Orientation Program 2023
- To make use of this year for our life –
An orientation program was held for 27 BEYOND Tomorrow scholarship students of 2023 from March 28th (Tue) to 30th (Thu) in 2023.
BEYOND Tomorrow brings together young people who have experienced difficulties in their upbringing, but who aspire to create their own future. We provide opportunities for students to learn and grow by sharing values with their peers, learning different perspectives and ways of thinking, and discovering new possibilities for themselves.
In this orientation program, participants saw each other for the first time, shared own experience and aspirations, interacted with alumni and guests. The participants considered what they do to make use of their experience of this upcoming year.
Organizer
Global Fund for Education Assistance
Venue
Yamanashi Prefecture
Participants
– High school students from Endeavor Program 2023
– University students from Japan Future Scholarship Program 2023
– 1 university student from Fellowship Program 2023
Total: 27 students
Schedule
Day 1: Orientation, Icebreaking activity, BBQ, Sharing experiences
Day 2: Morning Walk, Making Hoto noodle experience, Discussion activity, Talk with alumni, Guest talk
Day 3: Setting goals, Reflection, Closing activity, Sightseeing boat
Overview
In activities by BEYOND Tomorrow, people with various background gather and think about challenge for the future with various perspectives throughout the year. Each program involves many opportunities for students to enable students to find their places to belong and the way to contribute to society. In face-to-face programs, participants have valuable chances to meet people and experience dilemma to challenge for the future. In this orientation program, participants shared the moment and thought about their future with peers.
Theme of the program “To make use of this year for our life”
We believe that it is important for participants in our programs to learn in the process of their achievement throughout the year, encounter new people, and think how to kick off this year. In this program, the participants shared their aspirations for their future with inspirations by guests in addition to their own experience and perspectives. We strongly hope that outcomes and experience of this program will support the participants in their life.
Program Highlight
Sharing Experiences
We hold a regular activity in face-to face programs called “Sharing Experiences” to develop leaders who can empathize with others. Participants share their background, experience, and future aspirations to accept others and build a relationship with peers.
Discussion -What we need and can do to make a creative society –
In our face-to-face programs, participants have opportunities to discuss and present their opinions on what they can do to improve society. This orientation program targeted participants to understand the purpose of collaborating with their peers (to create new values and possibilities) in addition to let them get used to discussion in a group and presentation.
Interview with alumni
It has been 12 years since BEYOND Tomorrow established. This interview aimed to shape future themselves by interacting with alumni. We had four alumni from each age period and they shared their thoughts and experience as a former participant and how they apply their experience for their life. Current participants thought concrete ideas on how and what they need to learn to approach their ideal themselves.
Messages from our alumni
Mr. Saito from BEYOND Tomorrow 2016
I would like you all to have your core value and dream. Even if you feel frustrated or fail on the way, you have BEYOND Tomorrow where you can relax with your peers. I hope this opportunity to see people with various background becomes a precious experience in your life. Even though we may feel that each of us is aiming for a different future now, I believe that this will eventually become a gradation of values and overlap to realize a single society.
Ms. Ito from BEYOND Tomorrow 2017
I would be happy if everyone cherishes BEYOND Tomorrow, a special place that is different from school or home, and I would also be happy if it becomes a place to come back to after having experienced each place. I hope you will find the meaning of being in BEYOND Tomorrow throughout the all programs in this year.
Guest Talk
BEYOND Tomorrow’s program values interaction with leaders in various fields, with the goal of enhancing participants’ perspectives on the future. In this program, we had a from two guests who have established various places for learning and education. They talked deeply about the importance of self-reflection and facing a feeling of discomfort.
Guest
Director of Global Fund for Education Assistance
Managing Executive Officer and Chief Well-being Officer, Rakuten Group, Inc.
Mr. Masatada Kobayashi
Participating Rakuten since 1997, its startup. Currently in charge of CWO: Chief Well-Being Officer for achieving employee wellbeing. In 2001, he established the “Masatada Scholarship” at his alma mater, Keio University, to help nurture young people. He was also selected as one of the 2011 World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders. A father of five children.
Director, Study Supply Educational AI Research Institute
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Tokyo Gakugei University
Rieko Komiyama
After completing graduate school at Waseda University, she became a secretary to a Diet member. However, having grown up in a single-parent household, she decided to work in the field of education with the desire for “educational opportunities for all children. While working as secretary to the chairman of Benesse Corporation, she learned about “what education is” and “what the education business is”, and later joined Recruit’s online education app “Study Supply” in 2015, sharing its vision and mission.
Setting Goals
Having learning outcomes of this three-day program, participants shared their visions of how to participate in BEYOND Tomorrow in this year with others’ advice.
The Voice of Students
“Even though I had many interests to challenge, I often gave up because of my stereotypes and situations as excuse. However, through this program, I was able to take a more positive view of things, thinking that it is okay to take it easy and that life will turn out the way it will, and I feel that this was a step toward stepping forward to do what I want to do in the future.”
“Through this program, I feel that I am changing, that I am beginning to have the conviction that I have friends. I feel like I have a special connection with everyone I met this time. I am very excited and hopeful that I will be able to support and inspire each other with such connections, not only over the next year, but throughout my life.”
“Before attending the program, I wondered, ‘Will there be a tomorrow for me?’, and sometimes I was afraid to even make plans for tomorrow, but I learned from the guests and fellow participants that it is important to just live life now, expressing what I want to do as much as I want. Now I am very excited about the future, what kind of people I will meet tomorrow and how I can change!”
