Mercer Island native Annelise Giseburt, who is a 2016 Oberlin College graduate, was selected as the first-ever recipient of the two-year Shansi Hiroshima Fellowship.

Giseburt left for Hiroshima, Japan on July 4 and plans to complete a summer language program at the International Christian Academy in Tokyo.

She will then work full-time with United Nations agency UNITAR and its partner organizations ANT Hiroshima and Green Legacy Hiroshima in September.

Tomoko Watanabe founded the two nongovernmental organizations after he visited Oberlin and gifted the facility with a gingko tree sapling. The sapling was grown from trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, according to author Lisa Gulasy in a story featured on Oberlin College’s website.

Giseburt began studying Japanese during her first year at Oberlin and is considering a career in translation. She has also visited Japan twice as a student, completing a summer language program in Tokyo and studying abroad in Kyoto.