On Monday, August 5, all first-year students gave poster presentations at Eikei TOP as a finale to their IEP (Intensive English Program). The IEP is designed for students to take listening, reading, writing, speaking, and presentation classes in English for six months after entering the school in the spring, and to reach a level where they can take Liberal Arts and other classes in English from the autumn quarter of their first year. As this poster presentation session demonstrated, students are expected to actively participate in discussions on societal problems that often do not have clear answers.

Students presented in pairs (or groups of 3) and within their Presentation class spent about two weeks preparing for the “Changing the World” theme by creating posters on a wide range of SDG related issues. Topics included the lack of good education in developing countries, how to deal with nuclear waste and oil pollution in the sea, to name a few. Based on their posters, the students explained the issues (and potential solutions) in English. As well as students, faculty (Professor YASUI Toshiyuki and Professor. UESUGI Yuko) also made posters and presented their research alongside the students.

Some students presented about people who have attempted to change the world in a positive way (such as Howard Shultz the founder of Starbucks), and other students focused on groundbreaking technology or government initiatives. All the posters were related to the SDGs and introduced in English, and lively question and answer sessions ensued. The students will use the skills they have gained from the IEP to engage in further discussions on social issues in their content classes that will start from October in the autumn quarter. As they will be sitting alongside international students in these content classes, they will certainly need the confidence gained from the annual IEP poster presentation conference.