Our United Nations were but a few months old when the Reverend Yasuzo Shimizu established “Obirin Gakuen”, a name derived, as my cherished friend Hiroaki Hatayama explained to me, from the Japanese characters for “cherry tree,” “beautiful,” and “forest” and, in that graceful process of phonetic poetry, honouring the name of J. F. Oberlin, a scholar and practitioner rooted in times far beyond his temporal own, who nourished the soil of the farmlands in his neighborhood by controlling erosion control, through contour ploughing and terracing; with irrigation and the introduction of organic fertilizers. Each of those images summons to mind “Henry’s” leadership of the university today. Just as the cherry tree takes three to five years to bear fruit, so too does the passage of time and tutelage equip the student with the marketable results of her education. Just as the forest is an ecosystem of wondrous forms of botanical and biological life, so too is the university that Henri leads home to so many and varied ideas and possibilities. Just as beauty is enhanced in the eye of the beholder, so too does the grace of Obirin bring serenity and strength to an otherwise agitated world. And just as the agricultural landscape was enriched by Oberlin’s innovations, so too have the minds of the university’s faculty and students, and the President himself, been constantly enriched and made fertile through what Henri has described as “Gakujijijin”, learning in order to be able to help others.
That last phrase unites the United Nations and J. F. Oberin University, with its stated aim of creating global citizens on the basis of Christian values. The last of the Ten Commandments exhorts us not to be envious of our neighbour's goods; the Preamble to the United Nations Charter urges us to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours. Henri has proved our neighbourhood, and our care for it, can be a nation oceans distant as much as the home next door. I sensed this in my first conversation with him, more than ten years ago, when he was a research scholar at the Sloan School of Management. Reading the School’s mission statement at the time, “to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world”, I felt I had met someone worthy of that cause, a feeling the years ahead, and the friendship with which I have been blessed, have proven right. I am grateful.
MESSAGEもろ手をあげる、オベリンナー
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時代は大きく変わりました。
誰でも自分の思いや考えを形にして自由に表明できる時代。その時々で、自分が価値を置くことに思い切って取り組むことができる時代。分野を超えて知識と技術を柔軟に融合できる時代。
新たな価値を創造するには最高の環境が整いつつあります。
桜美林大学には、「学而事人」(がくじじじん)というスクール?モットーがあります。「学び続け、人や社会のために力を尽くし、感謝し、感謝される人間になりなさい」という教えです。この理念を基盤とする桜美林の教育を受けた人のことを、オベリンナーと呼んでいます。
オベリンナーの人物像は、高い目標や基準を定めて懸命に取り組み、寛容で柔軟な思考を有し、困難にあっても前向きに捉え、夢や目的をあきらめず、自分なりの強い信念を持って行動する自由自在な人間です。
校歌には「オベリンナー、もろ手を上げて」という詩がでてきますが、まさしくこの時代の艱難を乗り越えて栄光に至る道を鼓舞しているかのようです。
個々人が有するポテンシャルを高め、しっかりとした知識や技能を修得し、それを人や社会に還元することで豊かな社会を創造できること信じて、桜美林大学は、教育や研究の成果を社会に還元します。最善の教育を展開します。地域や世界の平和のために機能する拠り所となります。
常に新しい学び、新しい価値を創造し、これまでも、これからも、「キリスト教主義に基づく国際的な人物の育成」という建学の精神に基づいた教育研究を展開し、学而事人をグローバルに実践できるオベリンナーを輩出してまいります。
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