President’s Message

Soka University of America (SUA) is dedicated to realizing the university’s mission and principles from our university founder, Daisaku Ikeda, by providing our students a unique learning environment and academic opportunities.

In regard to our mission, to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life, Daisaku Ikeda defined these essential elements of global citizens in his 1996 Teachers College, Columbia University address:

• The wisdom to perceive the interconnectedness of all life and living.

• The courage not to fear or deny difference, but to respect and strive to understand people of different cultures and to grow from encounters with them.

• The compassion to maintain an imaginative empathy that reaches beyond one’s immediate surroundings and extends to those suffering in distant places.

The two-year MA program in Educational Leadership and Societal Change develops leaders in the field of education as students examine the broad landscape of modern educational institutions and structures through interdisciplinary learning with a small, diverse cohort. SUA’s curriculum for the undergraduate program in Liberal Arts provides an excellent foundation for students to develop their critical thinking and communication skills, as well as the foundational and interdisciplinary knowledge from which to develop wisdom to solve the problems confronting society. Toward this end, it is also essential to develop the personal and spiritual fortitude to tackle these problems head on and not give in to adversity. In a message to the students of the first incoming class of the undergraduate program, Daisaku Ikeda stated, “Today is the start of a new, untried venture in education for global citizenship.”

Now after more than 20 years since the Aliso Viejo campus opened, it is clear that education for global citizenship is necessary for our society more than ever before. Let us all strive as members of the SUA community to become exemplar global citizens, who contribute to the well-being of others based on wisdom, courage, and compassion, the three qualities of a global citizen that we bring forth from our lives in our quest to create a more peaceful world.

President