Service Learning Program 2010

Letter from Prof. Ishizawa

8 April 2010

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure, as president of Sophia University, Tokyo, to invite your universities to participate in the Service Learning Program set up this year by Sophia:

PRESERVING CULTURE –
A WAY FOR PRESERVING IDENTITY
Tribal Culture, Family Culture, Historical Culture, Environmental Culture…

The Program will take place in August in Thailand and Cambodia. For the past years our Student Center had set up a small summer program in these countries.

Cambodia is a country with cordial links to our university. In Siem Riep our Sophia Mission has four years been a place not only of archeology but also of monument preservation, a place where young Cambodians can learn how to care for their cultural heritage. The discovery of Buddha statues led to the construction of a museum sponsored by Aeon and handed over to the Cambodian State. It will be my pleasure to welcome your students personally in this beautiful cultural landscape.

The first part of the Program will take place in ChiangMai. Here we will have an introduction to Ignatian Spirituality in a city marked by Buddhism. Furthermore, thanks to the assistance of the Jesuits of ChiangMai we shall be able to learn about the Karen people and its culture and participants can experience a homestay in Karen Village.

Thus we invite you to share our educational commitment “Men and Women for others, with others” with your students.

Kind Regards,

Prof. Dr. Yoshiaki Ishizawa
President
Sophia University

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