2021 Fall SUA Founders

Fall 2021

the 17th annual gala Celebrating a Vision of Peace

I N TH I S I S S U E

4 | Peace Gala 2021 12 | Alumni Highlight 16 | Faculty Highlight

18 | Welcome Class of 2025 20 | National Science Foundation Grant 22 | Curie Hall Dedication 24 | Living the Culture of Peace 29 | SUA and USD partnership

A M ESSAGE FROM THE PRE SID E NT

Dear Friends and Supporters, This fall, we successfully welcomed our campus community back to Aliso Viejo after months of COVID-19 prevention planning and preparations, starting with the undergraduate Class of 2025 and the graduate Class of 2023 in August for their orientation and Fall Block, followed by the undergraduate Class of 2024 for their first time on campus, and then the undergraduate Classes of 2022 and 2023. The Graduate School welcomed six new students representing Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The undergraduate Class of 2025 welcomed 134 new first-year students representing such countries/regions as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Serbia, South Korea, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Zambia in addition to the United States. The campus is full of energy and excitement once again with our students, staff, and faculty safely and actively engaging with one another in meaningful dialogue and exchange.

We celebrated the 17th annual Celebrating a Vision of Peace Gala on Saturday, October 9, 2021, and raised $787,908 for the student scholarship fund. Among the 176 attendees in-person, we had many of our precious alumni present. We also had many of you attending virtually from around the world as far away as Brazil, Guatemala, Ireland, Israel, Japan and Vietnam. One of the highlights of the event came from the alumni speaker, Leonard Bogdonoff ’11, who shared his sincere appreciation for the scholarships he received while studying at SUA. His experiences, lessons learned, and network developed while at Soka became the foundational basis for the growth and success of his startup tech company.

The great success of this year’s hybrid gala was a culmination of months of detailed planning and execution by the Peace Gala Committee under the leadership of our gala chairs, Joan May and Misty Fisher, and the entire Development team led by Linda Kennedy. I would like to especially thank the sponsors and donors whose contributions directly support student scholarships.

We also officially held the dedication ceremony for our state-of-the-art life sciences building, Marie and Pierre Curie Hall, on November 18, 2021, where the Orange County Board of Supervisors presented a resolution to SUA celebrating this milestone. With the launch of our Life Sciences concentration last year, the dedication ceremony for Curie Hall, and the growth of our academic opportunities as seen with the accelerated master’s degree programs with the University of San Diego and Claremont Graduate University, I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to all of our donors whose contributions and support directly impact SUA’s education for global citizenship as envisioned by university founder Daisaku Ikeda.

Following the dedication ceremony, the students hosted the inaugural Lions Day event on November 20, 2021, reimagining the Student Festival from SUA’s founding years. I was deeply moved by the efforts of our students using dialogue to bring the student body together to celebrate each other’s identities and learn from one another. After experiencing a challenging year with the difficulties of online learning, the processes leading up to the event served as a means to deepen their bonds of friendship and understanding of the university’s founding principles and mission.

Having just completed my first year as President, I have had many meaningful dialogues with our donors hearing your personal stories and heart behind your generous support of SUA. I am truly humbled and inspired by all of your efforts and actions to continue to help us build a university fulfilling our mission to foster global citizens who will contribute to the betterment of society and peace.

Thank you again for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Ed Feasel, Ph.D. President sua founders

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2 0 2 1 P E A C E GA LA

Seventeenth Annual Peace Gala Surpasses Fundraising Expectations

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undreds of members of the Soka community gathered in person and online for the first-ever hybrid Peace Gala to celebrate and recommit to the university’s mission of fostering global citizens committed to living a contributive life.

The 17th annual event, “Celebrating a Vision of Peace,” was held on October 9th with 176 community members celebrating in person in the courtyard of the Athenaeum.

It was also streamed online with SUA supporters attending from the US, Brazil, Guatemala, Ireland, Israel, and Vietnam, raising $787,908 for the Soka scholarship endowment.

The agenda included opening remarks from SUA President Feasel; a dynamic performance by Barbara Morrison, a three-time Grammy-nominated Jazz and Blues legend; a video highlighting Soka students and alumni around the world; and Soka class of 2013 alumnus Lenny Bogdonoff’s experience. continued on page 6

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2 0 2 1 P E A C E GA LA (co n t.)

(Peace Gala continued from page 5) Bogdonoff launched a company during the pandemic and recently participated in Y Combinator, a prestigious startup accelerator through which he raised a $1.5 million seed round from investors and founders of many successful companies. He said his “deeper goal is to contribute directly to the many fields that are not financially rewarded for the value they create in the world,” and to support SUA’s growth to help it “become a household name for generations to be associated with fostering humanitarian peacemakers, cultural leaders from around the world, and timeless educators.”

Continued on page 11 6

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“…fostering humanitarian peacemakers, cultural leaders from around the world, and timeless educators.” –Lenny Bogdonoff ’13

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2021 PEACE GALA | ALUM NI EXPE RIE NCE

Hello everyone! My name is Lenny Bogdonoff and I am a member of the class of 2011, though I graduated in 2013. I’ll explain that in a few minutes.

