Simone Hansen

While pursuing her double major at Western, Simone cemented an unshakable passion for the Japanese language. Her high school did not offer classes in the language, so she chose to learn Japanese online through self-study. She had never seen a language formally taught until her first quarter of college, when she signed up for a fortuitous Japanese language course. Admiring her professors, Simone realized she wanted to be in their shoes: she determined then to pursue a life of language learning and teaching, and used her Gilman award to strengthen her Japanese ability by studying abroad in Japan.