Adamant Namiki’s Initiative for SDGs: Final Presentation Meeting on ‘Fro-pro’

By Riyako Namiki, President and CEO

On Jan. 22, we held a final presentation meeting on ‘Fro-pro ADNa’ at Wai-wai Plaza near Yokote Station in Akita Prefecture. Eight high school students reported the achievement of their projects. They tackled with their goals by learning via online workshops for three months through January.

‘Fro-pro ADNa’ recruited high school students who want to contribute to their regions and helped them carry out projects by getting assistance from college students. Orbray Co., Ltd. and ‘From Project’ jointly hosted the event.  A ‘fro-pro’ workshop was primarily launched by students of Keio University’s Shonan-Fujisawa campus. In Akita, Sumire Takeuchi, who’s from Tokyo, started a similar project when she got enrolled at Akita International University. Takeuchi and her friends have held workshops more than 10 times and this is the first time for them to collaborate with a sponsor company. We, Adamant Namiki, appreciate the opportunity to support them and realize our goal of making a contribution to Akita.

At a mid-term presentation meeting on Dec. 2, I got the impression that the students could yet to accomplish their work even though their goals were excellent. In the following one and a half months, however, they took concrete actions - recruited participants for their projects, planned events and made flyers. Through the process, they came up with new ideas and one student became independent from his group and carried out solo-project.

As judges for the presentation meeting, we invited Yukio Waga, chairman of Yuzawa Chamber of Commerce, Osamu Wada, deputy president of Orbray Co., Kuni Sasaki, general manager of Yokote City’s commerce and tourism department and Tomoki Miura, head of Miulan . Thank you so much for your contribution during your busy time, everyone!

Team Wishing to Make Everyone Happy Project

The first group who made a presentation was ‘Team Wishing to Make You Happy’ which comprised of Yuki, Kirito and Tatsuki. They proposed an idea that high school students help elderly people shovel snow while enjoying such volunteer work in Yuzawa and Yokote, the regions famous for heavy snowfall. They underlined the importance of supporting snow-removing work by showing data of increasing single households, which reduces intimacy in people’s relationship. They recruited volunteers to help the project and then held a social gathering with the elderly to listen to them and play cards with them. Though it seemed hard to round up volunteers, the students kept calling on their friends and gathered five people.

From Frustrations to Contribution of Regional issues

Hiromu, who had belonged to ‘Team Wishing to Make Everyone Happy’ at the time of the mid-term presentation meeting, had separated himself from the group to engage in a solo-project and launched a web-site where people can discuss ‘frustrations’ about their regions. On the web-site, people can post their frustrations and others can offer ideas to solve those problems and call on readers to act together.

For example, one person posted in the site that snow fails to be utilized. Someone responded and proposed making many snowmen and displaying them for attraction. On the day before the final presentation meeting, the idea was put int practice. He asked his friends to pitch in and a large number of small snowmen were placed along sidewalks of Sun Road in Yuzawa City. I participated in snowman-making. The view of several dozens of small snowmen lining up along the street was very charming and heartwarming.

MRT Project

The second team for presentation was ‘MRT’ which had three students, Masaya, Ryunosuke and Towa. They were worried about the outflow of young people from Yuzawa and Yokote and considered why and what they could do. They concluded that it’s crucial to let young people realize their regions’ attractiveness and held two workshops for the purpose. At the first meeting, the students received feedback that their voices in the presentation was too soft. Taking the advice, they tried to speak loudly at the second meeting. They also had music playing in the background while making the presentation so that they didn’t have to worry about the silence during poses. Furthermore, the students made flyers to introduce the regions’ attractiveness and distributed them at places where people gather. They did a great job for the flyers. I was very impressed with the potential of these ‘digital native’ students. They reviewed the flyers sufficiently and I expect the students to make a better product next time.

Intellectual Activities Project

The final presenter was Kodai, who thought high school students rarely engage in intellectual activities and proposed launching a workshop to spur their inquisitiveness. He created a project from scratch for himself. At the mid-term presentation meeting, I was convinced that he had very precise thoughts. I was more impressed with his contemplation at the final presentation meeting. Even adults could hardly manage to catch up with his thoughts. He also tried to think about the effective way of presentation to appeal to audience, which surprised Mr. Wada, deputy president of our company and a former consultant.

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When ‘fro-pro’ project started last year, these students spoke falteringly in making self-introductions. At the final meeting, they prepared slides very well and made presentations stately. As a mother of a high-school boy, I was very moved with their progress.

I believe we experience a series of projects of this king in our life. I think our society is an aggregate of such projects.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Society and Technology unveiled a policy of seeking inquiry-based leaning. Through ‘fro-pro’ projects, I reaffirmed the delight and importance of solution-oriented learning, instead of cramming knowledge. Also, I believe Adamant Namiki has made some contribution to realize the fourth aim of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, “Quality Education,” and the 11th aim, “Sustainable Cities and Communities.” I hope these small activities will get connected and develop widely.

Related article

Adamant Namiki’s Initiative for SDGs: Mid-term Report Meeting on ‘Fro-pro’

Adamant Namiki’s Initiative for SDGs – Launching ‘’fro-pro’’ Workshop

Fro-pro ADNa Instagram (Japanese only)　https://www.instagram.com/fropro_adna/

SDGs | Orbray Co., Ltd.

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