I met a professor a few years ago who asked me a question I couldn’t stop thinking about. While it may not be immediately obvious why, I’d like to present each of you with the same question today.

If you had to spend the rest of your life pursuing one of the following three virtues, which would you choose?

Your options are fame, wealth, or power. While each of these can be seen to be interrelated, which would be the one that you feel your life would be meaningfully spent mastering and achieving? Who would you choose to surround yourself with if you hoped to spend your life pursuing this arduous goal? What would you do to continue learning and creating value throughout this pursuit?

In presenting this question, I’d like to offer my own experience before, during and after my time at SUA. I can confidently say, if it wasn’t for my opportunity to study at SUA, I would not be who I am today, and for that, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to each of you, the donors behind SUA, the staff and faculty, each student and graduate, and SUA founder Daisaku Ikeda.

I was born in San Francisco to my mom Akiko, a first-generation immigrant from Japan, and my dad, Jesse, a jazz musician turned businessman from the East Coast. My parents provided me with an upbringing full of educational experiences, support

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and opportunities for creative selfexpression, and in high school, I gravitated most toward computers and film. While I grew up with support and resources, by the age of 16, I found myself struggling to make good friends, repeatedly being arrested for juvenile misconduct, and eventually expelled from high school.

During this time, my family was faced with a series of challenging financial obstacles, resulting in bankruptcy, which impressed upon me the instability of wealth and challenges of business. As I grew up, my parents made repeated donations to Soka University of America’s founding, which impressed upon me the significance and importance of Soka University of America. Through the encouragement of my parents, family, friends, and alumni, I decided to apply to SUA and eventually attend as a student in the 7th class.

Coinciding also with my family’s recent bankruptcy, my parents also moved to Southern California, where my mother decided to find a new way to continue her support of SUA, albeit not financially, working in the cafeteria for 13 years alongside students.

Although I was accepted and had the incredible support of my parents, I deeply struggled with focusing and learning in the classroom. While I had a curiosity about the world, I didn’t have an outlet to channel my interests, and due to my inability to complete assignments, I eventually left SUA on academic dismissal after my first two semesters. During this time, an alumnus who knew my situation

made continuous efforts to encourage me and challenged me to deepen my own sense of purpose about my life.

One year later, after improving my grades at community college, I was readmitted to SUA, but on unfavorable financial terms because I was ineligible for financial aid or student loans. Through the support of faculty and my fellow classmates, I was able to double my GPA from the previous year and became eligible for scholarships. It was only because of the generous academic scholarship SUA offered, made possible by donors, that I was able to continue my college degree.

My time at SUA was marked with numerous cornerstones that shifted how I thought about myself and the impact I could make in the world.

When I returned to SUA, I was given the opportunity to serve on the student government, participate in multi-city volunteer trips, and explore academic topics that extended beyond any specific major or course, such as digital humanities and communication theory. I had countless professors who helped me recognize strengths in myself that I had never seen and encouraged me to come up with opportunities to develop them inside and out of class.

For example, though SUA had no courses that provided any trade skills in design or software development, one professor recognized my interest in programming, and knowing there were no courses available, offered their research budget to have me make a website for them -- which provided me the structure to figure out how to continued on page 10 9

2 0 2 1 P E A C E GA LA | A L UMN I E X PERIENCE ( cont .)

(Alumni Experience continued from page 10) learn the needed skills. Through this, I discovered a number of online resources I had previously never seen and began a personal journey to teach myself software development, which kicked off my career pursued over the past decade.

Also, throughout my time at SUA, I deeply struggled with writing, which was one of the reasons I had struggled to complete my courses as a freshman. Since my high school education had so many gaps in it, I always felt at odds with writing related assignments. The heart of the issue was not knowing my learning style, and not knowing how to effectively structure my thoughts. Through the continued support and mentorship of my peers and professors, my writing ability has become one of my greatest differentiating strengths after SUA. Paper after paper, I got more confident with writing, which culminated in my capstone project, on a then-obscure online community called Reddit, for which my professor allowed me to deeply research the business of online products, history of internet communities, and the startup tech industry.

Following my capstone, I took my required study abroad in Shanghai, China, where I coincidentally launched my official career in software at a fledgling educational language learning tech startup. After study abroad, completing my final required courses and graduating, I settled down in New York, where I was eventually able to work as a software engineer, first at Conde Nast, where I worked on the New Yorker magazine, then the US Federal government, where I was an innovation specialist, as well as a tech startup focused on the reproduction of machine learning models, and Google, where I worked in a specialized team responsible for any font text rendered on billions of devices a day.

Last year, I took steps to start my own company building a video software tool, when I saw the opportunities arising from the shift to remote work in businesses due to Covid-19. This year, I was able to participate in Y Combinator, the most 10

prestigious investor in startup companies, and have raised a $1.5 million seed round from investors and founders of many successful companies. Our company now has five full-time employees headquartered in New York, serving customers ranging from public companies to numerous startups with billion-dollar valuations.

