AATJ awarded the first Bridging Scholarships for study abroad in the fall of 1999. Since that time almost 1,200 students have gone to Japan with the help of Bridging Scholarships. As a condition of receiving the scholarship, we ask students to write a reflective essay about their study abroad experiences; their responses are as varied as the students themselves. Instead of posting all of the essays in full, we have taken excerpts and arranged them by topic. The links below will take you to comments made by Bridging Scholars about their time in Japan.