December 20, 2016
Kayo Jonai, a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Policy Management, has won the Grand Prize in the Culture and Arts category of the 2016 Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) Award for Outstanding Students.
This award, established in the 2005 academic year, aims to contribute to the development of promising human resources who will lead the 21st century by honoring and providing encouragement and support to students who have achieved outstanding results.
The award ceremony was held on Saturday, December 10, at Arcadia Ichigaya in Tokyo, to which 12 Grand Prize winners and 15 Excellence Award winners were invited.
Ms. Jonai received the Grand Prize in the Culture and Arts category in recognition of her achievements, which include winning prizes in international competitions and earning particularly outstanding results in major national competitions representing Japan.
A celebration was held following the award ceremony, where she shared the joyous occasion with the other award recipients.
With this award, Ms. Jonai joins the ranks of past recipients of this honor. She will broaden the scope of her activities in the future, which will include building a network among awardees and supporting future students at award ceremonies.
Comment from Kayo Jonai
I am overjoyed to have received the Grand Prize in such a prestigious Award for Outstanding Students. I have an interest in international exchange and welfare education, and I have actively participated in volunteer activities and exchange programs both in Japan and abroad. Through these experiences, I have strived to articulate the subtle contradictions and discomforts I felt in daily life into writing and share them widely with society. I have continuously challenged myself by participating in numerous essay contests and speech competitions, and I applied for this Award for Outstanding Students as a culmination of these efforts. I am honored to have received the Grand Prize, an evaluation that I feel exceeds my merits. In the future, I hope to pursue the realization of "a society that excludes no one," which was the theme of the speech for which I was recognized, and to play a part in making that a reality on the ground.
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