AOYAMAGAKUIN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
SUPER GLOBAL HIGH SCHOOL

Aoyama Gakuin was originally founded in 1874 by an American missionary Dora Schoonmaker, a young woman who crossed the Pacific Ocean and came to Japan at the age of 23. Aoyama Gakuin states its educational policy as follows: “Aoyama Gakuin has as its aim education based upon the Christian faith and as its purpose the building up of persons who live in sincerity before God, who seek for truth in humility, and who actively take responsibility for all people and for society in a spirit of love and service.” With this policy being the basis, it is one of the main aims of education at Aoyama Gakuin Senior High School to raise a person who can, respecting his/her own culture, accept cultural diversity, overcome problems that may arise from national and cultural differences, and contribute to world peace, and also who can serve and help others with difficulties in the world. Some examples of school programs in which students are expected to work on the issue of cultural diversity are short-period exchanges with the Leys School and Eton College in the UK, exchanges with Pascal IIS in Italy, mixing with students from other countries on long-period exchanges, and visits to other countries. Also through the exchanges with high schools in Miyako in Iwate (a place hit by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake), students not only continue to help and support the victims of the disaster, but also have opportunities to discover the local culture in another part of Japan. This can then lead them to contemplate and understand more about their own identity, an indispensable faculty in our globalizing world. In addition, students are expected to turn their eyes to poverty issues in the world through fair trade issues or visiting the Philippines and by informing others of their projects or experiences. Furthermore, all students will work on their own logbook project inspired by their visit to western Kyushu (including Nagasaki), under the theme of “Peace and Coexistence.”