Hey, it’s Ian. My AELC journey started in Taipei, continued online with Sendai, and eventually brought me to Seoul for the on-site sessions. Looking back, it was one of those experiences that quietly reshapes how you see learning, and how you see yourself in academia.

What made AELC special was the combination of rigor and reach. Learning across Northern East Asia meant being taught by faculty from five different institutes, alongside lectures from leading scholars around the world. The program expanded my understanding across multiple education fields, but more importantly, it helped me step into scholarship with clearer purpose: not only to consume knowledge, but to ask better questions and start contributing knowledge of my own.

Just as valuable was the community. In an East Asian learning context, the environment is genuinely supportive. People focus on ideas and effort rather than policing English, which gave me the confidence to speak up, practice consistently, and build friendships that I know will last beyond the program.

Networking, in fact, became one of AELC’s most meaningful outcomes for me. As an early-career researcher, a network is not a list of contacts, it’s a commitment to future collaboration. Through online classes, on-site sessions, and the roles I took on to support the program, I met people I can learn with, build with, and eventually work alongside. In today’s interconnected academic world, those relationships matter. They create space for regional understanding, shared projects, and ideas that move across borders with real momentum.

To anyone considering AELC, or still on the way to completing it: be ambitious, show up fully, and take initiative. Make the experience count, and grow into someone you can be proud of.

Wishing you all the best.