The skills to pursue a career in software began at the end of my time at SUA, but the differentiating skills I cultivated as a student, most importantly, learning how to learn and how to write, allowed me to succeed at identifying the most important opportunities to focus on, and communicate clearly. But what I value most is that my experiences as a student, engaging with people from around the world, gave me the confidence to meet new people, research unknown fields with ease, and even win trust from strangers to collaborate and eventually raise money to start a venture capital backed business.

While starting a company has been a longtime dream, my deeper goal is to contribute directly to the many fields which are not financially rewarded for the value they create in the world. I am determined throughout my business ventures, that I can play an instrumental role in supporting Soka University of America’s growth for centuries to come, seeing it grow to the likes of Ivy League schools and become a household name for generations to be associated with fostering humanitarian peacemakers, cultural leaders around the world, and timeless educators.

At the start, I asked the question, if you had to spend your life pursuing one virtue: wealth, fame, or power, which would you choose? In today’s cultural climate, all these virtues have become synonymous with selfish pursuits and thoughts of grandeur, but I believe in the light of value creation, they can be reframed to maximize their respective good. For example, wealth is not only the cultivation of riches for buying more houses or cars, but a way to amass value

and direct it to the areas in society that are not financially rewarded for the value they create. Similarly, fame is not about shortterm recognition or special privileges, but instead the aspiration to spend your life making contributions to the world which will be valued for generations to come.

And in the light of value creation, I believe power is less about political ambition, manipulation, tradeoffs, and corruption, but instead, can be harnessed by people with conviction behind their beliefs to fix the things they see as wrong in society’s broken cultural frameworks, especially for the sake of those who can’t fix it for themselves.

I am convinced and deeply grateful that it is through my time at SUA that I cultivated this view of the world, where I learned to take my experiences and struggles in life and reframe their meaning to become a tool to motivate myself to be a lifelong learner. I am also proud beyond words to be able to call myself a Soka University of America graduate, where I know with absolute confidence, the students, and graduates to come will be an instrumental force to tackle humanity’s challenges, be it global warming, inequities related to class, race or gender, international conflicts, breakthroughs in technology, educational processes, social cohesion, and so much more.

Thank you for allowing me to share today and thank you again for each of you providing me with the opportunity to call myself a Soka University of America graduate. I can wholeheartedly say, if it was not for the financial support I received through the scholarships made possible by donors like you, I would have neither graduated college, nor married my wife, who is also a member of the class of 2011.

I would have never met my business partner, who I met on my study abroad, and I would not have the countless lifelong friends, who I cherish beyond all else and depend on a daily basis. Thank you so much!

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2021 PEACE GAL A ( c o n t .)

(Peace Gala continued from page 6) President Ed Feasel noted that about 88% of Soka students receive needbased financial aid. In the last 15 years, students have received $191 million in financial assistance. Having surpassed the amount raised for the Soka scholarship endowment at last year’s Peace Gala, this year’s event was a meaningful step toward ensuring that no student is denied a world-class education at Soka due to financial barriers.

Mark your calendars now for next year’s Peace Gala, which will be held on October 8, 2022.

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AL UM N I H I G HLIGH T

Allie Wong, Class of 2011 I chose to study at SUA because of the school’s philosophy of global citizenship, the emphasis on living a life in which we each contribute to world peace and the student-centered approach to learning.

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hrough the challenging course work in each of my classes, I learned how to persevere through challenges. Through study abroad, I learned to take risks and bring forth my courage. Through the friendships I made during my time at SUA, I learned what it means to be truly empathetic towards others.

I found my career path through my experiences at SUA. At the start of my senior year, I was still unsure of what I wanted to do. I did know what I loved, such as learning, helping others, playing music, and working on teams. It was through a lot of reflection and encouragement from my friends and professors that I realized that I had a calling in teaching. My first time leading my own classroom, I realized that I had found something that came naturally to me.

After graduating from SUA in 2011, I went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) with my Master’s in Teaching and Curriculum in 2012. I chose to attend UPenn because I wanted to experience living on the opposite coast of the US and because UPenn has a wonderful program for teachers.

I became a teacher and while teaching, I earned a second Master’s degree in Educational Leadership in 2017 from the High Tech High Graduate School of Education. I had already been working at High Tech High as a middle school math and science teacher for four years, and since this program was embedded in my school, it was convenient to continue my education there while still working.

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I currently live in San Diego and am the principal of an elementary school. Our school has 432 students, and I am responsible for managing and supporting teachers to implement student-centered, project-based instruction, designing and facilitating professional development for faculty and staff, hiring, and managing the budget for the school.

Many of my fondest memories of SUA are related to the clubs and sports in which I participated. I served as president for the choir group Soul Wings and also played on the SUA women’s soccer team. I have many memories of rehearsals and performances making beautiful music with my friends. One of my favorite performances was an acapella performance of the song “You Gotta Be” that our club performed for Lion’s Roar. I also have great memories of traveling around California to games with my team and had fun whether we won or lost. As an inaugural member of the women’s soccer team, I had the honor of scoring the first ever goal for the SUA women’s team during overtime to win our first match. It is an honor that I have always cherished and will never forget.

I had many amazing classes and I loved most of them.

Ten years later, however, what I remember most are the professors who supported me and built relationships with me such as Esther Chang, Ted Lowe and Ed Feasel. All their classes were my favorite because of our student-teacher relationship.

