Eliza Parungao is a second-year International Studies Major at UC Irvine studying abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. She was born in Irvine and raised in San Jose, California. Eliza is committed to bridging cross-cultural gaps, particularly with international and/or English language learner students in the United States. For the past year, Eliza has worked as an English conversation partner under one of UCI’s exchange programs. Her time in this role gave her the unique opportunity to interact with Japanese students of the same age; she used this position to grow her students’ confidence in English and make new friends. As the first person in her family to go abroad, Eliza is thrilled to attend Waseda University for the entirety of her third year of university. She is most excited to rekindle friendships with the Japanese students she met during her time at UCI, and to go cafe-hopping.