All Roads Lead to Japan
Sareni Manriquez ’25 has earned two prestigious opportunities to continue her Japanese studies after graduation
In the final weeks of her senior year, Sareni Manriquez’s post-graduation plans fell into place when she was accepted into the highly selective Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program to teach English in Japanese public schools.
“I guess you can’t keep me away from Japan,” Manriquez wrote on her LinkedIn page, having previously studied in Kyoto and Hokkaido.
Then came another email.
Manriquez had received a Critical Language Scholarship Program scholarship to continue her Japanese studies in an intensive, immersive course at Okayama University. The CLS program is a prestigious, fully funded U.S. State Department initiative that supports American students in learning languages critical to U.S. national interests.
Three years of diligent work studying Japanese had paid off for Manriquez, but left her with a difficult choice. Should she spend a year teaching and sharing some of her Mexican heritage with Japanese students? Or should she further develop her language skills?
Two weeks after her first LinkedIn post, she made another. “I won’t be joining the JET Program this year—and here’s why.”
Manriquez decided to postpone the JET program in favor of the Critical Language Scholarship because of its immersive language instruction, cultural exchange, and community engagement opportunities.
In early June, she’ll head to Okayama, where she will have 18 hours a week of small-group instruction in reading, writing, listening, and speaking Japanese for eight weeks.
“It’s going to take a lot out of me,” Manriquez said. “But that’s what I need.”
A ‘huge jump’
Manriquez’s decision to study Japanese at Colby was unexpected. As a QuestBridge scholar and first-generation student from Sanger, Calif., she arrived on Mayflower Hill unsure of what she wanted to study. She enjoyed history, but wanted something more. The summer after her first year, she attended a workshop sponsored by Colby’s FLI Program for first-gen students. Manriquez described it as a boot camp to get students thinking about their future.
What emerged from a mind-mapping activity was the importance Manriquez placed on community. Maybe the best way to build community, she said to herself, is by starting a new language.
Manriquez speaks Spanish but wanted to try something other than the Romance languages. Maybe Chinese or Japanese, she thought. Growing up, she loved Japanese media—anime and manga. She had also taken a course on Japanese literature during her first semester, which sparked a desire to learn the language.
The “huge jump” she took to declare a minor in Japanese was the “best decision ever,” she said.
“Studying a language builds community because it gives me contact with people I wouldn’t otherwise have spoken with. I get to know them on a more personal level,” Manriquez reflected. She also joined the East Asian Studies Student Advisory Board and helped organize events such as karaoke and movie nights.
“Sareni has shown exceptional dedication to learning the language, spending a full calendar year studying abroad in Japan,” said Laura Nuffer, assistant professor of East Asian studies. “As an EAS Student Advisory Board member, she has also done amazing work building community among majors and minors. All of us in the East Asian Studies Department will miss Sareni after she graduates.”
A clear path forward
With a major in history and a minor in Japanese, Manriquez enjoyed a rich and productive Colby experience.
She spent her entire junior year in Kyoto at the Associated Kyoto Program, where she immersed herself in the city’s rich culture and academic environment while living with a host family. In addition to intensive Japanese language courses, she deepened her appreciation of Japanese traditions by attending tea ceremonies and local festivals. She fostered cross-cultural exchanges by volunteering to teach English at local Japanese schools.
‘The whole community aspect, the cultural exchange, and being able to use what I’ve learned, it drives me to do more.’
Sareni Manriquez ’25
After Kyoto, she came home to California for one month and then returned to Japan for a summer program with the Hokkaido International Foundation. Living in the city of Hakodate, she engaged in more language immersion activities, workshops, and cultural events.
“I felt so free in Hakodate—it was a completely different experience from Kyoto. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, I finally had the space to slow down and reconnect with myself, almost as if I were becoming part of the calm around me,” Manriquez said. “My time there made me seriously reflect on life back in the U.S., and, for the first time, I could truly imagine myself living in Japan in the future.”
Back on Mayflower Hill for her senior year, she used her language skills as a student research assistant, doing research and translation for Professor of Latin American Studies Ben Fallaw and his forthcoming book, Between the Maya and the Mexican Revolution.
“I had the pleasure of teaching Sareni in my History of the Maya course this fall,” said Fallaw. “Based on the excellent work she did, I asked her to work as my research assistant this spring. In addition to having a keen sense of Maya history, Sareni has proven to be an excellent English-Spanish translator,” said the professor, noting Manriquez’s gift for language.
“I’m not at all surprised at all that she earned this prestigious scholarship,” Fallaw continued. “This is a real achievement for Sareni, and something the College should celebrate.”
Honoring family, building community
After all of the opportunities she’s had at Colby, Manriquez feels there are endless opportunities in the years ahead: working and living in Japan, government jobs, or teaching Japanese at her former high school in California.
Even as she has developed an affinity for the Japanese language and culture, her Mexican-American identity remains as important as ever. So is being a trailblazer in her family. Although her two older siblings attended college, she was the first to study outside of California and the first to go abroad. She is aware of how proud she’s made her family.
“With my time at Colby, I’ve been able to show off my wings a bit,” said. Manriquez. “But I’m not doing this just for myself. I’m doing it for my family and for past generations.”
And wherever she goes, she will continue to bring people together.
“The whole community aspect, the cultural exchange, and being able to use what I’ve learned, it drives me,” she said. “It drives me to do more.”