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One piece of advice I would share with current SUA students is to keep a journal.

Journaling will help you to reflect on your experiences and live each moment to the fullest while you are at SUA and will later be a treasured testament to the growth that you will make there.

I keep in touch with the lifelong friends I made at SUA. We live in all different corners of the country, but later this year, we are planning to take a trip together! I also love meeting current SUA students or students thinking about applying to SUA, whom I meet through my work as an educator. I love feeling like I contribute to the school by sharing my SUA experiences and encouraging potential future students to apply.

“I love feeling like I contribute to the school by sharing my SUA experiences and encouraging potential future students to apply.”

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The Soka Instructional Garden (SIG), established in 2011, serves as a venue to learn and practice gardening skills in an environmentally friendly, healthy, and safe manner. The garden is managed by Professor Robert Hamersley and assisted by student garden workers.

Every fall, the SIG hosts the Environmental Studies course, Sustainable Agriculture and Gardening, where students supplement scholarly perspectives on agriculture with practical experience growing vegetables organically. After class, students can prepare dishes from their produce. In the spring, the garden is open as a community garden for students, faculty, and staff.

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SOKA INSTRUCTIONAL GA RD E N

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Robert Hamersley, Ph.D. Assistant Dean of Faculty Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry Science Laboratory Director

FACULTY

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FACULTY HIGH LIGH T

1. PLEASE PROVIDE A BRIEF BACKGROUND ABOUT YOURSELF.

I am Canadian, born in Alberta, and raised between Canada, the USA, and Japan. I am the oldest of seven children. As a teenager, when I was not in school, I was working on farms, cutting hay and milking cows and goats.

2. FROM WHICH INSTITUTIONS DO YOU HOLD DEGREES?

I received my B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Victoria, Canada, where I studied plant ecology and evolution. My Master of Environmental Design is from the University of Calgary, Canada, where I completed a Master’s thesis on the design of artificial wetlands for water treatment based on research I conducted at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. I received my Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography in the Joint Program between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where I researched the transformations of plant nutrients by salt marsh plants and soil bacteria. I also conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Massachusetts, the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, and the University of Southern California. I have been working at SUA since 2007.

3. WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO SUA?

After my undergraduate degree, all of my education and research were conducted at institutions with no undergraduate program. And all the jobs I searched for were at research universities and institutions. Although I had never heard of SUA, I responded to an ad for the position because it was in my specialty and because it was near where I was working at USC. As I looked into SUA, I became intrigued by the story of its founding, and by its mission, as well as by the connection to Japan, where I had lived for five years as a child. When I came onto campus for the interview, I was impressed at the way students greeted me in passing, although they did not know who I was.

SUA seemed a very unique and newly founded place, where I thought I might fit in better than I did in the world of research.

4. WHAT DISTINGUISHES SOKA STUDENTS IN YOUR OPINION?

SUA is a very diverse place. Having grown up attending school in a language I was not comfortable in, and having to adapt to new cultures, I am happy to be teaching at a school with many students who are sharing that experience. I am also glad to be teaching such small classes, where I can get to know each student better. I have made many friends among students while at SUA and keep in touch with and have visits from alumni, whom I mentored as far back as my first years at SUA. Now that they are professionals, I am proud to have seen their development from adolescents to adults living contributive lives.

5. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Like my father and his father, I am a very pragmatic person, so the word “inspire” is not one I use often! I am strongly driven by the desire to use whatever abilities I have, to do good in the world. I like to see things done well and I admire efficiency and competency. I believe in doing everything I do to the best of my abilities and beyond and expect the same of everyone around me. That being said, I think the world is both funny and exciting, and I like to explore as many different aspects of it as I can.

6. DO YOU HAVE OTHER REFLECTIONS ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A FACULTY MEMBER AT SUA?

During my time at SUA, I have had so many opportunities to contribute in ways outside the classroom. Besides serving at various times as Director of the Science and Mathematics Program and of the Environmental Studies concentration, I was also a founding member of Environmental Studies, and contributed for many years to the planning for the Life Sciences concentration. It was very exciting to be involved from the very beginning with the design of Curie Hall, and to be able to contribute to the startup of the laboratory facilities in the building.

I have also been very active in the University’s Campus Sustainability Committee since its inception in 2010 and worked with a group of students in an Independent Study course to successfully achieve a Bronze STARS rating and then a Silver STARS rating for SUA from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

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N EW S T U D E N T OR IE N T A T ION 2 021

By Diana Ueda On August 10th, 2021, Soka University formally welcomed the Class of 2025 to the Aliso Viejo campus. The 134-member class, Soka’s largest incoming class, was officially welcomed by President Ed Feasel, as well as the Soka Student Union President Yuka Hombo, in the Performing Arts Center. Following the hour-long celebration, students enjoyed a catered dinner outside on the campus green.

Earlier that day, New Student Orientation kicked off with the Welcome to SUA session, where students met the Dean of Students, Hyon Moon, and various directors, as well as their Student Orientation Leaders (SOLs). There was much anticipation leading up to this moment, as some students had arrived a week prior to complete their quarantine in their rooms so they could attend orientation activities in-person. During this session, students also had an opportunity to gather in smaller groups with their assigned SOL and fellow Core I classmates.

