April SHARE

What the Center Means to Us

The last week of classes at the student center ended on a very positive note. At the end of each day we gathered all of the classes for tea and a workshop about what the student center means to us. The concept was to practice communication skills by really taking the time to listen to our fellow center members. The workshop participants included students, teachers, and even a few people who just stopped by for the day. Each of these people is an important piece in the bigger center picture and I think these workshops really helped us all to feel a greater appreciation for everyone that contributes to it.

The Student/Youth Center is a very unique place that doesn’t have very many analogs elsewhere. When explaining to people from the U.S. I’ve sometimes compared the student center to the YMCA or YWCA in the way that we teach various classes in the evenings which are open to the community. I’ve also heard students describe the center as a college circle where there are students from all different colleges participating in activities together. The center also has resources from different college, universities, church groups and NPOs, so it is a bit like a resource center where people from all these different groups can get information about events and activities in Sendai. But, this still isn’t the whole picture.

In March, we discussed this topic more at the student council retreat and tried to think about how to explain what the center is. It’s still a little difficult but slowly we’re taking what we learned from other center members in the communications skills workshops and imagining a new way to see our activities and make them more accessible to people outside this community. We hope this will be an ongoing conversation as the new school year begins.

-SKLT