Saki Takatori, a fourth year from the Faculty of Education at Okayama University, and Ai Kiriake, a third year from the Faculty of Law, were chosen for the Japanese delegation for the global youth summit One Young World (OYW) 2017, to be held in Colombia’s capital city of Bogota, South America, held in October 4-7. On September 11, the two students participated in a send-off party for the Japanese delegation at the ambassador’s residence of the Colombian Embassy in Tokyo. Atsufumi Yokoi, Vice Executive Director and Senior University Global Administrator (UGA), who was scheduled to participate in OYW2017, was also in attendance as an observer.

At the send-off party, after the congratulatory speech given by Gabriel Duque, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Colombia to Japan, there was an introduction of the Republic of Columbia and an explanation about OYW2017. In addition, there was also a meet-and-greet for the members of the Japanese delegation, which boosted everyone’s motivation about participating in OYW2017.

The two students will be participating in discussions and workshops in the international session, networking (meet-and-greets), as well as engaging in a wide variety of lively discussions and activities about climate change, war and peace, education, human rights, leadership and global business.
This year is the 8th OYW summit, and the first time held in South America. Okayama University first participated in the 6th summit in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2015, and this will be the third time participating after the 7th summit in 2016, held in Ottawa, Canada.