What is M.E.S.H.

M.E.S.H. is an acronym that stands for Makinohara Education Service House. The M.E.S.H. club started in 2021 as the HIS Domestic Global Exchange and has plans to keep operating well into the future. As of now, M.E.S.H. is a club that focuses on expanding its connections within Japan, most notably with the city of Makinohara. Makinohara is located in Shizuoka Prefecture. It’s a city famous for its green tea production which dates back to the early Edo Period (1603-1867). Located in Makinohara is Sagara High School (SHS), a school where education combines with Makinohara’s culture, creating a unique and inspiring learning environment. For the years that M.E.S.H. has been operating, its goals have been to create connections with the SHS students through promoting the fun of learning English! Check out our first trip to Makinohara in the Spring of 2022!

Recently, our HIS Domestic Global Exchange has shifted into a new era, with our goal to "mesh" with an entirely new group: The Junior Action Sports Club. This club of elementary to middle school-aged students are interested in challenging themselves with sports in a more global arena. They are interested in other cultures and languages.

In the spring of 2025, we five students and the HIS coordinator, Mr. Pangier, visited the city of Makinohara once again. There, we were met by the Makinohara City Hall. We surfed, we joined the city-hall organized sports festival, we led an Easter Egg activity with the Junior Action Sports Club and we presented to the Mayor of Makinohara: Mr. Kikuo Sugimoto. The City Hall writes about this trip on their homepage: https://www.city.makinohara.shizuoka.jp/site/tokyo2020/56792.html

We had a great time interacting with our hosts. We made a narrated video, with bookmarks for each section, documenting our experience.

 

Through M.E.S.H. we have a plan to provide these club members from Makinohara with virtual tours of our school and surrounding community. As we do, we will also expose students to English. Our first "virtual tour" is up and ready. Please enjoy the Hokkaido International School Spring Bazaar.

English is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, with over 70 countries using it as an official or primary language. Due to being such a widespread language, English manages to connect people of different ethnicities, cultures, and races. Therefore, M.E.S.H. wanted to use the “ability of English” to establish future connections in Makinohara. While it is important to maintain a deep connection with the main collaborator of the club, the Makinohara City Hall and the Junior Action Sports Club of Makinohara, M.E.S.H. also wants to make sure the information and connection that is established in Makinohara can be used for future opportunities. By introducing fun aspects of the English language, M.E.S.H. hopes to inspire the students to keep on learning the language even into their adult lives. This can open up a huge number of opportunities to the students as they could become bilingual with the ability to speak one of the most common languages in the world. At the same time, M.E.S.H. members also hope to learn about the unique culture of Makinohara from its students. Japan is a vast country that contains many unique and different traditions depending on which prefecture someone visits. Thus, Makinohara club members keep an open mind when visiting or learning about its distinctive culture. M.E.S.H. has many plans in the works for upcoming years; however, the goal to create new relations and inspire others will always remain in the minds of past, current, and future members. M.E.S.H. is not just creating connections, it's also founding leaders who strive for a better future.

“ Coming together is a beginning; staying together is progress; and working together is success”

— Henry Ford

M.E.S.H. Future Plans

As mentioned, M.E.S.H. has a lot of big plans in mind for the next few years. Instead of thinking just about the present, club members make sure to take into consideration the future AND the past when making decisions. A lot can be learned from the few years M.E.S.H. has been operating, so looking at the past is helpful in understanding what went smoothly or what can be improved. Consequently, a lot can change in the future just from one tiny decision. Therefore, Makinohara students use their minds to envision what the future could look like and how they can plan out ideas to mold it into a future that benefits not just themselves, but their surrounding community.

Adaptability - Understanding Collaborators who work well with diverse individuals and situations (U7)

Courtesy - Internationally Minded Citizens who display courtesy and respect for themselves and others (I17)

Engagement - Effective Communicators who actively and empathetically listen, speak and discuss (E21)

For now, M.E.S.H. members have been thinking about expanding our series of virtual lessons designed to introduce the wonderful aspects of Sapporo to the Junior Action Sports Club students. These lessons would include funny or notable things about the English language, using jokes to encourage the students to dive deeper into the language. Simultaneously, the lessons would introduce places, foods, or fun facts about Sapporo. While it is still up for discussion, the general idea as of now would be that the lessons contain a short introductory video of one of HIS’s school activities (Spring Bazaar, Kokusai Snow Days, etc.) with a presentation afterwards that would change the topic more towards Sapporo. Since a main goal of the club is to spread the joy of learning English, small vocabulary words would be sprinkled in between the slides of the presentations with a short quiz at the end to remind the students of all they have learned. Through these lessons and possible in-person visits, M.E.S.H. hopes to build up its connections little by little, widening our Husky Community.

Aside from these virtual lessons, M.E.S.H. also has hopes of expanding the club to greater lengths. One proposed idea was to bring the idea of M.E.S.H. to the Sapporo City Hall and the mayor. While the idea is still in the works, the hope is to show the city of Sapporo the value in collaboration between Sapporo (Snow) and Makinohara (Surf). Furthermore, a potential connection between the city of Sapporo board and HIS could be developed as HIS could act as a source of promotion for Sapporo due to our bilingual and bicultural abilities. Even though these types of grand ideas take a lot of effort, time, and collaboration, M.E.S.H. has always been a club that strives for the “impossible” even when it might face many roadblocks along the way. Hopefully, in the near future enriching connections will be made with diverse individuals, expanding both HIS communities and the communities of places who come in contact with us.

One plan of M.E.S.H. that has already been accomplished is our in-person trips that brought HIS to Makinohara and Makinohara to Hokkaido (see our previous YouTube playlist for more history, along with some historic articles below). During our most recent trip, M.E.S.H. members worked hard to create meaningful activities for the Junior Action Sports Club, while also sharing our plan and vision with the Makinohara City mayor. On our trip, we also got to experience the rich green tea and surfing culture of Makinohara: truly living up to our M.E.S.H. positioning statement: To give and receive experiences. To us, that is at the heart of service, community, and humanity.

To stay up-to-date on all things M.E.S.H. subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
 

M.E.S.H. Expectations and Membership

M.E.S.H. is a club that is open to all from grades 9th to 11th. Once a student joins M.E.S.H., they are expected to stay in the club for at least one and a half years, which means that their club membership will continue over two grade years. (Example: A student in 9th grade will be able to leave the club in the middle of their 10th grade year). Aside from the time period, M.E.S.H. is also looking for students who are hard-working collaborators who can manage their time well. M.E.S.H. requires a lot of planning and group activities in order to develop each lesson on time. And, of course, we need students who are bilingual and bicultural. While there may be some school time given to work on these projects, M.E.S.H. will mostly require students to work on their own time after school to finish any projects given. There is also a weekly lunch meeting where all members will discuss present and upcoming plans. If you are looking to join the M.E.S.H. club, please contact jpangier@his.ac.jp for further details. We look forward to seeing you!