The J-MCP summer 2022 program has succesfully eneded this week, with all students presenting their group projects. The program, which ran between August 15 and September 16, featured three modules (21^st Century Skills, Diversity & Inclusion, and SDGS & Business) and welcomed 177 students from 15 countries and regions.
 

21^st Century Skills

 

Despite our program starting during the Obon break in Japan, many students have joined continually and participated actively in the summer course of 21^st century skills.

 

This summer, we had more than 50 students from various countries participating in the program, including from Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA and Vietnam.

 

Throughout the program, the students were introduced to digital literacy, teamwork, critical thinking, presentation skills, international mindset, and open mindedness.

 

An advantage of JMCP program is to be able to work together with the students from different countries in a collaborative final project. This year, students were asked to work on a “What if….” question based on one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  Using this “What if…” question as their guide, the groups created a video, digital poster or presentation that presents what every facet of life on Earth would look like and why if the “What if….?” situation were true. 

 

Students presented a wide variety of what-if scenarios such as “what if there was only one currency for all countries” and “what if everyone had equal educational opportunities”. All of the students were able to employ their 21^st century skills to critically think through their “what-if” situations and to provide innovative solutions.

 

 

Diversity & Inclusion

 

Our 10 synchronous lectures for Diversity & Inclusion have come to the conclusion last week.

This summer, 40 students signed-up and joined the course. As the name of the course suggests, we had a diverse group of students joining the program. They came from Japan, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Denmark and China.

 

Throughout the program, topics such as “diversity in workplaces” and “emotional intelligence for teamwork” have been highlighted through on-demand learning content, live lectures and collaborative tasks.

 

In the final presentations, the students were asked to select one of the provided assignment topics and prepare their response by reflecting on their understanding of diversity & inclusion. The students discussed issues such as gender equality which were common topics among the presentations. Interesting case studies such as Mercury pharmacy from the Philippines and Accenture from Japan were presented to show how the private sector is making efforts to implement diversity in their workforces.

 

The course also discussed the importance of paying attention to various levels of diversity in different contexts and how we can contextualize possible issues related to diversity and inclusion depending on different cultural and country contexts.

 

 

SDGs & Business

 

For SDGs & Business, we had 55 students coming from Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Chile, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey.  Throughout the five weeks of synchronous classes, the students participated in interactive lectures and meaningful discussions with lecturers from Japan, Thailand, and Singapore.

 

The students were introduced to various business and sustainability topics such as labor in the platform economy, corporate social responsibility and accountability, and sustainable marketing and branding. The students also had several opportunities to hear from guest lecturers working in the private sector to learn more about practical business solutions to contribute to sustainability.    

 

For the final presentation, the students were divided into 9 groups and each presented a business proposal focusing on corporate social responsibility and activities. Some interesting ideas were presented such as sustainable event planning and non-fluoride water. All presentations included original ideas along with eye-catching videos and collaborative research.

 

 

Information about up-coming programs

 

The next J-MCP program will be hold in Spring 2023. Announcements will be made on the program website: https://kuiige.wixsite.com/j-mcp/coursemodules