A Message from the President

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Welcome to SUA Founders, our special newsletter for our donors and friends, filled with updates on recent university happenings and events. I hope that you enjoy browsing through these pages and see all that Soka University of America has to offer.

As we kicked off the new academic year, we officially welcomed 109 students of the undergraduate Class of 2023 representing 17 countries including Brazil, Ghana, Korea, Morocco, Netherlands, and Russia. From the United States, our students come from different states with a majority from California. For the graduate school’s Educational Leadership and Societal Change MA program, we also welcomed seven students representing Brazil, Ghana, Japan, Malaysia, United Kingdom, and the United States.

We also received news of Soka’s rankings in the official U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges 2020 Rankings. I am very pleased to share with you that we came in 27th in the National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking. We also ranked #1 in financial resources and #2 in faculty resources. We also placed #1 in Most International Students and #7 for Best Value among the top National Liberal Arts Colleges. Each year, these rankings serve as a wonderful reminder of the contributions of our students, staff, faculty, alumni and donors.

In the month of October, many meaningful traditions took place including the Sixth Annual Dialogue on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence sponsored by the Luis and Linda Nieves Family Foundation. This year, the annual dialogue commemorated two significant events which include the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birthday. For this occasion, the event took place over a two day period including a lecture by this year’s keynote speaker, Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, and a second full-day of sessions with multiple distinguished speakers.

Another highlight in October was our annual Peace Gala where we welcomed over 417 guests and grossed over $742,000 for our student scholarships. The feature performance for the evening was renowned pianist, Keiko Matsui. The sincere efforts of everyone who worked together over the past several months were evident in the heartfelt response from our guests. Thanks to your sincere support, we are able to offer our students a quality academic experience and many unique opportunities.

In closing, our campus is finalizing construction of a new science building and two residence halls to accommodate our new Life Sciences concentration which will begin Fall 2020. The university also held a dedication ceremony for the new Nieves Observatory of Soka University of America housing a 14” telescope as part of this campus expansion. Within the science curriculum, we are excited to broaden student perspectives about the interconnectedness of self and the physical universe, an effort to broaden the scope of global citizenship.

In closing, I would like express my appreciation to our donors and supporters who continue to support and believe in our university’s mission.

Sincerely,

Daniel Y. Habuki, PhD President