This month, I am thrilled to introduce you to my friend and fellow IEDP student, Amane Tsuchimoto. At the start of the academic year, I connected with Amane over our shared interest in higher education, and eventually, I had the privilege to get to know him (and his lovely wife, Sayuri and adorable daughter, Waka) even more during our group technical proposal project last semester. Throughout these past few months, I have been so impressed by Amane’s work ethic, humility, and vast experience working in the international educational development field. So after Proseminar (a core course required for all IEDP students) ended last week, I decided to sit down with him to chat about what it’s like to be both a full-time graduate student and dad. Please join me in giving Amane a warm welcome! 

Tell me about yourself and your IEDP journey!

Hi, I’m Amane, and I am from Tokyo, Japan. Before coming to the IEDP, I was working for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is the implementing agency of the Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA). Right before moving to the US, I was stationed in Vietnam for 3 years. Most of my work has been related to education. I was engaged in a teacher education project in Zambia. And then I was engaged in a higher education project in Vietnam and East Timor. 

Looking back on my experience at JICA, I realized that there was not a sufficient opportunity for academic reflection of my experience. I really feel the necessity of the “lens” to look at the educational issue evidently. That motivation led me to IEDP, which provides opportunities to  gain analytical skills to better understand education issues and develop more effective interventions. IEDP offers  diverse courses, and I am particularly interested in the area around economics of education and international higher education. As there are professors who specialize in these areas in the IEDP and GSE, IEDP has been my first choice, and I am confident that I made the right decision. The experience so far has been really nice. Of course, I’ve learned a lot from the professors as well as diverse cohorts. I’ve really enjoyed my interactions with them.

What has been your favorite class so far?

I really liked Monitoring and Evaluation, which was offered by Dr. Thapa. Although I have had experience in monitoring and evaluation, this class gave me a whole new perspective. When I have done project management in the past, there were already targets set before even being assigned to the project. So I didn’t get a chance to really think about the structure of the project or structure of the monitoring from scratch. So it was really nice that the class gave me that exposure. 

So I know in addition to being a full-time graduate student, you are also a dad. What has your experience been like as a dad and full-time student?

To explain, I am here with my wife, who does most of the work to support me, which I am grateful for. In terms of time management, there have not been too many challenges but I feel sorry for my family especially on the weekends that I am packed with assignments and cannot take time to interact with them. 

Before coming here, I of course had the option to decide whether to come with my family or not to come with my family. And there are pros and cons. But one of the highlights of bringing them with me is that I can see the growth of my daughter. She’s only three years old so she has been developing day by day, which is nice to be able to see. When I was working, there was not that much time to spend with the family because I was going on business trips or coming back home quite late. So I never had the chance to have dinner together with the family when I was working. Now if I do my time management well, I can have time to have breakfast, dinner with my family, which is really nice compared to the time when I was working. And I am really happy to see that the Penn community welcomes students with family. I am just really happy to see my daughter and wife interacting with my cohort as IEDP’s event is always open to kids! I was so touched that some of my cohorts gave some presents and treats to my daughter after we were coming back from winter break, which I really appreciate for the kindness of my cohorts.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I wake up a little bit later than my wife because I was mostly staying up quite late. Then we have breakfast together, and then we leave home together. My wife brings my daughter to her preschool, and I go to campus for either class or library. My wife is taking an English course offered by GSE right now, so after she sends our daughter off to school, she is coming to the university to take that course. And then sometimes we can have lunch together at campus. After my wife picks up my daughter from school at 3:30pm, they come to the Family Resource Center at Penn. At 5pm, we get home together, and then we have dinner together. I take some schoolwork home but I try to find the time to engage with my daughter, at least during dinner. From 5pm-7pm, I try to be free. After my daughter gets to bed, I will restart my studies. That’s a typical day. 

What resources at Penn or in Philadelphia in general have been helpful for you and your family?

Starting at Penn, there is the Family Resource Center, which provides a space for kids to play. They don’t have a person to take care of the kids so a parent should be with the kids while they play, but there are toys and books, which is really nice. They also offer English courses. So my wife also joined that course. And then the Family Resource Center has free family events every two or three weeks. In the past, there was a Halloween party and in the coming weeks, there will be a skating event. Also as long as my wife has her Penn family card, she can use the library and all the resources at Penn like Penn transit. This is so nice. 

Regarding resources provided by the city of Philadelphia, the preschool is free, which is really helpful as I don’t have income. And there is free English courses offered at public libraries that my wife joined last semester. Public libraries also hold a lot of free events such as storytime so we often go there after we pick up our daughter from preschool or on the weekends. We are grateful that there are a lot of opportunities for my family to enjoy without worrying about the cost.