Several years after joining GIC, I returned as a volunteer staff member. As a university student, I now stood on the “welcoming side,” supporting children’s challenges.

First-time participants sometimes get nervous, look downwards, and can’t speak in English. At those moments, I would be the first to clap, cheer them on, and smile. Creating an atmosphere of “It’s okay to make mistakes, let’s enjoy this together” seemed most important. When the staff and camp leaders themselves have fun, the children naturally smile, too; something I learned from the leaders when I was a participant.

What I learned through GIC and Kumon’s programs is the stance of believing in people’s potential. Rather than focusing on speaking ability or scores, we should look at how a person is feeling as they challenge themselves. Even when words don’t get through, there are encouragements we can convey with applause and a smile. Through those experiences, I feel I gradually understood the essence of communication.

This power to embrace others is something I value in my job now. In the newspaper’s planning division, I create forums where government, business, NGOs, and universities can discuss together. My role is to stand between people who think differently and shape an atmosphere where everyone can exchange opinions safely. I believe that the spirit of inclusion I felt at GIC has taken root inside me.
The ability to proceed at my own pace, fostered by Kumon, has also been a major support since I entered working society. In long-term work, results often aren’t immediately visible. Even so, it’s enough to move a little forward from yesterday. I’m able to think this way because I learned the “power of accumulation” through Kumon.

Work on social issues can be heavy, and these themes rarely yield easy answers. Even so, if we can connect people and create moments when someone’s heart is moved, that effort isn’t wasted. I believe that, because at the origin of my learning there was a place that affirmed taking on challenge.

Even now as a working adult, the “joy of connecting with the world” I felt at GIC stays alive in me. I’ve come to hope that, as adults too, we can have places like that where we can learn across national and ideological boundaries.

As we become adults, daily work comes to the fore and our chances to step outside our own world decrease. Yet a slight shift in perspective can reveal learning opportunities everywhere. My current dream is to create places where people of different ages and professions can casually gather, talk, and think together.

I want to realize that dream through my work as well. In my position at a newspaper company, I plan symposia and forums on social issues and help participants take new steps. I see my role as creating prompts for action.

After taking part in one of these events, some participants say, “I’ll share today’s discussion at my workplace.” I believe these small chains of action gradually change society. The “heart-moving moments” I experienced at GIC—this time, I want to be on the delivering side and make them real.

Individually, I’m also engaged in building international communities. For over ten years since participating as a Japan delegate in One Young World, a summit where next-generation leaders discuss solutions to global issues, I’ve continued to share ideas across borders with peers of my generation. Talking with them, I feel that, despite different positions, our underlying wishes are the same. We all want a society where everyone can find a place and learn together. That is my own theme as well.

Learning isn’t confined to schools; it exists wherever people meet. Education, I believe, is about cultivating thinking and learning together. That’s why I want to keep learning, about the world and about people, no matter my age. In fact, I’m still studying with Kumon’s French materials. My progress is slow, but a small dream of mine is to read The Little Prince in the original text. Learning a language opens a door to a new world. Just as English gave me an entryway to the world, French will surely lead me to yet another one.

On the last day of GIC, we linked arms and sang “We Are the World.” That melody still resonates in my heart. I want to broaden that “circle of connection” with my own hands. Even if it’s not something grand enough to change the world, I want to increase the small moments in which people, as fellow citizens of the earth, understand one another. That is the future I envision.

Looking back, the turning points of my life have always been connected “learning.” Perceiving the world at my Kumon center. Encountering different cultures and values at GIC and connecting hearts through English. Each experience began with small accumulations. The present me exists on the extension of those moments, solving a single worksheet, sounding out an unfamiliar word aloud.

I completed the final English materials, but I was never a naturally gifted English learner. Some materials were difficult and took time. Even so, the reason I could think, “It’s okay, just one more worksheet,” was because Kumon’s structure let me proceed at my own pace, and because there were instructors who supported me.

Learning isn’t about competing with others; it is time devoted to gradually growing yourself. If you keep accumulating at your own rhythm without rushing, your world will surely widen, I have felt it firsthand. This stance of mine hasn’t changed since entering the workforce. Even when work doesn’t bring results as I wished, I face what’s in front of me, believing that today’s step will become tomorrow’s achievement.

In any field, with the power to keep learning, you can open up the future. People who don’t stop learning can continue to grow. That’s a conviction I gained from Kumon. What I want to tell today’s children and parents is this: “Within learning itself lies the power to change the future.”