Students were taking pictures with the facebook-picture-frame before the lecture.
This idea was to post pictures on SNS using the frame, which was devised by the students themselves, to spread information on the activities of the SGH program.
In this way, the Global Career Course is building energy and interest from the students’ by placing more responsibility in their hands.
This time, we welcomed Mr. Daisuke Iwasa, a science teacher at Tamagawa Academy who also served as a teacher in Ghana with Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). He gave a speech on what he learned through his experiences in Ghana.
Mr Iwasa dressed up with local clothes and he started the course with four questions about Ghana.
Ghana, which is not so familiar for the students, has unique costumes and there were some surprising facts that naturally drew the students into his story as they heard many interesting things.
Mr. Iwasa aspired to become a doctor during high school and soon passed medical school entrance exams. However, rather than have a single major, he immediately changed his major to science and mathematics after deciding to expand his perspectives and to pursue further potential. After graduation, he joined the JOCV.
In Ghana, he taught science and mathematics and tried to improve the country’s education system. He learned a variety of things such as “there is an emotional reward to be gained through volunteering that can be more valuable than money” and “a very important thing is to have two-way communication with people and need to be able to tell explain more about our own country”. This widened his point of view.
He said the one thing that gave him an especially significant impact among the experiences was seeing the present situation in Japan on the local news.
“The Great East Japan Earthquake and Senkaku Island issue with China happened when I was away. When I saw the news outside of Japan, I became very aware of my home country Japan and really felt that I wanted to make Japan better.”
After returning to Japan, he decided to become a teacher. “I want to educate the youth who will build a better Japan.” He took a doctorate in education at university and now he is working as a teacher.
“When you get out of Japan, there are things that you notice and feel for the first time. Please explore the world”
“What do we have to learn to go outside of Japan?” “How did you gain the courage to face the world?” Were among the questions the students asked.
From these questions that students asked after the lecture, it was obvious that their interest in travelling outside of Japan.
By exploring the world outside Japan he has learned many things which helped him find with his real purpose in life. Knowing the details of his career, the students seemed to believe in their own potential more and to gain courage to be active outside of Japan.
