Welcoming Speech

 

Lisa Clemmons

Com. 345 Dr. Rohler

September 8, 2003

 

 

Good afternoon and welcome.  I am very delighted to be here today as a representative

 

from the Communication Studies Department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington

 

to welcome our esteemed colleagues from Kyoto University.  My name is Lisa Clemmons and

 

this afternoon, we have been brought together for a special occasion, an occasion that will bring

 

about exciting changes for our beautiful university.  These ladies and gentlemen have traveled

 

long distances to visit us and to help us to broaden our horizons and establish ties within our

 

community.  I am so very pleased and honored that I was chosen to be the one introducing to you

 

our esteemed and most prestigious delegates from Kyoto University.

 

Since its creation in 1897 Kyoto University is known for having an excellent history for

 

there academic achievements and international open door policies.  Their large student body

 

consists of 21,600 students and 1,100 of these students are exchange students from all over the

 

world.  Throughout its one-hundred-year, “Kyoto University has produced more than 200,000

 

graduates, many of whom made outstanding contributions in such wide-ranging areas as

 

research, education, industry and politics.”  In addition, they have 2,700 full-time faculty

 

members and about 700 resident researchers from abroad.

 

Throughout the world, international society has seen the contributions Kyoto University

 

has made through its scholarly research and education.  Because Kyoto University believes that

 

sharing information with global society is important, they are here today to establish an exchange

 

program with the University of North Carolina right here in Wilmington.  And so we are grateful

 

that they are willing to share with us and to create a strong bridge that will join our cultures

 

together.  Through our strong relationship, Kyoto University wishes to promote various activities

 

such as information, student and faculty exchanges, scientific materials, publications, and

 

research.  Many researchers from abroad have benefitted from the great contributions to

 

academic research developments made by Kyoto University.  On a yearly basis, the university

 

is visited by more than 1,500 researchers from overseas.

 

The university has also produced along, with the university of Tokyo “four of Japans

 

five Nobel Laureates in Natural Science and two Fields Medalists graduates.”  Kyoto University

 

has Ten Facilities, Fifteen Graduates’ Schools, Twelve Research Institutes and Seventeen

 

Centers.  Kyoto is home to over 40 colleges and universities.  Kyoto is located in a beautiful area

 

surrounded by mountains which serves as the capital of Japan for over one-thousand-years filled

 

with temples and shrines.  Rich in culture, Kyoto has built museums which holds some two

 

million artifacts, and serves as the cultural center for Japan.

 

I am so very honored to pay tribute to our guest and a university so committed in helping

 

others to achieve their academics through education and research.  We feel so lucky to have been

 

chosen by our brothers and sisters from so far across the world to establish with us an

 

international program with the promise of educational exchange of students, research, and

 

information.  Let us all once again, welcome our esteemed delegation from Kyoto University

 

in making them feel at home.  We look forward to the future and hope that it will be a bright and

 

prosperous one.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, we welcome you

 

Thank you!!!