As shown in the school motto, "Salt of the Earth, Light of the World," the founding spirit and volunteer spirit at our university are inextricably linked. Many students and faculty members at our university have been actively involved in volunteer activities. In 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake prompted the student-led creation of the "Volunteer Station." It was launched by a group of volunteer students to promote volunteer activities. After serving as the "Volunteer Center," it was reborn this spring as the "Civic Engagement Center." Its purpose is to further develop the functions of the center with the following missions:

◆ Promote students, faculty and staff to voluntarily participate in social contribution activities
- Utilizing the expertise and strengths of the university to improve the social impact of volunteer activities and citizen collaboration activities
◆ To improve the educational benefits of participating in social contribution activities

I would like you to pay attention to the term "civic engagement." Translated into Japanese, it means "citizen collaboration," but the concept of "citizen" here dates back to ancient Greek culture. In ancient Greece, the dawn of democracy, a "citizen" was a proud and honorable being who had the right and obligation to participate in society. This time, what we have valued in opening CEC is precisely this "pride in social participation." We hope that all students will actively participate in society with pride and self-confidence as global citizens. CEC was established as a place to provide strong support for this. Social participation comes in many forms. It is not just traditional volunteering such as disaster relief or welfare support, but also includes community service activities and participation in social businesses, and the scope of activities is limitless. "From volunteering in the narrow sense to citizen collaboration in general" - with this in mind, we named our new center "Civic Engagement Center."

We will introduce some of the CEC's specific activities to promote citizen collaboration initiatives.

1) Student consultation desk
We provide consultations to students who wish to participate in volunteer activities and introduce volunteer programs. In order to meet a variety of needs, CEC provides the following services: A wide range of programs for beginners to experienced We provide information on volunteering, and when consulting with students, we listen carefully to their interests, concerns, and volunteer experience, and strive to provide information that is appropriate for each student. We also provide training and courses that are useful for various volunteer activities, so anyone can participate in volunteer activities with peace of mind.

2) Operating various systems to support students
CEC has also established a system to support student civic collaboration activities. For example, Volunteer and Social Contribution Project Support System (commonly known as "VolaSapo") provides financial support to students who plan and design their own volunteer projects. Project plans submitted by students are pre-screened based on criteria such as the students' understanding of the social issues they are working on, their enthusiasm, their learning and growth through volunteering, and their contribution to the local community in which they are working. Selected projects will receive subsidies for their activities. Five projects were selected in 2021. Volunteer Support is the final stage of the Center's programs in that it involves students turning their own solutions to social issues into projects and getting others involved in achieving their goals.

Registered student organization network "AOGAKU Volunteer Network" also provides logistical support for student activities. By joining this network, on-campus volunteer groups can easily collaborate with other groups and expand the scope of their activities. In addition, by joining the network, they can receive various types of support. For example, they can exhibit at the student volunteer group joint information session hosted by CEC, and borrow a Zoom Pro account as a tool for online meetings, which have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As activity support, the animal welfare group KissAni receives support for on-campus public relations and implementation costs for online lectures. In addition, the Aoyama Gakuin University team of the Green Bird Aoyama Gakuin University Trash Collection Enthusiasts Club, which is engaged in city cleanup volunteer work, is co-hosting the Green Up Project, a welcome volunteer activity, with CEC.

3) Linkage with regular courses
CEC also focuses on collaboration with regular courses such as "Volunteer and Civic Collaboration Theory" and service learning courses. For example, in service learning courses that involve volunteer training, we match students with civic groups that will host them and coordinate when inviting guest speakers. Professor Iijima talks about his ideas on "Citizen Collaboration" Based on this, we have been working with local governments on projects such as the "Shibuya Font" project in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and the "Sobudai Housing Complex Revitalization Project." Citizen Collaboration Project We are also implementing this program.

Service-learning is a learning method (learning) through social contribution activities (service). The difference between service-learning and volunteering is that while volunteering is the purpose of the activity itself, service-learning emphasizes the "learning" gained from the activity. In order to make learning through experience effective, service-learning generally consists of three steps: 1) pre-learning, 2) practical training, and 3) reflection. The goal of our service-learning subjects and the "Volunteer and Citizen Collaboration Theory" course is to foster servant leadership. Students who study service-learning first have a sense of ownership of social issues and ask themselves, "How can I get involved?" Then, through volunteer training and other activities, they realize, "I can solve social problems, too." Service-learning, which connects this practical experience to further learning, is extremely beneficial in fostering servant leadership.

Currently, we have seven service-learning courses across both campuses. All of these are Aoyama standard courses, so any undergraduate student in their second year or above can take them. CEC supports collaboration and coordination with local organizations, NPOs, and NGOs that will be the internship sites for service-learning, as well as in-class activities.

Through the various programs that CEC offers, we hope that as many students and faculty as possible will have the realization that "they too can play a part in solving social problems." We would also like to play a part in creating an academy that cooperates with society, so that first of all, the people in the areas where our two campuses are located, and hopefully people all over the world, will think of Aoyama Gakuin as a place they can rely on when they are in trouble.