2025 Entrance Ceremony Speech

As we hold the 2025 entrance ceremony here today, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the new students. I can only imagine the joy of the parents who have reached this day. We are truly delighted to be able to welcome you all here at Kamei Arena Sendai (Sendai City Gymnasium) as we revive the entrance ceremony where everyone gathers together this year.

Each of you has completed your high school studies, earned the right to be selected and admitted, and from today you are students of Tohoku Gakuin University. We respect and accept each and every one of you as an irreplaceable individual, and we promise to support you with all our might for the next four years until your graduation.

Tohoku Gakuin University is the largest private comprehensive university in the Tohoku and Hokkaido region, with nine faculties, six graduate Graduate Schools, and a total of 11,000 students. Founded in 1886 (Meiji 19) as Sendai Theological Seminary, with just two teachers and six students, by Masayoshi Oshikawa, the first member of a Protestant church in Japan, and William Hoy, an American missionary who supported Oshikawa and played a key role in the establishment of the college, this year marks its 139th anniversary. After about five years, Sendai Theological Seminary changed its name to "Tohoku Gakuin" (North Japan College), and developed under the leadership of missionary David Schneider, Hoy's successor, becoming a university in 1949, where it remains today. Since its founding, it has produced a total of over 200,000 graduates.

First, the foundation of our university's educational philosophy, which we call the "founding spirit," is character education based on Christian principles. We express this founding spirit as our school motto, LIFE LIGHT LOVE. This phrase has been cherished by Tohoku Gakuin graduates for a long time. LIFE means valuing the lives and personalities of others as much as your own (individual dignity), LIGHT means illuminating others with the results of academics, science, and club activities (contribution to society), and LOVE means serving one another and not only loving oneself but also being loved by others (love for one's neighbor).

In accordance with this founding spirit, university worship services are held daily at 10:20 a.m. at the Oshikawa Memorial Hall and the Rahäuser Memorial Tohoku Gakuin Chapel on the campuses of Itsutsubashi and Tsuchitoi. We hope that you will calm your mind, attend the serene and solemn university worship service, read the Bible under the sound of the pipe organ, listen to a message based on the Bible, learn about the core spirit of the academy, and reflect on who you are and how you should interact with your neighbors.

By the way, what is the difference between the university you will be studying at and the high school you have been attending? In high school, there are textbooks, and if you memorize the correct answers according to the textbooks, your next step, university, is guaranteed. However, after graduating from university, there is no guaranteed next step. Once you graduate from university, all that awaits you is civil society where you must live by your own abilities, that is, your own merit, until the day you die. You must use your four years at university to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to live a better life.

Therefore, the way of studying is different. In high school, the learning attitude is passive, where you learn from teachers and textbooks, whereas in university, a more proactive learning attitude is required, where students themselves are expected to acquire as much ability as possible. Many people say that it's okay as long as you graduate from university, but that's a big mistake. Those days are over. There are tons of people with university degrees. Such people are like people who go out into civil society unarmed, without acquiring the skills they should be able to use in the future.

So, how can you acquire the necessary skills? Tohoku Gakuin University has prepared the following three new learning systems.

First, there is data science, which is often called the modern equivalent of "reading, writing, and arithmetic." As you know, with the emergence of Society 5.0, which transports massive amounts of data at high speed, and conversational generative AI represented by ChatGPT, the world is changing rapidly, like a runaway train. You will all need to make full use of AI and create value from the vast amount of data left behind by computers. I can no longer get away with saying that I don't need to understand such systems because I'm a humanities student and didn't take math for my entrance exams. As an entry point to learning data science, we have placed subjects such as "Fundamentals of Statistical Thinking" and "Fundamentals of an AI Society" as elective and required courses in TG Basic, which all students can take. Professors specializing in information science will explain these in an easy-to-understand way for humanities students. This is the strength of a comprehensive university that "integrates humanities and sciences."

Secondly, there is active learning. I believe you all took "Comprehensive Inquiry Time" in high school. Modern society is composed of complex mechanisms, and problems cannot be solved by a single discipline, such as law or engineering. Therefore, an active learning method, which is a proactive way of learning, is required. The "Problem Inquiry" course group in TG Basic, which all students can take, is a problem-solving type of class where students learn methods for solving problems related to careers, local communities, and volunteer work, actually investigate and think about them, and receive rigorous evaluations from students of different faculties, and even small seminars are provided. We want students from different faculties to learn from each other's perspectives and to grow together. To that end, the university has prepared some of the best active learning facilities in Japan, at the Hoy Memorial Hall in Tsuchitoi and the library at the Schneider Memorial Hall in Itsutsubashi.

The third is the use of "TG-folio," also known as an e-portfolio. "TG-folio" is a system that allows students to review their learning achievements and check how well they have acquired the skills necessary to achieve their goals using their computers. During job hunting, students can download a certificate called a "diploma supplement" from it and show it to potential employers. This certificate will include not only academic performance but also badges for extracurricular activities such as athletic clubs, cultural organizations, and student circles, as well as experience in volunteer work and peer support within the university. It will also include and certify scores from external foreign language proficiency tests and study abroad experiences. We hope that students will use "TG-folio" to stay focused on their goals and enjoy their student life.

Currently, the Tohoku region, the hometown of many of our new students, is facing a crisis. The working-age population is migrating to the Tokyo metropolitan area, and the declining birthrate and aging population continue unabated. Sendai, a city of one million people, has served as a "population dam" by attracting people from all prefectures in Tohoku, but it has finally burst, and the population has been declining for the past two years. It is you, who will bear the future of Tohoku, who will save Tohoku from this crisis. Study diligently at Tohoku Gakuin University and acquire the skills to shoulder the future of Tohoku.

Now, you are a member of Tohoku Gakuin University. Set clear goals for yourself, find your place in athletic clubs, cultural associations, student circles, volunteer groups, and peer support, make friends, and make the most of the advantages of our urban campus, which is convenient for commuting and closest to the city center of Sendai, to have a fulfilling university life.

Finally, I would like to share a famous quote from the Bible: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). Congratulations on your admission!

April 5, 2025
Haruki Onishi, President of Tohoku Gakuin University