Following the session, students met with campus security, health center staff, campus counselors, and other areas that provide tools and resources

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for students to maintain their physical and mental well-being. Knowing safety was on the forefront of their minds, students were informed of Orange County and California’s COVID-19 status, and the university’s COVID-19 precautions and protocols.

and were introduced to the Campus Climate Support System. Students also had an opportunity to remotely delve into the founding principles of SUA with Dr. Jason Goulah. The week’s events concluded with a joyful showcase of students’ talent at the traditional Talent Blast.

In following COVID-19 precautions, the SOLs held the Class of 2025’s Icebreaker Night outside the next evening.

Traditionally held in the Student Affairs lobby, it was a night of fun and games that allowed students to meet each other in a relaxing way.

On September 3rd, the university welcomed its second-year students, the Class of 2024, to the campus for the first time. Since their first year was held remote due to the pandemic, an abbreviated three-day orientation was held. Second-year students had an opportunity to reconnect with their Core I classmates, as well as finally meet the rest of their class in smaller groups.

Orientation activities continued throughout the week. One of the highlights was Michelle Hobby-Mears, Associate Dean of Students, and Maya Gunaseharan, Manager of Diversity Initiatives and Community Building, hosting a daily morning session on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion topics.

In addition, students completed an online mandatory training on Unconscious Bias

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After more than a year of having no students on campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SUA community was elated to see the campus bustling with students who expressed their appreciation for being able to finally have in-person classes and interactions.

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L I F E SC I E N CE S

“Marie’s work also is so well connected to Soka’s mission as it helps students understand our common global connections and how nature and humanity are so integrally connected.”

– Bryan Penprase

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arie Nydam, assistant professor of biology, has received a research grant from the National Science Foundation. A marine evolutionary geneticist, Professor Nydam is the first SUA faculty member to be part of a research project funded by the NSF.

Professor Nydam and two collaborators will use the $662,000 award to expand knowledge of marine invertebrate ascidians, commonly known as sea squirts.

“I am fascinated by Marie’s work, which I sometimes describe as a 23andme for marine invertebrates that unlocks the genetic codes within the creatures and also the pathways by which these creatures migrate across the earth, sometimes aided by human trade,” said Bryan Penprase, vice president for sponsored research and external academic relations.

“Marie’s work also is so well connected to Soka’s mission as it helps students understand our common global connections and how nature and humanity are so integrally connected,” he said.

“She has done amazing interdisciplinary work in her research and teaching and has added so much to Soka since she has arrived. We are very proud of her accomplishments and what she has brought to SUA and to our new Life Sciences concentration.”

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SUM M ER R E SE A RCH

“Obstacles are an inherent aspect of research, and while things can get frustrating very quickly, it is important to stay patient with yourself and with your research.” – Erica Koyama ’23

Contributed by Nana Takahashi ‘22 A handful of students and Life Sciences faculty spent the summer collaborating on research projects in the newly opened Marie and Pierre Curie Hall.

For nine weeks, Erica Koyama ’23, worked with Susan Walsh, associate professor of molecular/cell biology and director of the Life Sciences concentration, on a project that integrated bioinformatics, cell biology, and biochemistry to determine the function of a yeast protein. Koyama was interested in applying the content she learned in textbooks to a specific research question.

What surprised her during her internship was how frequently she had to troubleshoot problems to move forward in her experiments. Doing research, she learned, requires perseverance to answer a scientific question.

“Obstacles are an inherent aspect of research, and while things can get frustrating very quickly, it is important to stay patient with yourself and with your research,” she said.

She advises other students to enter the lab with an inquisitive mind and ask a lot of questions. Koyama presented her project at the SoCal Undergraduate Chemistry Research Symposium on August 6.

Aarohee Bhattarai ’23 worked with SUA biology professors Marie Nydam and Lisa Crummett on a project identifying

marine invertebrates. Since she was a child, Bhattarai has been interested in science and wants to join a lab after graduation.

Nepal, her home country, has limited science internships so she felt fortunate to have the opportunity to work in a laboratory at SUA for 13 weeks this summer.

Her research centered on identifying invertebrates by extracting DNA, performing PCR, and using barcode sequencing to determine the diversity of coral reefs. She also conducted biochemical assays on sea anemones to examine the relationship between light and symbiont density. Working on multiple projects, she learned the necessity of standardizing her experiments to maintain accuracy. Although she analyzed many different species, the techniques were similar and as she intends to study neuroscience, mastering them has helped prepare her. “I had wonderful peers and professors I could talk with and explore new protocols even when things did not work out,” she said.

Riley Grosso ’22, Claire Nichols ’21, and Micaela Lafrenz ’23 also worked on research projects this summer in Curie Hall. Next summer, Soka looks forward to welcoming even more student researchers into the laboratories through the generous funding of the Nieves Family Foundation, the Stauffer Family Trust, and the National Science Foundation.

