Kitchen, a natural foods restaurant in Tokyo. Despite the threat of rain, more than sixty people gathered at the restaurant, which was soon filled with animated conversation as members of the ISAK community reconnected.
After a welcome toast by Representative Founder Mamoru Taniya, ISAK staff members gave brief presentations highlighting recent progress at ISAK in areas such as accreditation, faculty hiring, construction, finance, student recruiting and PR. Participants also enjoyed the first public screening of the movie from Summer School 2012. Later, Founding Head of School Roderick Jemison joined the gathering from San Diego, California, by Skype, thanking everyone for their continuous support of the ISAK mission.
At the end of the evening, ISAK Executive Director Lin Kobayashi expressed her thanks to the many individuals who have supported the ISAK project along the way. Lin’s comments included her trademark motto, “Pessimism is a mood. Optimism is a will” (from French philosopher Alain’s “On Happiness”). Lin commented that ISAK supporters are remarkable for their ability to have faith in a project that is only now becoming tangible. It is due to the amazing positive energy of everyone in the ISAK community that the ISAK dream is becoming a reality, despite the various challenges that have appeared along the way.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank not only the volunteers and supporters who joined us at Daylight Kitchen, but everyone in the ISAK community who has provided support and encouragement thus far. We look forward to your continued assistance as we work toward the opening of ISAK high school in 2014.
