"Thank you, SFC!" | Hitoshi Takano (Administrative Director, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC))
2016.10.31
I was appointed as the 9th Administrative Director of Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) on November 1, 2011, and made my debut on the "Okashira Nikki" blog on January 13, 2012, with a post titled "The First Step." Now, after a full five years since my appointment as Administrative Director, I will be leaving SFC.
Eight years and two months from its establishment in April 1990, and seven years from November 2009. In total, my life at SFC has spanned over 15 years.
In my "Okashira Nikki" post from January 2012, I wrote about my desire to "see the horizon of the future from the perspective of the Administrative Director." I wrote that to do so, it was necessary to be grounded and solidify the place from which I would gaze at that horizon, and that this meant closing the distance with the students.
So, was I able to see the "horizon of the future"?
Initially, the image I had in mind was one of solidifying the ground to build a high platform from which to view the distance. However, this image changed when I had the opportunity to take the stage with Dean Kawazoe as a speaker in a Faculty of Policy Management class this May.
As it turned out, the "horizon of the future" was found precisely within the students with whom I felt I needed to close the distance to become grounded.
During my tenure, SFC celebrated its 25th anniversary, and many of the SFC alumni I met while fundraising for the Miraisozojuku (Institute for Designing the Future) project were students from when I worked at SFC in the 1990s. Professor Hiroshi Kato, the first Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, described students as "international students from the future."
"That's right."
I was encountering the present lives of those international students who, over the years, had truly returned to the future.
It must be because of this experience. The moment I saw the large crowd of students from the stage of the Theta Building, I realized that the "future" was right here. How should I describe it—"future," "potential," "brilliance"? A dazzling aura reached my heart.
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Then and now, SFC has "international students from the future." Within the students lies the very "horizon of the future" I had hoped to see.
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Professor Hiroshi Kato's words, which I had only understood conceptually, finally "clicked" for me.
This "clicking" is an important thing. I believe that for knowledge to become a part of you, it must be realized through the experience of it "clicking."
My idea of considering "closing the distance with students" as "the first step" was not wrong. It was not only "the first step" but also "a step" that would continue to form the unbroken path that followed. Among them, the students who walked alongside me became very important to me.
I want to express my gratitude to the many SFC students who showed me the future, to the faculty and staff who walk alongside them, and to everyone involved with SFC.
"Thank you very much."
With my transfer effective November 1, I will be taking up the position of Director of the Personnel Department in the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration) at Mita Campus, but I believe my experiences at SFC will connect to my own future. I would like to say it one more time.
"Thank you, SFC!"
[From the SFC Office]
Effective November 1, Yoshitaka Nakamura will be the successor.