Soka thanks the Luis and Linda Nieves Family Foundation for their generous support of these summer grants. sua founders

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“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

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M ARIE AND PIERRE CURIE HALL DEDICA T ION

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n November 18, 2021, over 200 virtual and 50 in-person guests participated in the Marie and Pierre Curie Hall Dedication Ceremony.

President Ed Feasel opened the ceremony by highlighting the SUA alumni who encouraged SUA to add a Life Sciences concentration to support students interested in health fields. He also thanked donors around the world who made it possible to build the state-of-the-art 90,000 square foot science building.

Curie Hall has eight teaching labs and classrooms, 11 research labs, 18 faculty offices, collaborative work spaces and conference rooms, and the large conference room where the ceremony was held.

After the welcome from Dr. Feasel and Soka Student Union president Yuka Hombo, a series of SUA faculty members and students shared their excitement about the new facilities and curriculum that will allow students to prepare for careers in medicine, life sciences, and related fields. Sergio Prince, representing Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, then presented Dr. Feasel with a Certificate of Recognition for the Dedication of Marie and Pierre Curie Hall, sharing this quote from Marie Curie: “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

Marie Curie became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize when she was honored in Physics in 1903 along with her husband Pierre. She received a second Nobel in Chemistry in 1911. President Feasel noted in the university founder Daisaku Ikeda’s 2003 welcome message to the third undergraduate class, Mr. Ikeda highlighted the life and accomplishments of Madame Curie and shared her words that: “Each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity.”

President Feasel expressed his hope that students in Curie Hall will graduate with a commitment to serve humanity based on their studies in the life sciences, just as Marie Curie did, and that her name on this building and her statue will continue to serve as great inspiration for all of us of what is possible as a global citizen striving to live a contributive life. sua founders

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L I VI NG T H E C U LT U R E OF P E A C E IN 2021

SUA students and alumni shared personal experiences living in accordance with the principles of peace at Soka’s 8th annual dialogue on peace and non-violence on October 11th.

This year’s dialogue, “Living the Culture of Peace in 2021” was the first to include student representatives and was conducted virtually to allow speakers from around the world to participate.

In his opening remarks, Anwarul Chowdhury, former under-secretarygeneral and United Nations Ambassador, honored Soka founder Daisaku Ikeda’s endeavor to build a culture of peace through dialogue.

Ambassador Chowdhury emphasized four concepts that are essential to creating a culture of peace: non-violence, the oneness of humanity, global citizenship, and disarmament measures.

Moderator Tetsushi Ogata ’05, visiting assistant professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at SUA, noted that Chowdhury’s own efforts were important for the establishment of the UN’s resolutions in support of a culture of peace.

Current and former SUA students then shared their experiences and efforts in advocating and implementing a culture of peace in their daily lives. The panelists included: Hinako Irei ’20, a master’s degree candidate at Claremont Graduate University Nandini Choudhury ’12, a data analyst at the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Jonathan Junqua ’16, a fourth-year candidate for a joint medical and public health degree at Touro University California Subina Thapaliya ’22, a fourth-year student from Nepal Natsuha Kataoka ’23, a second-year student from Japan Maya Hidana ’25, a first-year student from Israel Watch full video of the event: www.soka.edu/peace-dialogue 24

www.soka.edu

AT H LE T ICS

Provided by Soka Athletics

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espite remaining virtual for the 2020-2021 academic year, the Soka Lions have been selected as a Silver-Champions of Character® Five-Star Award institution by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the NAIA Character Advisory Committee, and the NAIA National Office.

Even during lockdowns, Soka University Athletics’ staff and student-athletes continued to embody the NAIA’s core values of integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership by identifying ways to virtually earn points on the NAIA Champions of Character Scorecard from around the globe.

Traditionally, institutions are measured on a demonstrated commitment to the Champions of Character program and earn points in character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, and character recognition and promotion. The Champions of Character Scorecard measures each institution’s efforts and success in teaching, building, and reinforcing the NAIA’s core values. Points are given for community service, teachable moments, and a host of other positive standards. The NAIA collaborated with member institutions to better reflect efforts impacted by transition and adjustments from COVID-19.

The Champions of Character program continues to grow and impact people throughout the nation due to the passion and commitment of NAIA member institutions.

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G I VIN G

Why stock giving is beneficial When you cash out your stocks before donating, you have to pay capital gains tax. However, transferring directly to Soka University allows you to give the full amount of that stock, making the donation much larger. The full amount of the stock is also eligible to be a deduction on your tax return.

Essentially, gifts of stock are even more impactful than cash gifts, and allow you to avoid paying capital gains tax!

Soka University of America’s mission is to foster students into global citizens ready to change the world – and you can make a vital contribution to their Soka education before the year is out. Many of our supporters are taking a powerful step to ensure their donation works in their favor by creating a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), also known as IRA Charitable Rollovers.

If you are 70½ or older, you can fulfill your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) for 2021 by donating from your IRA. This is a smart way to contribute before the end of 2021 while reducing your taxable income at the same time.

Get started at FreeWill.com/QCD/Soka

To learn more about this, or to make your stock gift today, visit FreeWill.com/stocks/Soka/Welcome.

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www.soka.edu

20TH ANNIVERSARY CAM P A IGN

THE TIME IS NOW. YOUR LAST CHANCE TO MAKE HISTORY IS DECEMBER 31, 2021.

