RAS & AUS 2025 in NUS

Hello, I am Nanase Hara, a second-year student in school of Education at Nagoya University. I participated in RAS (Regen Asia Summit) and AUS (Asian Undergraduate Symposium). Both of them aimed to provide opportunities to become international youth leaders for students in ASEAN countries mainly, but also from Japan, Korea, China, and India. Approximately 700 students joined RAS and almost 300 students joined AUS from the 14 countries. From Nagoya University, 11 undergraduate students participated.

Program Overview

RAS (from 4th to 5th July)

We learned about some environmental problems in Southeast Asia through panels, discussions and workshops.

AUS (from 7th to 19th July)

We had three main themes: “Sustainability & Regeneration”, “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” and “Heritage & Culture”.

●　Panels: We learned about some problems based on the three main themes.

●　Learning Journey: Students were separated into some groups and each group had activities for three days. I visited “Queens Town”, a residence which tackles to make a warm community on the first day. On the second day, I visited the aging center which provides support for caregivers as well. And also I did “Healing Cracks” activity, we broke the bowl and then put together it to make a new shaped work with Kintsugi, Japanese traditional skill.

●　Group Project: We made groups of 5-7 from more than 3 countries, based on each interest. My group organized a project to produce tote bags with recycled plastic bags in Vietnam, hiring people with disability who are looking for job.

●　Cultural Night: On the last day, we had an event “Cultural Night”. Each country prepared a booth and showed their own culture. Japanese booth had Kendama and some snacks wearing Yukata. Also, some countries’ participants had showcases and performed traditional dances and songs.

What I Learned

●　Passion to Solve Problems: Many participants had great passion and responsibility to improve the difficult situation we are facing now, as a representative of their country. They were thinking of the problems seriously and had strong enthusiasm to overcome them.

●　Collaboration with Others: It was the very first experience for me to expose myself to such a diverse environment. I saw various cultures and perspectives, that are quite different from that I’m familiar with. We sometimes struggled to understand each other at first, but we got to embrace the differences positively, respected and wanted to know more. By communicating and collaborating with them, we could reflect each idea to the project and make it more acceptable for more people.

●　Networking: I was inspired by a lot of people there, some contribute to big scaled projects, others have a clear vision of their future. Also, after the programs finished, I see their contribution in their countries on Instagram and still get inspired by them. Their strong passion make me more ambitious, help me to leap out into a wide world, and try new things!

New Perspectives and My Future

As I have already stated, I came across a lot of new things. The programs gave me numerous things that I should reconsider. One of the insights was that how we can address some difficulties “as a Japanese”.

Japan is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the US, European countries and so on. On the other hand, Japan is a part of Asia as well so that we need to learn more about the cultures and the problems in other Asian countries. I found that I have too many things that I don’t know at all through these programs.

I will get more knowledge and wish to be a part of core team to make great changes for our world. Also, I hope more Japanese people get curious about the situations not only in Western developed countries but also developing ones in Asia.

Finally, all experiences and friends were very precious. RAS & AUS 2025 were so wonderful and encouraged me to reconsider what I really want to do in the future. I hope to make our society better for all people in the world, as a change maker, as well as a youth leader, with the awesome people I met there!

Thank you!