Written by Ayana (Class of 2019, Japan) on behalf of CAPI
CAPI is a core activity club that was initiated by a student two years ago. The club aims to organize different events to promote cultural presence, raise awareness on different social issues, advocate for peace, and encourage interactions with different members of the community. Last year, the club successfully organized a variety of events, including the wildly-successful Cultural Days with 6 different cultural groups, the Vagina Monologues in commemoration of Women’s Day, and Dialogue Nights sessions.
This year, the club has thus far organized a Teacher’s Day event to show appreciation to our faculty members, and also has rebooted our Dialogue Nights. Dialogue Nights are a space where any member of the community is invited to share their ideas and opinions about a given topic which are suggested by different people at the beginning of the year. The club then selects one for each session.
Earlier this month, the first Dialogue Nights session revolved around the topic of education and our educational background. It was a space for anyone to share their motivations for coming to a UWC school, to UWC ISAK Japan in particular, their goals in learning, and their educational backgrounds. The dialogues started off with different people sharing their own views, but eventually ended up in an interesting discussion about different political views in each country and if, or how much of, those views should be reflected in education. It is commonly claimed that UWC is a bubble, and it does not necessarily reflect the full diversity existing in society as it tends to attract people with a certain political view. Should our community also be the bubble as a new school, or do we encourage even more diversity? As a topic that tends to be discussed in daily conversation in our community, it was great that this was brought to the Dialogue for frank conversation.
The club hopes to continue the Dialogue Nights sessions regularly, hopefully with welcoming treats of hot chocolate and popcorns to make a more comfortable space for conversations. However, we have much more than just that in store! On December 8th, we will be hosting a Winter Ball, followed by the first Cultural Day of the year by our Japanese community members. This will be followed by International Mother Tongue Day, Clearness Committee, Women’s Day, and many more. We are looking forward to the whole community joining our exciting events!
