By Yuga Orita (Graduate School of Global Studies, Master’s Program – 1st Year)
The Ignatian Student Leadership Forum (ISLF) was held from March 23 to 25, 2023 for students from the four Jesuit Schools in Japan (Eiko Gakuen, Rokko Gakuin, Hiroshima Gakuin, and Sophia Fukuoka). It was planned, prepared, and organized by leaders comprising university students who had graduated from the four Jesuit schools. Also involved were individuals associated with the Sophia School Corporation Catholic Jesuit Center, priests of the Society of Jesus, and students of theology, and the event was held to welcome students from the from schools, specifically students of the 3rd year junior high to 2nd year high sections.
I think it was around June 2022 that we university students received an appeal for our support regarding the decision to hold the ISLF, and so we contacted leaders among the middle and high school students and university students, who had taken part in the 2018 national and global versions of the ISLF. Hence, we got in touch with the university students in Tokyo, and assembled them in early July. Fr. Ochi and Deacon Mori, who in the earlier ISLF had been in overall charge of everything from planning to execution, advised us on how to proceed with the event, and provided us with details concerning the holding of the event at Sophia University.
This was followed by reflection and sharing regarding our earlier participation in the ISLF. Speaking to the university student leaders after the event, I all of a sudden asked, “What made you want to participate in the first gathering?” I was struck by the fact that they said, “I just wanted to see everyone again.” I think the experience of the earlier ISLF had grown deeply rooted, within the minds of the junior and senior high school students of that time. Looking back on it now, I think in that first reevaluation, each of us shared the feelings and convictions we had gained via the earlier ISLF.
In the course of sharing and debating with the university students, what was evoked within us this time as the direction of the ISLF, was to emphasize sharing and reflection in the event. Current university students who had participated in the earlier ISLF, stated that reflecting back and sharing about themselves during the previous ISLF, had been a very valued experience. On the basis of these words, we core members decided to center the event on reflection and sharing. We decided to create a flow wherein we “reflect on ourselves prior to our participation in the ISLF”; “we encounter ourselves and others through the activities and sharing of the ISLF”; and we “deliberate over our future selves.”
On the first day, we congregated at the Hadano campus of the Sophia Junior College in the afternoon, and after the inaugural ceremony and breaking of the ice a time of reflection followed in the evening, guided by two theology students. On the morning of the second day we reflected on the theme of the “coronavirus,” and two leaders from Timor-Leste who were part of the leadership team shared with us details concerning the paths they had traveled so far. In the afternoon we split into small groups, and the leaders of the groups shared their experiences regarding making choices, including their own career paths, and later the middle and high school students joined in, sharing their own personal experiences. Then after some physical activity in the gymnasium we conducted at nightfall some sharing regarding the events of the second day, and then after a talk by Fr. Ochi, the activities of the second day were ended. On the third day morning we traveled to Tokyo by bus, and basing ourselves at Sophia University we went in small groups to explore Tokyo, and finally the participants returned to Sophia University to attend Holy Mass at the adjacent St. Ignatius Church. Here they dedicated the prayer cards that they had written, and then disbanded.
This time the ISLF was conducted over a brief period of 3 days and 2 nights, but I felt the period was very profound. As the sharing among the junior high and high school students was done in small prearranged groups hailing from 4 different institutions, at first it proceeded somewhat awkwardly, and with some sort of a wall standing between them. Nevertheless however as the sharing progressed, as more of our free time was spent together and we engaged in various physical activities, the barriers seemed to gradually vanish away. I was unable to listen to the feedback that came in from the middle and high school students, but judging by what I saw from my personal standpoint, I believe that through this experience of sharing the walls between them fell, and they were able to encounter both each other and themselves.
For the university students too those 3 days were a great learning experience. At an ISLF review meeting that was conducted later, a certain university student leader admitted in the course of his own reflection that he had not been able to steer the reflection well. Yet, other participants reacted to this by asserting that there was no such thing as a good or bad reflection. On listening to exchanges like these, I realized that in the ISLF the university students had indeed come across issues that “did not work out.” Even so however they grappled with them, and in their own ways they managed somehow to devise means of making them work. I felt then that the university students had indeed been able to grow through their struggles and efforts. While spending time sharing with them, I recalled the personal struggles I myself experienced during my junior and senior high school days. I was able to realize once again the value of toiling seriously over something, and of continuing to ponder over it.
On reflecting back thus, I realized that rather than choose a career path in the narrow sense of the term, the event was an occasion for middle and high school students to encounter each other, encounter themselves, and ponder over the issue as to “how they would like to pursue their lives.” Also, I believe we leaders too who were present at the ISLF from the day of planning to the day of the event, underwent a variety of experiences. We came to know many people and fellow leaders, and we also came to know ourselves.
If I were called upon to speak of something disappointing, it would be the fact that the schedule of 2 nights and 3 days was a bit too brief. On observing the junior and senior high school students, I realized that by the close of the second day the walls between them had noticeably crumbled. If walls were removed a deeper level of reflection may have been achieved, and so this was the only thing I regretted.
I felt truly happy to have been involved in this event right from the stage of its planning, and as soon as the event ended I experienced a desire to pray for all the junior and senior high school students who had taken part. As I encountered and came to know those students I grew aware of the splendor within them, and I felt a strong desire that it should be utilized in the course of their lives. What I felt about the ISLF was that it was an nonpareil event, an event that urged me to meet people, to act, and to pray.
On the final day of the ISLF while I was on the bus heading back to Tokyo, I happened to sit next to a teacher from Rokko Gakuin. We had a candid discussion on this year’s ISLF, and the teacher urged us to continue the ISLF for the benefit of the middle and high school students. For junior and senior high school students, this year’s ISLF offered a chance for them to meet students who study and live in milieus differing from their own, and I believe they were able to gain something that they could not learn or experience in their normal school life. In that sense, I believe the ISLF is a valuable opening for middle and high school students, and abolishing it would deprive them of both a prized learning experience, as well as a chance to think about themselves and reflect over their lives. Through planning, preparing, and organizing this ISLF, we uncovered a variety of problems and hurdles linked to it. It is vital on our part to suitably face up to these points of reflection, to rectify them, and to continue lighting the flame of the ISLF, which is a valued opening for junior and senior high school students. This is what we hope for in the future from the Society of Jesus, from Sophia University, and from the Sophia School Corporation.
