On January 23, 2019, SCOPE welcomed 9 students from Colegio La Unión High School in Lima, Peru at Ichigaya campus. The high school students visited Japan for a cultural exchange program. Colegio La Unión is introducing Japanese tradition, custom, and culture into their education and has been deepening interaction with Japan since their foundation in 1971.

This time, the high school students were given some introduction on about the English based degree program at Hosei University and joined a brief lecture related to sustainability of agricultural landscapes through the application of indigenous and local knowledge by Dr. Shamik CHAKRABORTY, Lecturer at SCOPE. The students were excited to experience an actual university class.

After the brief lecture, SCOPE students from diverse countries such as Guatemala, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates interacted with the high school students through　group work. The students enjoyed sharing topics about their culture followed by a discussion session. The discussion session was used as a bridge to increase understanding of different cultures. At the end of the discussion, the students from Peru had two brief group presentations, where the students explained cultural characteristics of Peru, as well as that of the countries noted above.

The lecture and the discussion session showed that atmospheres created by the cultural exchange between universities and high schools could provide a wonderful platform for understanding different cultures through meaningful communication.