Japan-Palau Alumni Series: Vol.13 Ms. Meangeldil Ayla Azuma Malsol
2024/6/25
Ms. Meangeldil graduated from Palau High School and continued her studies at Lassen Community College in California USA where she got her Associates Degree in Psychology, Sociology, and other Social Sciences. Although she got her Associate’s in Social Sciences, her true passion was in marine sciences and conservation. Ms. Meangeldil continued her studies at Simpson University in California, where she graduated and received her Bachelors in Biology. She returned to Palau to complete her internship but due to the pandemic, she couldn’t return to pursue her Masters Degree. Her passion for marine sciences and conservation led her to work at Palau Conservation Society. Ms. Meangeldil then heard about the Japanese Government Scholarship and decided to apply for the Research Program. She was able to get in to her first choice of university which was the University of Ryukyus in Okinawa.
For the first 6 months of Ms. Meangeldil’s scholarship, she had to do online Japanese language studies due to the pandemic. During this time, she was a research student and then after her assessment in April she officially became a Master’s program student. At the beginning of her stay in Okinawa, Ms. Meangeldil had a bit of a tough time with transportation. She told us that, “ in Okinawa there’s a saying of, no car, no life” meaning that a car is the best transportation method to get around the island. She did not like to burden her other classmates with transportation and so she got her driver’s license so that she could complete her fieldwork, which included over 100 dives in different areas of Okinawa. She informed us that her professor and her lab mates helped her become more comfortable with scuba diving.
Ms. Meangeldil has many fond memories, but told us that, “the highlight of my stay was my dive at Kagoshima’s Yoron Island”. She also traveled to different areas of Japan such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. Her favorite Japanese food is “karaage” (Japanese fried chicken) from the small “shokudo” (small neighborhood restaurants). One of her fond memories, is after each dive her and her lab mates would come to these small “shokudo” to eat before heading home.
Ms. Meangeldil currently works at the Coral Reef Research Center as a Marine Lakes Research Assistant. She enjoys it a lot due to the fieldwork that she gets to do and the places that she gets to visit, such as Jellyfish Lake.
She believes that Japan and Palau already have a strong relationship because we have opportunities like these programs that allow us to pursue higher education and programs that allow our two countries to continue our cultural exchanges, and that maintaining such programs will help further strengthen the diplomatic relations of Palau and Japan beyond the next 30 years.