Rena Kawasaki is a decorated student from the SOIS community, whom we can all learn something from. From years prior, she was always engaged in the community, and striving to always do what she could to create a positive impact. She started groups like Earth Guardians and was part of the student council, to name a few of her achievements.
Rena has continued to impress us with being a selected winner of the RISE scholarship, and, as of recent news, winning the International Children’s Peace Prize award.
For Rena’s RISE project, she hosted discussions between the youth and their local political representatives, in order to lower negative perceptions Japanese youths have towards politics and politicians. Rena also developed a digital platform, Polichat, that allowed the youth to ask politicians questions.
To get a closer insight on the steps Rena took to attain such achievements, I conducted an interview with her. This interview was conducted shortly after Rena won the RISE scholarship, and went over how Rena won the scholarship, as well as her advice.
Can you introduce yourself and what you achieved?
Hi! My name is Rena Kawasaki, I am in 12th Grade, and I received this life-long scholarship run by Rhodes Trust and Schmidt Future, called the RISE scholarship. I received this scholarship through my work in political activism.
Where did you get the idea or motivation to start this project?
I’ve done a lot of extracurricular activities outside of school that some people might not think about. Like, I was the CFO of this company, Euglena, and also started Earth Guardians Japan when I was in 10th grade. I was always really curious about a lot of different social issues. But I think what hit me the most was when I saw, on Japanese TV, a lot of corrupt politicians. And that impacted me into thinking “why don’t a lot of people talk about this?”. So I wanted to make sure that even in my small community, it wasn't going to be taboo. That’s why I did this project called “let’s talk to a politician”, where I invited local politicians to talk to highschool students in the Osaka area.
TAKE THE RISK
What were the steps you took to achieve this?
First, I went through a lot of research. I talked to people in my youth community network who I knew held political events before, and made them check my proposals. I also did a lot of research about what the youth really thought about politics, through surveys and personal hearings. After this, we created the proposals, and invited politicians through Facebook to see if they had any interest in participating in this youth collaboration event.
What advice would you give to students who may want to have an impact like you?
So, I know that OIS doesn’t necessarily have a big community when it comes to outside projects, but I think there are a lot of benefits when it comes to doing these types of projects that will actually involve a larger community, because you can connect it to what you’re sort of learning in class (global issues). But for the advice I want to give, don’t consider what has been done before. For my project, though there were not necessarily any impacts within the community, RISE found the benefits of it in the long term. So I wouldn’t consider what people think would look good in a resume. If you’re genuinely interested, and have a passion for a subject, I think if you use a little bit of your creative and organizational IB skills, anyone can construct an impactful project. Take the risk.
Take Away
Rena is a prime example of what students are capable of. Whether your ambitions or projects be big or small, with the right planning, perseverance, and dedication, any one of us is more than capable of achieving great things.