You still have time to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo by participating in our campaign to fund the future. With a gift of $2,000, you will be recognized with your name on a donor wall inside the new Marie and Pierre Curie Hall. We can only accept gifts through December 31, 2021. For those of you who have already participated, we thank you!

Learn more at www.soka.edu/support-sua

Go online to: give.soka.edu or contact Linda Kennedy, Director of Philanthropy (949) 480-4072 or lkennedy@soka.edu to be a part of the celebration.

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Photo: HOK/Benny Chan

RE TU R N T O CA MP US

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n August and September, the Soka University of America campus typically springs to life as students arrive in Aliso Viejo to begin the academic year. New students and their families explore the campus and take a few extra trips into town for room decorations and sundries. Returning students joyfully greet each other with hugs and excited shouts in the Bistro as folks reconnect after a summer apart.

The return to campus in 2021 featured both excitement and hopefulness but looked quite a bit different than years past.

Starting off Safe While in previous years, students arriving to campus would quickly head to the residence halls to greet friends and receive their room key, arrival in 2021 featured new protocols. The Recreation Center served as the first stop on campus where the gymnasium was transformed into a COVID-19 testing and vaccination site for incoming students.

In May, university leadership announced two policies designed to provide the safest return to campus: 1) the COVID-19 vaccine would be mandatory for all faculty, staff, and students (with medical or religious exemptions permitted) and 2) all students, regardless of vaccination status, would undergo an on-campus COVID-19 test prior to moving into the residence halls. Any student who tested positive upon arrival could be quickly moved to an isolation room to prevent community spread on the campus.

Safety Quarantine With students traveling to SUA from around the globe, Soka knew not everyone could access a COVID-19 vaccine prior to arriving to campus. The university partnered with both the Orange County Health Care Agency and local pharmacies to provide vaccinations to students upon arrival. Students who were not fully vaccinated arrived seven days ahead of classmates so they could quarantine in their new room. Students were tested again upon completion of their quarantine.

As many students were arriving by airplane and were not able to bring items like bedding, linens, and snacks, significant efforts were coordinated between Residential 28

Life, Mail Services, Facilities, and IT to provide students a comfortable room environment during the seven days. Staff placed mailed or stored items inside student rooms prior to arrival, and new students were greeted by their Soka-issued laptop inside the room as well.

During quarantine, meals were delivered daily and Residential Life staff and Student Orientation Leaders hosted different virtual social events to help students feel connected.

On-going Testing Until a student was considered fully vaccinated, they were required to test for COVID-19 twice per week. The Soka Student Health Center took on the sizeable task of scheduling and tracking testing, as well as helping students receive their second vaccine dose at the appropriate time. Over 1,100 tests were conducted in August and September and by mid-October, 98% of the student body was fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Keeping Safe When arriving to campus, each student signed a Health and Safety Pledge affirming that they would do their part to show care and respect for others in the Soka community by following all safety protocols and policies (including wearing masks indoors on campus, cooperating with testing, quarantine, and contact tracing efforts), conducting self-health screenings and staying in their room if they felt ill, and encouraging their peers to observe safety practices. Some safety measures resulted in new policies (i.e., no off-campus guests permitted inside the residence halls), other measures included physical adjustments to campus such as plexiglass barriers in high traffic areas. In addition, most student activities were moved to outdoor venues and additional outdoor furniture was placed around the residence halls to provide students with a safer location to relax and socialize. Outdoor classrooms were also set up on campus.

The university continues to monitor local conditions and adopt best safety practices as the entire campus adjusts to living and learning together after more than a year apart. While some pieces may look a bit different, the mission of the university and spirit of the campus community remain very much the same. www.soka.edu

JOA N B . K ROC SCHOOL OF PEACE STUDIES PARTNE RSH IP

SUA is honored to announce the development of an Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s Degree Program between SUA and the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego (USD).

This partnership brings together two universities whose mission and founding principles are so closely aligned.

Under this agreement, SUA students will be able to begin their graduate studies while completing their undergraduate degree in one of three Master’s Degrees offered at the Kroc School: MA in Peace and Justice (MAPJ); MA in Social Innovation (MASI); and MS in Conflict Management and Resolution (MS-CMR).

MA IN PEACE AND JUSTICE (MAPJ) PROGRAM The interdisciplinary MAPJ program is ranked #1 nationally. Drawing upon the expertise and experience of peacebuilders from around the globe, students learn how to address a wide range of peace and social justice challenges, including armed conflict, refugee and forced displacement issues, human rights abuses, and environmental injustices. In so doing, students acquire the capacity to analyze the root causes of violence, oppression, and injustice, and apply impactful peacebuilding strategies to address them.

At the global level, the MAPJ program prepares students for careers in public and private sectors, as well as intergovernmental organizations and nonprofits. Graduates work in areas of international development, humanitarian aid, human rights, environmental policy and peace and security, and in fields including policy advising, advocacy and research, conflict resolution, community outreach, trauma recovery, refugee support, fundraising and more.

