Ana Ligia de Sousa is a fourth-year student at Kent State University and is a double major in advertising and applied communication studies with a minor in entrepreneurship for non-business majors.
Ana Ligia is an international student from Brazil and always thought of studying abroad because of her international background. She kept seeing emails and posters for the programs from the Office of Global Education around campus and got more interested once she saw how feasible studying abroad could be. After speaking with her Education Abroad Advisor, she decided to apply for the KSU Freeman Fellows Internship in Asia program, a grant-funded scholarship opportunity for Kent State students to pursue a summer internship in Asia. After a competitive application process, Ana Ligia was selected as a KSU Freeman Fellow for Summer 2025 and participated in the Beyond Academy Internship in Tokyo, Japan program.
Interning Abroad in Tokyo, Japan
Ana Ligia interned at a company called Communion, a boutique PR company that specializes in translating luxury international brands into the Japanese market. It was a small company, with five people at most, because of how specifically tailored their audience was.
During her internship, Ana Ligia worked each day from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Her day-to-day activities included doing research for the clients Communion was working for, doing research on proposals for clients, working on activations they were going to be doing, and preparing pitches for clients. Ana Ligia would also be tasked with visiting places that her company wanted to have an activation at, such as pop-ups and other events. Her supervisor would send her to learn about the event or company and network with people, which led to her networking with many people in the industry. For example, she had the opportunity to meet the leadership of Lotus Car, a hybrid car brand from the United Kingdom that is trying to integrate more into Japan.
Working With Beyond Academy
Beyond Academy is an internship provider company that helps place students with internship sites abroad and provides on-the-ground support for students throughout their internship abroad.
Ana Ligia found that working with Beyond Academy to be placed in an internship was easy. When students have been approved by Kent State to participate in the program, Beyond Academy reaches out to begin the internship placement process with a quick questionnaire and setting up a virtual meeting to talk about your preferences and what you want to get out of the experience. Beyond Academy helps walk you through how you want your internship to be and tries to find the best match.
Ana Ligia landed her interview on the first try and was very glad she did. The first interview Beyond Academy gives you is typically the one they think will fit the best, and in Ana Ligia鈥檚 case it definitely was. She clicked with one of the heads of Communion right away, and because of such good feedback she was hired on as an intern.
Ana Ligia recommends that future students communicate specifically what they want out of the internship, as well as their needs and preferences to Beyond Academy.
Are you interested in having an experience like Ana Ligia's? Kent State partners with Beyond Academy for internship programs in Japan, South Korea, and Thailand.
Ana Ligia鈥檚 Experience in Tokyo
Ana Ligia did not know any Japanese before going to Japan but found it possible to communicate with Google Translate and the help of friends who did know Japanese. She didn鈥檛 feel like she struggled much with the language barrier, because having technology on hand made it all easier.
Beyond Academy often hosted events for interns to go to, such as dinners, karaoke nights, events where interns can learn more about Japanese culture. Ana Ligia got to visit Mount Fuji with Beyond Academy and try different foods in the community surrounding it. She also got to see the sun set behind Mount Fuji, which she found gorgeous. Ana Ligia visited Enoshima, which is a beach that's close to Tokyo, and walked around and visited temples. She found visiting the countryside of Japan was a nice break from the liveliness of Tokyo.
Beyond Academy also hosted a career development event, where interns got to spend the day learning about their industry and get advice on their resumes. One memorable experience was at a Beyond Academy event where Ana Ligia got to participate in a traditional tea ceremony. This led Ana Ligia to seek out other tea ceremony experiences, and she ended up doing four more. She had a hard time choosing a favorite tea she got to try but said trying thick matcha left the biggest impression on her.
Ana Ligia鈥檚 Favorite Foods and Experiences in Japan
Ana Ligia is a foodie and had no trouble finding food to enjoy while interning abroad in Tokyo. Because of this she could not pick a favorite food she tried, but she picked out a memorable experience. Ana Ligia does not usually eat sushi because of the texture, and when she told her boss this and explained what sushi was like in America and Brazil, he decided to pay for a goodbye dinner for Ana Ligia and another intern, with a traditional Japanese omakase experience for the whole company. Ana Ligia got to try traditional Japanese sushi and was able to watch it be prepared in front of her. She recommends the experience to anyone visiting Japan if they have the means to do it.
Her favorite place she got to visit while in Japan was Kawagoe, which is a city northwest of Tokyo. They had many foods made of sweet potato, so Ana Ligia got to try sweet potato ice cream. She also tried strawberry matcha latte. For traditional cuisine, she tried wagyu soba, which is a traditional Japanese noodle dish with wagyu beef.
Ana Ligia also visited traditional temples while in Kawagoe and attended a workshop where she got to craft her own chopsticks. She got to choose the wood for the base of her chopsticks and was walked through the process of crafting them.
Learn more about education abroad opportunities in Japan.
Ana Ligia鈥檚 Service Project Back at Kent State
Part of Ana Ligia鈥檚 KSU Freeman Fellows experience was to put on a service project when she got back to Kent State. She partnered up with another KSU Freeman Fellows alumni, Elise Henderson and developed a photography exhibition at the DI Hub. The concept was 鈥淓choes of Asia,鈥 where they displayed all the cultural photos they had taken in Japan. They printed the photos onto huge pieces of fabric to display and hung them up in a gallery space.
Ana Ligia and Elise also did two videos for social media about the process of printing their photos onto fabric and setting the exhibition up. The exhibition had a focus on the places they went to in Japan and the food they got to try. Ana Ligia and Elise both tried to be in person at the exhibition as much as possible, so students who wanted to learn more could ask them questions directly.
Learn more about the Kent State Freeman Fellows Internship in Asia program.
Ana Ligia鈥檚 Recommendations and Advice For Students Studying or Interning Abroad
Ana Ligia recommends students planning to study or intern abroad should put themselves out there and make the most out of the experience. She recommends getting to know the people around you and learning about the culture while there. Ana Ligia said it helps to immerse yourself in the culture to become more accustomed with it. She also emphasized that even if you go back one day, it won鈥檛 be the same experience even if you do the same things you did the first time. Students should try to connect with people around them, because it can determine how the experience looks.
Interested in having an experience like Ana Ligia鈥檚? Visit the Office of Global Education's website for more information on the KSU Freeman Fellows Internship in Asia and Beyond Academy Internship in Tokyo, Japan programs.
Through generous funding provided by the Freeman Foundation, approximately 12 KSU undergraduate students receive funding up to $6,500 to help offset the cost of interning in East or Southeast Asia during the summer. The purpose of the KSU Freeman Fellows Internship in Asia program is to encourage undergraduate students of all academic backgrounds to expand their worldviews, strengthen cross-cultural communication skills, and become more engaged global citizens while gaining practical career experience.