Be A Global Citizen!

I spoke with another incredible staff member from Minerva University. Fatou Badiane-Toure is the Director of Outreach at Minerva, and she is from Senegal. Her curiosity and ambition has taken her around the world to places such as the United States and China. In her pioneering work at Minerva, she took the lead in conceptualizing and later implementing how student's experience in another country w...

This is the seventh installment of the interview series called 'Foster the GCs.' I spoke with Subina Thapaliya who is a recent graduate of SUA from the class of 2022. Subina is from Nepal, and has bold aspirations to further her interests in global development and sustainability in graduate school. At the moment, she is working in two different departments on campus. She shares her insights on wha...

I'm happy to share this wonderful conversation I had with Ken Kimura about global citizenship! Ken is a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He shares about his upbringing in Alaska and the ways in which different opportunities and state policies led to his growth. His research at Harvard focuses on the history of higher education, and Ken comes from a finance and m...

This is the sixth installment of my new interview series called 'Foster the GCs.' Today, I'm joined by Hiro Sakai who is the Executive Assistant to the President at Soka University of America. For almost three decades, Hiro has been supporting the development of the University in different capacities as a language teacher, admin staff, and executive assistant to the President. I appreciate and res...

This is the fifth installment of my new interview series called 'Foster the GCs.' Today, I'm joined by Jessie Ramirez who is a graduate student in Soka University of America's MA program, Educational Leadership and Societal Change. Jessie shares a great deal about his identity and mission to overcome climate injustices and act as a planetary steward for future generations. Jessie also shares an up...

I'm very happy to speak with Laura Balbuena for today's episode of GC talks. Laura is the executive director of the Fulbright commission in Peru. I first met Laura, or Lali, in 2014 when I did my study abroad program in the Peruvian capital of Lima. At that time, Lali was the director of the study abroad program through Butler University. I learned so much from this experience and, in large part,...

This is the fourth installment of my new interview series called 'Foster the GCs.' Today, I'm joined by Margaret Kasahara who is the Associate Director of International Student Services at Soka University of America. As a pioneer staff, Margaret has seen the development of the university from its early construction years in 2000. Together with her experience living and studying abroad in different...

How do immigrants find jobs in Lima? What impediments does inequality create for marginalized peoples in urban spaces? And how can global citizenship provide a lens for understanding these populations? These are a few broad questions that were discussed in my amazing conversation about global citizenship with Meylin Gonzalez Huaman. Meylin is a PhD student in sociology at Harvard University. She i...

The title of Ikeda's 2003 peace proposal is "A Global Ethic of Coexistence: Toward a ‘Life-Sized’ Paradigm for our age." I share a brief summary of the contents of this document while adding my own commentary on the overall significance of Ikeda's specific proposals in our current times. I encourage interested listeners to check out Ikeda's full text here (https://www.daisakuikeda.org/assets/files...

I'm joined by Preandra Noel on this week's installment of GC talks. Preandra is the Program and Office Assistant at Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue. On this episode, she emphasizes the importance of friendship in building solid identities as global citizens. Enjoy! 

This is the third installment of my new interview series called 'Foster the GCs.' Today, I'm joined by Megumi Tanaka who is Soka University of America's Manager of Alumni Relations. We spoke about the role that virtual and in person interactions play in connecting people back to the mission statement. Megumi is also a fellow alumna from the class of 2011. Please enjoy listening to her insights abo...

The title of Ikeda's 2002 peace proposal is "The Humanism of the Middle Way: Dawn of a Global Civilization." This episode is a little on the shorter side. My intention is to offer up some initial impressions of the document and highlight one or more key concepts. I encourage interested listeners to check out Ikeda's full text here (https://www.daisakuikeda.org/assets/files/peace2002.pdf). May this...

