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Annual JLP-RI ceremony celebrates student achievements in Japanese studies

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“The sky is the limit.” The familiar words of encouragement, spoken on the occasion of the Tazuko Ajiro Monane Award and Noma-Reischauer Prize Ceremony, personified this year’s recipients. The annual event, held December 4, honored four students for their exceptional achievements in fields related to the study of Japan. The ceremony is organized by the Japanese Language Program in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies. Yuko Kageyama-Hunt, senior preceptor in Japanese, introduced Allejah Franco and Eagon Meng, the undergraduate recipients of the Monane award. Speaking from personal experience, she shared the idiom as an homage to Tazuko Monane, former director of the JLP and namesake of the award, who used the saying to inspire her students. Upon accepting the awards in both Japanese and English, it was clear that limitations were of no concern for Franco and Meng, whose speeches demonstrated the highest proficiency in the language. The Monane award is granted to students who have completed at least two years of Japanese language study at Harvard and show promise in applying the language professionally or academically in the future.