2026年度第1回 グローバル萩海外留学奨励賞・グローバルリーダー認定証授与式

グローバル萩海外留学奨励賞受賞者

グローバルリーダー認定者

医学部3年　鶴田 彩さん

Thank you very much for this honorable opportunity. On behalf of the Global Hagi Scholarship recipients, I express my deepest gratitude to President Tominaga and everyone who has supported our endeavors.

My journey to become a global leader began with a major obstacle I encountered during my freshman year. I entered Tohoku University with great confidence, believing English was my greatest strength. However, when facing international students in Intercultural Collaborative Learning classes and at events organized by "IPLANET," the university’s largest international exchange organization, I was completely overwhelmed by their natural speed and diverse accents. I could not utter a single word. As someone who has loved communicating with people since childhood, being unable to interact at all left me frustrated and heartbroken beyond words.

This experience, however, inspired me to take action. I forced myself to initiate conversations in English during classes and activities, which allowed me to gradually experience the joy of connecting with others. This drive led me to a short-term study abroad in the U.S. during the summer of my freshman year. It was my first time leaving Japan, which taught me the harsh reality of being a minority struggling to communicate. Yet, I was embraced by the local community's warmth, and I discovered the true essence of international exchange—that connection is not about speaking perfectly, but about having the courage to connect heart-to-heart. This experience gave me a powerful conviction: "I must understand the world more deeply, and next time, I should be the one supporting others."

After my short-term program, I took on a supporting role at Tohoku University as a student staff member at Global Learning Center and an Intercultural Collaborative Learning supporter. Furthermore, as the leader of IPLANET, I also launched a “Language Exchange” event where Japanese students who were anxious about English and international students learning Japanese could connect comfortably. The experience of designing these spaces for dialogue and engaging such a diverse group became an invaluable asset to my growth.

Now, I am ready for my next big challenge: a long-term study abroad in the U.S. My primary objective is to deepen my knowledge of my specialized field, medicine, particularly focusing on public health. As Japan faces a declining birthrate and an aging population and welcomes many foreign workers, many of them struggle with health disparities due to language and institutional barriers. I believe that studying in the U.S., with its long history of receiving immigrants and adapting its public health systems, will allow me to make a meaningful contribution to Japan's future.

Another objective is to immerse myself in the local community by serving as a Teaching Assistant for Japanese classes and participating in a choir, a long-time passion of mine. By once again placing myself in the shoes of a minority, I hope to cultivate the empathy and the leadership necessary to support those experiencing isolation within institutional systems.

Upon completing my long-term study abroad, I will serve as a Global Campus Supporter to give back to my fellow students and contribute to the globalization of Tohoku University. In the future, I plan to apply what I learn to improve health literacy in Japan’s multicultural society. Ultimately, as a science communicator embodying the intersection of "healthcare and education," I’m determined to help create a world where everyone can maintain their health autonomously.

In closing, I express my heartfelt gratitude once again to everyone who has believed in my potential and encouraged me. With this support and pride in my heart, I will do my absolute best to learn, grow, and represent Tohoku University on the global stage. Thank you very much.

工学部3年　桑田 晃佑さん

Good afternoon, everyone.

I’m Kosuke Kuwata, a third-year student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
I am honored to speak on behalf of the TGL Global Leader Certification recipients. I sincerely thank the international and domestic students I met through Intercultural Collaborative Learning, or ICL, classes, short-term study abroad, and other experiences, including my fellow ICL supporters. They showed me the value and depth of international exchange and helped shape my Global Mindset. I am also deeply grateful to the faculty and staff who created and continue to support these opportunities, as well as to President Tominaga and everyone who helped make today’s ceremony possible.

For me, TGL opened the door to international exchange, different values, and possibilities within myself that I had not yet discovered.

My first real encounter with an environment where international exchange was part of daily life came through an ICL class.
As a first-year student, I could hardly believe that I was studying every week with students from many countries. Some became close friends who traveled with me around Japan and even came home with me to Shizuoka for the New Year holidays.

Later, I became an ICL Supporter, helping domestic and international students connect.
I learned the importance of Yasashii Nihongo, or Easy Japanese. Rather than immediately switching to English, I used simpler words and spoke clearly so we could continue in Japanese. This taught me that international communication is not only about speaking correctly, but also about shaping our words so they truly reach the other person.

Through my experiences in ICL and the wider international exchange community, I developed my own understanding of a Global Mindset. We should understand and respect cultural differences, but if we see someone only as “a person from a certain country,” we cannot truly connect with them. To me, it means understanding differences while ultimately treating each person as an individual. This may sound simple, but without TGL, I do not think I would have truly understood its meaning or the value of putting it into practice.

Another field TGL opened up to me was entrepreneurship, which I had once thought was unrelated to me. I did not expect it to interest me as an engineering student, but it did. With an exchange student from Spain, I developed an AI-powered phone application to support people with hearing disabilities and people who cannot speak the local language. In the end, We entered the Hult Prize, one of the world’s largest student social entrepreneurship competitions, and were selected as finalists in the national round in Japan.

TGL also deepened my interest in language, culture, and history.
I began learning Chinese as a second foreign language, but my friendships with Chinese students I met in ICL made it more than just a subject. It became a way to connect with people. Last summer, as a second-year student, I traveled to China alone to understand the country more deeply. I met local people, experienced Chinese culture and society, and visited places such as Nanjing, which is closely linked to the history between Japan and China. I learned that the same historical event can be understood differently in different countries. Understanding another country’s view does not mean agreeing with everything. There is value in asking why that view developed and comparing it with our own assumptions and the views shared in our own country. This experience further strengthened my Global Mindset.

I will soon begin an exchange program in the United Kingdom, which will be my next opportunity to put this Global Mindset into practice. In laboratory, computer-aided design, and project-based engineering courses, I will discuss experiments, exchange technical ideas, and work with local students in English. Through this experience, I hope to develop the practical skills needed to work in an international engineering environment.

My goal is to become an engineer who can adapt and succeed internationally. TGL helped me realize that I may have strengths I have not yet recognized and that there may be fields and environments where I can thrive. I want to keep exploring these possibilities and use my Global Mindset to build trust with people from different backgrounds.

Finally, TGL set me on a path I might never otherwise have taken. I do not think I would have met such a wide range of people, had my assumptions challenged so often, or discovered how much wider the world was than I had imagined. Through TGL, I have built genuine international friendships that I hope will continue for years to come, gained valuable experiences such as studying abroad, and developed the Global Mindset I described today, all of which I will carry with me into the future.
Thank you very much.