In light of the CCC’s Check Us Out event, one of the featured groups was the Japanese Culture Club. I had the opportunity to talk with the club’s president, Amaro Chavez. Being a resident of the community, one of the main reasons he joined the club was to bring support to the local Japanese community in Corning, both in town and on campus.
Chavez has been a part of the club for two years. He says: “I participated in some fundraising events here and there since 2020, but due to Covid, I couldn’t be that committed to the club. I have been fully committed to the club for a year, ever since I enrolled in CCC….Japanese culture is very important to me because it represents a part of who I am. I am half Japanese and was raised by a Japanese single mother, so it is something I hold a lot of pride in.”
The Japanese Language Culture Club, or the JLCC, as Amaro referred to it, teaches the students of CCC about the Japanese language and culture. It meets every Thursday afternoon from 12:30-1:40.
As for the club’s goals, Chavez hopes to be able to share the Japanese culture and language with others and have more interest and participation from the student community. The JLCC’s next event is the showing of a Japanese horror film for Halloween shortly within this semester.
If you have interest in joining the Japanese Language and Culture Club, reach out to the club’s advisor, Eriko Heise at eheise@corning-cc.edu