matched me. While in graduate school, my friend said, “I got a first round of interview with The Nippon Foundation at Boston Career Forum!” so I decided to go with her right there and then. When I went to their booth and listened to their information session, I became interested. Then I talked with them and found their work and visions admirable. They seemed to like me too, so I decided to join them.

Currently, I work at International Cooperation Team in International Projects Division. I work on education projects in Myanmar and Cambodia. My life is very busy but I find my work meaningful. Since The Nippon Foundation is a grant-making foundation, we fund other NPOs and manage the finances.

My specific tasks include “managing projects'' and “devising new projects”. In the management part of my job, I screen the applications from various organizations and allocate an appropriate amount of  funds. After the project begins, I visit them to manage and inspect it. I pay attention to whether the fund is used well. At the end of inspection, I receive a management report from them. In the devising part, I start by networking and talking with various organizations and schools. I think about the essential question; “what has to be done to solve this issue?” Then, I devise a new project, get help from other organizations, and carry it out. 

The Nippon Foundation operates not only in Japan but in many countries worldwide. I love this job because I get to meet many stakeholders, from the teachers in schools and NPOs at grass-root activists to government officials and staff from international organizations.

See the true nature of the problem

The hardest part of my job is getting to the core of project ideas and needs that are proposed by various stakeholders. There are two points that you need to pay extra attention to. One is when the applicants make themselves and their projects sound much better on paper or during an interview. They may only talk about how good they are, such as “we did this and this!” or  “the teachers at our school are very hardworking and never skip a day!” Second point is when the applicants present us with a list of things they want, without digging deeper about those needs. Dealing with these issues requires Critical Thinking, or the skill to see the essence. For me, I start with thinking about the core of the applicants’ challenges. I try to visit them in person when I can to inspect their projects. Building a trust is important as well. I also make it a point to talk with several different people in the same organization. This provides a much broader perspective on the organization and helps reveal the root cause.

There are many things I struggle with in my daily work, especially because I interact with people from different countries and cultures. It was especially hard when I just started, because there were so many things I didn’t know or understand. One particularly memorable incident was when I took over a project in Myanmar.  I received the final report from my predecessor, which pointed out a few issues. Without giving it much thought, I delivered the criticisms to the organizers in Myanmar in a very blunt, honest way. I think they found it offensive, because they criticized me for making such a rude remark.  At the time, I knew very little about the culture and custom in Myanmar. In fact, people there are very kind and respectful, but they also tend to take pride in themselves and their work. I didn’t consider this part and made a very blunt comment. After I realized my mistake, I went to Myanmar to apologize in person. This experience taught me how to communicate with them. Also, I learned that when you’re interacting with people from other countries/cultures, it is crucial to learn about their values beforehand.

Social Innovation

As I said before, you get to interact with many stakeholders in The Nippon Foundation, from the organizers on the ground, NPOs at the grassroot level to international level . In addition, you deal with a large variety of fields including marine conservation, education, career support for persons with disabilities, and child poverty. Also, as a grant-making organization, The Nippon Foundation is well funded and can carry out projects more smoothly compared to other organizations. 

Our mission statement is  “Share the pain. Share the hope. Share the future.” All the activities in The Nippon Foundation are based on this value. “We want to make this happen,” “we suffered from this,” “this made us happy”...we take these messages and build on them to fund and create projects as a hub of social innovation.

An environment where you can shine

Unfortunately, we cannot work regularly in the office because we take COVID-19 precautions. Under a normal circumstance, however, we can choose where we work inside the office. We can interact with people in other departments. 

When you’re not fully convinced after having a conversation about a task with your boss, you can directly ask questions, and disagree with them when necessary. You can expect a thorough, honest evaluation from them. I like that a lot about our foundation.

When it comes to individual projects, you need to make sure every member shares the same vision. I’ve taken over projects that made me wonder, “what are we trying to achieve?” Every project was created by somebody, who had a passion and purpose. We need to clarify it before deciding on the evaluation points. That’s how we can continue to create and operate meaningful projects.