INTRODUCING DEJA'S GLOBAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE

MORIKAMI MUSEUM & JAPANESE GARDENS INTERNSHIP

This experience has been a great one as I learned so much on Japanese culture and customs that have been supplemented by the courses I have taken at FIU. Spending the summer here has, not only, molded existing skills but fostered new ones as well. I helped out in the office with projects and student visits and really admired and learned a lot from the way the Morikami tied together Japanese Culture and the themes of history and art to teach to the people that visit the museum. Some times I would be allowed to walk around the gardens and was able to see how it was beautifully put together. It encompassed many elements of Japanese culture just as George Morikami would have wanted. I learned, during my internship, that George Morikami was apart of the Yamato Colony (one of the original Japanese colonies in the United States) and as the colony's presence in South Florida started to decline, George Morikami stayed and amassed many acres of land to which he donated to the county to be turned into a museum to commemorate the Yamato Colony and to educate the public about their presence. This experience of working with the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens has caused me to love this place more than I did before!