Three high school students from Takamatsu, Japan visited St. Petersburg College’s Gibbs Campus on July 29, 2014. They had a blast playing music in the MIRA building and enjoyed gazing into the stars of the planetarium during their tour of the campus.  SPC students joined the Japanese students for a “Sister City Cultural Conversation” later in the afternoon, discussing the relationship between St. Petersburg and Takamatsu, Japanese and American culture, school life, and much more.

This visit celebrates more than 50 years of sister city affiliation between St. Petersburg and Takamatsu. This partnership gives students the opportunity to study abroad and explore new opportunities through cultural exchange. In previous years, high school juniors from St. Petersburg and Takamatsu participated in month-long homestay exchange programs, and in 2008, the City of Takamatsu began to send groups of Student Ambassadors abroad to visit the city of St. Petersburg during the summer.

We hope the Takamatsu Student Ambassadors will join us at SPC again next year!

For more information on St. Petersburg’s Sister City relationship with Takamatsu, please visit: http://www.stpete.org/irc/japan.asp

For more information on how high school and college-level students can study abroad through SPC, please visit: http://www.spcollege.edu/studyabroad