Aashnai Marzan Syeda, a fourth-year undergraduate student of Media and Communication at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), began her semester-long exchange program at Kobe College, Nishinomiya, Japan, on September 14, 2025. She is majoring in Film and Television Production with a minor in Linguistics.

Starting September 26, 2025, Aashnai is taking courses on Psycholinguistics, Global Media and Communication, Visual Production, Theatre Studies, Semantics, and Cultural Studies. These courses align with her academic focus on media, language, and performance studies. Aashnai is the second student from IUB to go on an exchange program to Kobe College under an MoU signed between the two institutions in February 2024.

She first visited Japan in the winter of 2019-20 when she was in high school through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program, which sparked her interest in Japanese culture and education. At IUB, her peers encouraged her to apply for the Kobe College program, noting the fit with her research and creative work in media, sound, and cultural aesthetics.

Prior to the start of classes, she took part in an orientation program where international students were introduced to campus life and academic systems. Aashnai has since settled into her dormitory, explored Nishinomiya, visited cultural sites, and interacted with both local and international students. She will participate in upcoming cultural exchange activities, including traditional dress sessions and student-led gatherings, where she plans to represent Bangladesh.

Aashnai said, “To carry the unheard rhythms of my land into new worlds – this journey is an expansion.” She explained that her goal during the exchange is to advance her academic and creative practice by connecting media, linguistics, and cultural identity across disciplines and borders. She intends to pursue collaborative work that links film, sound, linguistics, and visual arts, while also contributing to dialogues on Bangladesh’s cultural and artistic practices in international settings.

The program is expected to support her long-term career plans in creative production, stage and screenwriting, and media-focused research and activism.

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