On this week's episode of GC talks, I'm joined by Victor Haynes who is a political scientist with a PhD from Claremont Graduate University. He talks about his passion of teaching as a way to foster global citizens. Also, he shares more about his dissertation and the ways in which President Trump's anti-rhetoric produced negative ripple effects across the political arena. How can one feel confident...

I speak with Yuko Nakajima about her work in foreign services as Third Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Myanmar. From her strong intuition to become a diplomat during University to her ceaseless efforts to assist the peoples of Myanmar in rebuilding their policies and democratic frameworks, she is candid about the struggle to reconcile between her national identity and her role as diplomat. It...

After a long hiatus, I have circled back to the peace proposals, and it is time to talk about Ikeda's 2001 peace proposal to the UN. It is titled: Creating and Sustaining a Century of Life: Challenges for a New Era. My goal is to cover Ikeda's proposals from the year 2000 up until the current year. Each month I will post a new installment of this series! I hope you find these episodes to be a nice...

Blended learning, online communities, the Fediverse, and more! I had a great conversation with Ben Wilkoff who is the Associate Director of Admissions Operations at Minerva University. It was a joy to learn more about his pioneering actions to innovate new communal spaces via the Internet. He has a strong ethic of learning and being curious that really inspires me to persist in my inquires about g...

Here is a new interview series called 'Foster the GCs.' The goal of this new series is to speak with staff, faculty, and facilities workers from Soka University of America, or SUA, about the school’s mission statement, which is to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life. On today's episode, I welcome Jacqueline Chin who works for the Human Resources depart...

Maria Fernanda Sanchez is a Soka educator who has worked within the Soka school network in countries such as Japan, the USA, and Brazil. Her experiences in teaching and coordinating span over a decade, and, currently, she is working on her PhD in English Communication at Busan University in South Korea. She is involved in many exciting projects to foster global citizens, and her dream is to one da...

Child development and humanitarian competition. These are just two fascinating topics of many that I discuss with Stefanie Horton on another episode of VCE, or Value Creating Education, interviews. I wish to spotlight the work and efforts of amazing VCE educators, like Stefanie, and I hope you find their perspectives to be enlightening. She is an early childhood educator with international experie...

Here is a new interview series called 'Foster the GCs.' The goal of this new series is to speak with staff, faculty, and facilities workers from Soka University of America, or SUA, about the school’s mission statement, which is to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life. On this first episode, I welcome Kevin Moncrief who is the Vice President for Mission...

Today, I speak with Jaemin Park who is a commercial assistant at the embassy of Sri Lanka in Seoul, South Korea. He talks about his mission on the episode: to serve underprivileged populations and create societal change through public policies, rooted in human rights. I believe that Jaemin's many experiences of transforming personal hardships to cultivate greater empathy and his commitment to huma...

Melanie Peterson-Nafziger is another incredible person from World Savvy, the non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and engage youth to learn, work, and thrive as responsible global citizens. She is a Professional Learning Facilitator and has over 25 years of teaching experience. I really enjoyed talking with Melanie and found her career trajectory to be fascinating, fulfilling, and i...

In this episode of GC talks, I'm joined by Aishani Khurana who is a doctoral researcher in socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago. She shares about her perspectives on global citizenship and the need to bring out one's lived- experiences with respect to their societal and cultural milieu. From her experiences as a teacher and professor, she cites the valuable experiences...

What the world urgently needs in this fast-paced, globalized society are global competencies that prepare young people for success and active engagement. With the mission to educate and engage youth to learn, work, and thrive as responsible global citizens, the non-profit organization, World Savvy, is greatly impacting K-12 reform toward new development and hope for a better world. I'm joined by t...

I'm joined yet again by Andrew Gebert to discuss the most recent Ikeda peace proposal. This 2022 peace proposal is titled: 'Transforming Human History: The Light of Peace and Dignity.' Andrew is a professor at Soka University of Japan and DePaul University. He is also a Japanese to English translator who is based in Tokyo, Japan. There is so much to unpack in these peace proposals, so I encourage...