MA IN SOCIAL INNOVATION (MASI) PROGRAM The interdisciplinary and nationally ranked MASI program provides students with an opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to develop sustainable, scalable solutions to tackle humanity’s urgent challenges, whether that leads to growing their own social impact startup or leading innovative programs in established organizations.

Drawing upon purpose-driven social innovators from around the globe, coupled with a curriculum that emphasizes experiential learning and human-centered design, students learn how to develop, implement, and manage innovations for social change. Based upon a deep understanding of the historical, institutional, and cultural factors that drive conflict, injustice, oppression, and poverty, students learn to design and implement solutions effectively and sustainably. MASI graduates have found careers leading entrepreneurial ventures, in the public and private sector as well as intergovernmental organizations and nonprofits. Graduates work within organizations focusing on social change, creating economic, social, and environmental value, within corporate social responsibility departments, as well as local, state, and national governments.

MS IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND RESOLUTION (MS-CMR) PROGRAM In common with its counterparts, the nationally ranked MS-CMR program draws in working professionals from around the globe. Students gain the skills necessary to expertly navigate intra-societal conflicts at the individual, workplace, community, national and international levels. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum that emphasizes experiential learning, students encounter multiple approaches to effectively manage and resolve conflict, graduating with a readiness to transform conflict into positive change through conflict analysis, intervention design, negotiation, mediation and facilitation and dialogue.

MS-CMR graduates have made a global impact through careers in public and private sectors, as well as intergovernmental organizations and nonprofits. Graduates work within organizations as ombudspersons, diplomats, mediators, human resources specialists and more.

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PAC I F I C A L L I A N C E OF L IB E R A L ARTS COLLEGES

Soka University of America is leading the development of the new Pacific Alliance of Liberal Arts Colleges (PALAC), which currently includes 8 top liberal arts institutions in 4 countries.

The PALAC institutions are mostly young and innovative new liberal arts universities pioneering new models of global liberal arts that promote deeper understanding about the interconnectedness of all the cultures and societies in the Pacific Region. Below is a current list of PALAC member institutions including their year of founding and number of students.

Canada

Quest University Canada (2007; 600 students)

China

NYU-Shanghai (2012; 2000 students)

Hong Kong

BNU-HKBU United International College (2005; 6000 students)

China

Duke Kunshan University (2013; 1000 students)

USA

Pomona College (1887; 1650 students)

USA

Soka University of America (2001; 450 students)

USA

University of Puget Sound (1888; 2650 students)

Vietnam

Fulbright University Vietnam (2016; 500 students)

We are actively discussing PALAC with additional institutions in other countries, such as Japan and Australia, and hope to add new institutions to the alliance in the coming months.

The alliance is in its first year and we look forward to hosting a meeting at Soka University of America in June 2022 for the PALAC institutions and other global liberal arts institutions to discuss new models of global liberal arts education, and how our institutions can together advance global citizenship education and research and teaching to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. We are also working with the PALAC institutions this year to discuss some interesting new programs for the PALAC alliance, which might include programs for collaborative faculty and student research, initiatives to help build faculty leadership and teaching, and new programs to provide students with exciting opportunities for cultural exchange and experiential learning.

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www.soka.edu

CORE

Left photos above: Kanata Kawasaki ’25

It is one of SUA’s signature experiences, The goals of the Core sequence – Core a rigorous introduction to university-level 1 is followed by Core 2 in the spring of intellectual work during which first-year students’ second year – are ambitious. students delve into the works of some of Classes are designed to help students humanity’s most profound thinkers and explore the commonalities and grapple with life’s most vexing questions. differences of the human experience Core 1 is a three-week, intensive seminar from multiple perspectives, and develop that both faculty and students describe critical thinking skills to evaluate ideas in as a consuming, eye-opening, and relation to their own lives. rewarding experience.

“Core is a point of departure, helping a With each section limited to 12 students, student take a pen and begin to draw faculty members from across disciplines a map of the world of thought, find guide students through selections from themselves on that map, and find others seminal texts from around the globe. in relation to themselves,” said John Pavel Professors choose readings from works Kehlen, professor of Asian literature, who such as Confucius’ The Analects, Plato’s has been teaching Core sections since Republic, Laozi’s Tao Te Ching, and 2003. “We don’t pretend we will get Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and may answers, but asking the questions is the augment those with additional works first step to what I call becoming a liberal artist.” drawn from their own expertise.

Read the full article at www.soka.edu/news-events/news/challenging-new-students-consider-humanitys-enduring-questions

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Soka University of America Publisher Soka University of America President Edward Feasel, PhD Executive Editor Linda Kennedy

Editor Dana Collins Graphic Design Cathy Cervantes Photography Courtesy of SUA Photography Office and Mark Howlett Photography

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Correction: Dean of Students Hyon J. Moon was mis-quoted in the article “Class of 2021’s Resilience Celebrated in Virtual Commencement Ceremony,” which was included in the Summer 2021 newsletter (page 5). The correct sentence is: Dean of Students Hyon J. Moon read the Founder’s Commencement Message to the Class of 2021 in which he conveyed: “…all of you who are jewels of prodigal light, my warmest congratulations on this day! You have prevailed over challenge after challenge to celebrate your graduation with songs of triumph.”