ENGLISH PROJECT INFORMATION 1⃣

Calling for Motivated Students from Around the World:

Help Us Hold A Successful Student Conference!

 

 

 

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🌏We want to provide passionate students from around the world with a place for discussion and interactions!

 

　Thank you for visiting our page! We are the committee members of the 66th International Student Conference.

　We are in charge of organizing the International Student Conference (ISC). Our conference has four core missions: pave the path to world peace, empower students, embrace diversity, and contribute to society. The main activity and aim of this conference is to hold an academic conference on an annual basis to serve as a platform where approximately 70 students from Japan and overseas come together for two weeks in August to discuss solutions to global issues as well as experience international exchange.  

 

Students from different cultures and backgrounds gather at this conference every year. One might expect that because students come from around the world and have different backgrounds and experiences, it may be difficult for them to be comfortable and really get to know each other. On the contrary, with all of the students’ shared drive to learn more about the world and each other, we have amazing discussions and create lifelong friendships in our ISC family😊.  The conference is a stepping stone for students to reach towards their goals and dreams, as participating in a conference while they are a student helps build valuable experience. 

 

　We want to introduce our three aims that we plan to achieve throughout the conference with comments from participants of last year!

※Their opinions and comments are followed by ”＞”.

 

1.Providing a place for motivated students to grow

 

・ISC gives students a chance to exemplify their leadership skills, make independent decisions, and encourage individuality. 

＞I was able to believe more in my ideas and gained confidence in my ability to participate in discussions while listening to different opinions from students who share the same passion towards global issues, even though our backgrounds are different. (ISC65 Participant) 

 

・ISC helps students realize their potential and raise their awareness on various global issues

＞I came to be aware of not just my table’s topic but also other table topics and expanded my areas of interest. (ISC65 Participant) 

 

2.Delivering student’s voices to society

 

・ISC values students’ innovative ideas, as they are usually not hindered by national interests or social factors

＞I was looking for opportunities to create ideas and take actions to solve social problems worldwide, so ISC was a perfect fit.  (ISC65 Participant) 

 

・ISC spreads the conference outcomes as policy proposals, action plans and business plans to the society. 

＞One of the main reasons why I joined ISC is because I knew ISC was not just about discussion, it was also about taking action. I’m glad we were able to send our policy proposals to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (ISC65 Participant) 

 

・ISC encourages participants to continue utilizing their awareness and their inquiring minds after the conference, to be mindful and take responsibility to be the driving forces of the society.

＞ I became more interested in my table topic and I began to study more deeply about it. I also participated in other activities related to my topic, such as university classes and extracurricular activities. (ISC65 Participant) 

 

 

3.Contribution to the realization of a society that respects diversity

 

・ISC respect for all students’ personalities and experiences, which is essential for successful global cooperation. 

＞ Thanks to my experience of interacting with students from various countries, I stopped unconsciously profiling people based on their nationality and what the media says about their countries, and I learned to consciously value each person as an individual.  (ISC65 Participant) 

 

・ISC produces innovative ideas as students exchange experiences and ideas from their various backgrounds, who were born and raised in different cultures and environments, therefore have diverse values 

＞Despite some issues between nations due to conflicts and trade frictions, I found that we all had the same goal of creating a better world for all of humanity.  (ISC65 Participant) 

 

 

　In order to achieve these goals and to deliver a fulfilling conference to enthusiastic students around the world this year, we have been working steadily to prepare for ISC for about six months so far. 

 

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🌏With your support, we want to bring the opportunity to many more students to participate in our conference.

 

　The International Student Conference is an international exchange organization with a long history in Japan. Starting out as the Japan-America Student Conference (JASC) in 1934, ISC became independent as a separate organization after World War II. In 1954, the first “International Student Conference” was held, and participants were invited from many countries, not only between Japan and the United States. We celebrate our 66th anniversary this year. Today, the “International Student Conference” is run under the “International Student Association” which has branches nationwide to facilitate its operation.

 

　We have been conducting crowdfunding every year since the 63rd International Student Conference. Thanks to every person who sympathises with our enthusiasm and philosophy, we have been able to achieve our goal and successfully hold our conference.

 

ISC66 would like to ask for your support for crowdfunding at this time. We have two goals we would like to achieve for crowdfunding: offer many students the opportunity to participate, and to gather funds in order to hold a successful conference. 

 

Offer More Students the Chance to Participate by Subsidizing their Participation Fee 

We want to make sure that financial costs do not deter participants from joining, which is why ISC subsidizes part of the participation fee for all participants. For Japanese resident participants, the participation fee is 55,000 yen, and for international resident participants, the participation fee is 35,000 yen. This fee includes room and board, transportation costs during the conference, and participation in the Main Study Tour. The participation fee difference between Japanese resident participants and international resident participants stems from the cost of travel to the conference. Many motivated students who live abroad may make the choice to not participate in ISC because of the financial inability to pay for travel expenses or the participation fee. For example, a round trip from South America to Japan will usually cost at least 100,000 yen. Last year, there was a student who applied, but during the interview process he was forced to give up his application for this reason. As we aim to be a global conference, ISC aims to provide the opportunity to participate to as many students as possible. Thus, we do our best to be considerate about the high transportation costs for students coming from abroad.

 

 

Hold A Successful Conference: Providing Places for Discussion and Accomodation 

In order to hold a successful conference, we need to provide participants with a comfortable environment to fully concentrate on discussions and to be able to get to know each other. Providing room and board and transportation costs for around seventy students for two weeks is no easy task. As participants come from various cultures and backgrounds, we must ensure that each participant can meet their basic necessities. For instance, ISC provides prayer rooms and takes care to fulfill all participants’ dietary needs. We also make sure that our facility is easily accessible to the airport and conference venue. This year, we chose Osaka because it is relatively near Kansai Airport and it has facilities that are tourist-friendly. 

 

The 660,000 yen collected by this crowdfunding will be used for the following things.

 

・Venue fee for main conference　150,000 yen

・Participants' transportation expenses (during the main conference）430,000 yen

・＋Commission for READYFOR

 

We would like to hold a truly “International Students Conference” by gathering excellent students from all over the world, both developed and developing countries.

Collecting funds is a difficult task for us, as all of the planning and management of the conference is done by students. Please support us as we work hard to hold ISC!