Moffat County High School - MoCoHi Yearbook (Craig, CO)

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f . A Our Hiro Hiroomi Sugawara Hire ' s influence at MCHS has been one of the highlights of this year. Last year we applied to the American Field Service International Scholarship for a foreign student. They, in turn, contacted Hiro, who had been accepted by this scholarship program. Hiro came to the United States from his hometown of Yonezawa, Japan. In a very short time, the students had accepted Hiro because of his friendly personality. He has participated in various community and school activities. The chorus class elected Hiro to preside as their President for the year. One of his main activi- ties in chorus was the school musical Brigadoon. Besides chorus, Hiro has shown his sportsmanship by participa- tion in cross-country and his attendance at sports events. Although we will miss Hiro, we hope he has gained as much in his stay at MoCoHi, as we have gained from knowing him. Good luck, Hiro! I want to give you a brief description of the Japanese high school life. My hometown, Yonezawa, is a very old town where the ancient and the modern exist side by side. Yonezawa has six high schools. Of the six, my high school is for entering the University or colleges and has some 850 students. We have one month summer vacation and about three weeks winter vacation. And we have to go to school on Saturday. I just envy American Student ' s life. — In Japan there are about 500 colleges. These colleges have their own entrance examinations. In some good colleges, just one out of twenty-five applicants can pass the examinations. So there are many special schools called Prepara- tory Schools. Students who graduated from high school but failed to the college entrance examinations got to these schools. There are many students who go to these schools for a year or two, three until they can pass the tests of the college which they want to enter. They are serious to enter colleges. — In the worst case, students who failed in the entrance examinations commit suicide. Every year this tragedy happens in Japan. The reason is simply due to that the students are too many for the number of colleges. Though you may think it is ridiculous, this is a miser- able actual condition of Japanese high school students. I myself have to take the college entrance examination in Japan next year, but it is one of my unforgettable, wonderful experiences that I could study with you Amrican students during my high school life.