Ajinomoto Philippines Corp. through the Ajinomoto Scholarship Foundation announced its 2021 Ajinomoto Postgraduate Scholarship Grant that supports deserving Filipino students who require financial assistance to pursue higher education in the field of sciences.
The Ajinomoto Scholarship Foundation, formerly named as the Suzuki Scholarship Foundation, was established in Japan in 1957.
The postgraduate scholarship grant which was introduced in the Philippines in 2010 provides a full scholarship in master’s course at specified graduate schools in top Japanese universities including University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Nagoya University, Ochanomizu University, Waseda University, Kagawa Nutrition University and Tokyo Institute of Technology.
The University of Tokyo and Kyoto University are among Japan’s top universities with the former ranking 36th at the World University Rankings 2020 list of Times Higher Education. The list includes nearly 1,400 top institutions around the world, measuring each institution’s “performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.”
As a global company food and amino science company, Ajinomoto aims to cultivate the educational development of prospective students who are interested to continue master’s studies in the fields of nutrition or health sciences. Aspirants may also consider applying in other science courses like Medicine, Engineering, Agricultural and Life Science, Pharmaceutical Science, Frontier Science, Information Science and Technology, Mathematical Science, Biostudies and such.
APC has so far sent 10 Filipino scholars to Japan including 2019 recipient Kimberly Castro who graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Pharmacy at the University of the Philippines Manila.
Kimberly had always wanted to pursue graduate studies, thus she did not hesitate to apply as a scholar because she felt that there are still “so much to learn, not only academically, but also from other cultures and way of life.”
This turned out to be a great decision for her because she is currently a research student at the Department of Pharmacognosy, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University – a prestigious university with access to world-class research facilities.
Kimberly, meanwhile, shared how Ajinomoto Scholarship Foundation has guided her through her journey. “Having the Foundation as a support is really helpful in so many ways. It is like having a direct guidance, which is really important especially if one is new in an unfamiliar place,” she said.
After she accomplished her master’s program, Kimberly plans to teach in a university and continue her doctoral studies or be a full-time researcher. “I want to be directly involved in drug discovery and development. I hope to contribute something substantial to the field of pharmacy,” she said.
