The Japanese group is mourning the passing of third-year student, Phil Boland, who died on November 18 of a pre-existing cardiac condition. Phil was majoring in Bioinformatics, but we witnessed his passionate engagement with his Japanese minor. He had taken JAPA 1010, JAPA 1020, and JAPA 2110 and was currently enrolled in JAPA 3010 and JAPA 3011. His love of learning Japanese was displayed in the classroom where he participated fully with intelligence, sensitivity and humour. He also entered the Japanese Speech Contest in March, was an active member of the Carleton University Japanese Association, CUJA, and was a regular in the LLRC for a study group and conversation group. He had signed up for his first Japanese Language Proficiency Test in early December.
He will be profoundly missed by his instructors, friends and classmates. His parents and sister are much in our thoughts.
A Carleton University student aid fund, the Phil Boland Memorial Fund, has been established.
Image by Kohji Asakawa from Pixabay