Sophia Online Summer Program 2020,“Learning with Southeast Asia: Creating Together Resilient and Sustainable Future Society” was operated in cooperation with 5 universities from 4 countries

Sophia Online Summer Program 2020 (Sophia OSP 2020), held from 8 to 11 September 2020, was operated by Sophia Global Education and Discovery Co., Ltd. (Sophia GED) and Sophia University in cooperation with 4 partners universities in Southeast Asia.

Participants included Lecturers, staffs and students from Sophia University in Japan, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) in Philippines, Mahidol University International College (MUIC) in Thailand, Xavier Learning Community in Thailand, and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Malaysia. A total of 180 participants registered for the entire program and over 100 participants joined each day of the program.

In each day of the program, the sessions were hosted by each Sophia Partner University. The first part of the program started with the Virtual Campus Tour and Students Exchange Session. All participants were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the campus and a university presentation prepared by students and staff of the hosted university. Also, all students participants were divided into different groups for self introduction, sharing university life and exchanging contacts with each other using prepared self-introduction cards.

The second part of the program was Lectures and discussions under the theme of “Creating Together Resilient and Sustainable Future Society.” The lecture was given by the lecturer of the hosted university on the topic unique to the university and the country. Then, students were divided into groups to discuss on the various topics together with other students from different universities.

Throughout this program, students were encouraged to keep in connection with each other. In addition to online data sharing of self-introduction cards and Facebook Group of Sophia OSP 2020, students were divided into different 20 breakout groups to discuss on various topics and kept their records on Google Slide to share with each other.

From Sophia University participants:

“Not only was I able to learn more about the current situation in the country, but I was also able to spend a very meaningful time interacting with students of the same generation”

We hope that everyone will keep in contact with each other and look forward to the actual visit of each university in the near future.

Sophia GED and Sophia University will continue to plan various kinds of educational programs, based on the reflection of the feedbacks from the participants in the questionnaire.