Mayuki Watanabe

Designing a leadership program with my teammates. And We'll have leadership program regularly in Nagaoka which is my hometown. I want people to know what is to be a leader and what it truly means which I have been learning at the current International school I go to.

I am one of the founders of IBJP which is a student organization that spread the information about International Baccalaureate (IB) in Japan. We realized that there is a big need from Japanese parents to learn about IB since there is only a few information on this curriculum in Japanese. The members were from different places in Japan that we always had meetings online.

Outcome and result:

• Keeping the engagement to the organization even though it was online 24/7
• Actively seeking for the problems and needs
• Communication skills
• Management skills
• Organizing skills
• Supporting skills
• Coming up with the ideas for th next events
• Advertising skills

I have been learning Kendo for almost 7 years and I have got 3 Dan certificate which was challenging for me. (The character of Dan (段 dan) is used in Japanese to mean step or grade, and is commonly equated with degree. by British Combat Karate Association)

Outcome and result:

• There were so many obstacles but I was able to pursue and gain patience to be stronger.
• I learned that foundation is the most important thing for anything
• I learned so much about Bushido spirit, and now it is part of myself.
• I reflected and wrote Kendo diary after every practice to analyze the weakness and strengths. Analytical skills
• From this practice, I am able to sense what the opponent is feeling and thinking, that is very necessary in order to find out the needs in the world.

I was very curious about startup so I joined the startup events that were held for 3 days twice, "Startup Weekend".

Outcome and result:

• Learning the process of startup.
• Learning how to make an app prototype
• Learning about marketing and placement
• Supporting skills (As one of the leader, I pushed the group forward by providing some hints to the members, also I fully supported the founder of the idea)
• I was able to win 1st place (In the 2nd startup event) and 2nd place (in the 1st startup event) at the end.

I have been practicing Kendo which is a Japanese martial art for almost 7 years. I value Kendo because I believes that this is the stem of Japanese people's hearts and myself.

Outcome and result:

• Negotiation skills by finding the popular volunteering Kendo instructor
• I saw the students showing their understanding by their actions such as taking good care of their bamboo swords and so on.
• I was able to spread Japanese culture stem also history to the international students from 17 different countries.
• Translation ability from Japanese to English
• I learned how to ask for the budget to the accountant office also in the club leader conference
• Demonstrated the knowledge of Kendo that I have gained from practice
• Trained club members as well as myself
• Management skills

The business is called "Reshikuru" that was inspired from "Recycle" in Japanese. Business x Environment x Food We are working on reducing food waste by inventing and selling our own products online as well as in the stores.

Outcome and result:

• Successfully fundraised
• I also realized that fundraising does not necessarily have to be utilized as the way of collecting money but it is also very useful just to spread the products as return to obtain the repetitive customers.
• Learning about marketing as a marketer
• Learning about how the business works and what certificates and license I need in order to run a food company
• We were able to sell more than ____

I established a student organization called "Asuiku Wakuiku" and hosted an educational event for the relationship between parents and children from the perspectives as me still being a teenager. I also wanted the participants to realize the numerous possibilities for the children's future.

Outcome and result:

• I was able to invite 5 famous educational experts to this event
• I was able to get a huge support from the city financially
• I got 9.4 start out of 10 from 200 participants
• There were more than 6 TV companies and 3 radio companies came to the event
• Learning the process of how to run a whole event by myself and with members (Writing proposal, emails)
• Negotiation skills
• Planning skills
• Advertising skills
• Organizing skills
• Learning how to involve other people around me

I was aiming to share cultures I am proud of and also feel other cultures that are completely different from mine, also bring the history and culture of Italy back to my home. There were people from Ukraine, Italy, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Greece, Germany, Mexico, and Finland.

Outcome and result:

• Making good friendship with people from different countries
• Learning about Europe (Italy)
• Having discussions with people on the politics and social problems worldwide
• Having different perspectives on one topic

I had 5 other team members from England, the US, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan. In Japan, it is still not common to be able to speak English fluently, and there are not so many people from foreign countries especially in the region that I am in. When I was in G10 we started going to the elementary school every Friday and teaching the children there English by having some fun activities.

Outcome and result:

• Organizing skills and planning skills because I had to gather team members and talk about what we are going to do.
• Communication skills with children also how to contact the school formally as a leader of the team
• Creativity by thinking about the activities, how I can involve the children easily
• Product making since I had to make materials for each lessons. (e.g. English card game, Karuta, Quizzes, Google slides)
• The biggest takeaway from this experience was that being leader is not about leading people, but supporting team members to step forward.
• Cultural exchange was successful through the activities that we planned

I have made a documentary about this Yoga instructor with my friends since we were very interested in what she was doing and her thinking towards life. I was a cinematographer as well as a sound editor. There were other groups who were making documentaries but we were chosen as the best documentary group.

Outcome and result:

• Demonstrated collaboration skills
• Planning skills
• Received the best documentary awards
• The flexibility when anything that was unexpected happened.
• Learned how to make a documentary as a filmmaker for the first time
• Booking an appointment by myself