2001年09月25日ニューヨーク学院入学式式辞（英語）

慶應義塾長安西　祐一郎

On behalf of Keio Gijuku, I would like to welcome all of you, now entering Keio Academy of New York, as young students willing to meet the challenges of the future. I also would like to express my deepest gratitude and congratulations, for the support up to now and from now on, of all the parents, relatives, and other people who have made the entering new students grow up, and decided to send them to our Keio Academy of New York.

I assume that most of you will spend your lives on campus, staying at the dormitories. You might spend your time rather remote from parents, relatives, or friends of your youngest days. But actually this may be a splendid opportunity for you to detect your potentials and abilities that have been concealed behind yourselves, to find new friends who share deep thoughts through your entire lives, and to discover your "self" that had not emerged before.

I strongly believe that each of you will be able to spend significant and truly satisfiable life on this campus. I ask for the parents and all the supporters living remote or close or wherever, to give our new youngsters what I call empathetic support. By empathetic support, I mean mental, physical, or any other kinds of support that can be made by deeply and warm-heartedly following and inferring how and what the student feels, thinks, and behaves.

Well, as you all know, Keio Academy of New York was established in 1990 as a school for educating students who acquire good experience of living and learning in American culture, as well as in Japanese one, and can stand for young elites who will cooperate together to create the global society of the future.

Let me cite here the Mission Statement of the Academy that provides this point very clearly:

1. Nurture each student's development as an individual and as a self-confident and contributing member of the community.

2. Provide opportunities for students to experience diverse cultures and to prepare for a global society.
3. Instill in each student a strong sense of "self-esteem" and "moral independence" which has been a Keio tradition since its establishment in 1858.

Furthermore, I should take this opportunity to add two things related to this Mission Statement.
First, in last June of this year, our Keio Academy of New York was accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools, known as NYSAIS. NYSAIS is a renowned organization of selected private schools in New York State and the accreditation from NYSAIS implies that Keio Academy of New York was not only evaluated highly, but also proved to be a school whose mission is being fulfilled. Thus students and their supporters can be very proud of it.

I should appreciate our headmaster, Prof. Teruo Inoue, as well as many teachers, administrative staff, and many students, who devoted their efforts to this accreditation matters. In addition, thanks should be extended to Prof. Tsuneo Yahagi, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and other board members.

Second, related to the Academy's Mission Statement, I would like to refer to a famous statement of Yukichi Fukuzawa, who founded Keio Gijuku more than 140 years ago.
" The Keio Gijuku is not satisfied with remaining merely a place of cloistered learning. It aspires to be a fountainhead from where flows the nobleness of character, and an intellectual light and moral glory to illumine the path of Japan. Its aim is to make clear those principles which should govern the domestic, social and national life, not only by preaching but also by practicing them and thus to prove to be a leading factor in the general welfare of the country."

This famous phrase, whose meanings may or not be difficult for you, are really words quite appropriate for presenting to you at your own starting point of the new school life. Fukuzawa saw the world with the eyes from Japan. "Illumine the Path of Japan" in the phrases, suggests that. But you need not to do so. You can see the world with your eyes open internationally. You are now neither girls nor boys. You are young ladies and gentlemen, who are now members of the prestigious Keio Gijuku family. Please keep your eyes wide open, discover your own energy, have the warmest hearts to thank friends and other people, and acquire a tough mind to challenge for the future.

Again, Keio Gijuku heartfully welcomes all of you, ladies and gentlemen, and hopes that you will spend the very best and delightful lives with our Keio Academy of New York.
Thank you very much.