2026 Entrance Ceremony Speech

Today, as we hold the 2026 entrance ceremony, 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. It is truly a joyous day that we are able to hold this entrance ceremony, where parents and children can gather together, in two separate sessions here at Xebio Arena Sendai.

You have been selected and earned the right to enroll, 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 until you graduate.

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, who became the first member of a Protestant church in Japan, and William Hoy, an American missionary who supported Oshikawa and worked hard to establish the college, it celebrates its 140th anniversary this year. After about five years, Sendai Theological Seminary changed its name to "Tohoku Gakuin" (North Japan College), and developed under the guidance of missionary David Schneider, Hoy's successor. It became a university in 1949, and since its founding, 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 Protestant Christianity. We explain this founding spirit as our school motto, LIFE LIGHT LOVE. This is a phrase that has been familiar to Tohoku Gakuin graduates for a long time. LIFE means cherishing the lives of finite living beings and the dignity of each individual created by God in His own image; LIGHT means pioneering a new era through the achievements of learning and science; and LOVE means serving the community and the world with 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 in Gobashi and the Rahäuser Memorial Tohoku Gakuin Chapel in Tsuchitoi. We hope that you will calm your mind, attend the serene and solemn university worship services, read the Bible, listen to the message, understand the core spirit of the academy, and reflect on who you are and how you should interact with your neighbors.

Now, 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. During your four years at university, you must acquire the knowledge and skills 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 university graduates. Such people are like people who enter 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 and foremost is the acquisition of digital technology skills. As you know, the rapid pace of global change is progressing like a runaway train, driven by the spread of Society 5.0, which transports massive amounts of data at high speed, ChatGPT, and conversational generative AI represented by Gemini. You will need to use your own computer to utilize layers such as the OS, the internet, the cloud, and data analysis to prepare the necessary information and answers. 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 the math exam. Last year, all of our faculties were certified at the "Applied Basic Level" in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Mathematics, Data Science, and AI Education Program Certification System," known as MDASH, a level only granted to advanced universities. Professors specializing in information science will explain things 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, proactive learning methods such as problem-solving active learning and entrepreneurship are required. The "Problem Inquiry" course group in TG Basic, which all students can take, is a problem-solving class where students learn methods for solving various issues such as careers, local communities, volunteer work, and startups, 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 Eastern Japan, at the Hoy Memorial Hall in Tsuchitoi and the library at the Schneider Memorial Hall in Gobashi.

The third is the use of "TG-folio," also known as an e-portfolio. While "portfolio" is originally a financial term for asset management, "TG-folio" is a system that allows students to review their learning achievements and check how well they have progressed towards 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 study abroad experience, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, peer support, and will also list and certify scores and qualifications from external foreign language proficiency tests. We want students to make the most of their student life by utilizing "TG-folio."

With the widespread adoption of conversational AI, it has become easy for everyone to instantly access the same information and answers. Beyond that, however, it is your individual intellectual curiosity and problem-solving abilities that will enable you to acquire specialized knowledge, utilize digital technology to create new value, and forge a new era. This is the purpose of learning at higher education institutions such as universities and Graduate Schools. We encourage you to cultivate a rich general education and deep specialized knowledge, along with your problem-solving skills.

Now, you are a member of Tohoku Gakuin University. Set clear goals for your future, find your place in the athletic clubs, student organizations, student circles, peer support groups, and volunteer activities, 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 enjoy a fulfilling student 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 7, 2026
Haruki Onishi, President of Tohoku Gakuin University