Episode

The eight competencies developed at Ritsumeikan Academy.
We introduce how they are developed through daily experiences, along with diverse episodes.

*These episodes are based on responses actually submitted by students at every level of education—including elementary, junior high, and high school students, as well as university and graduate students—in the Quantitative Survey for Ritsumeikan Academy Competency Framework conducted in the 2024 academic year. Information that could identify individuals has been removed or modified before publication.

Competency

Episode

School Type

Clear selection

Prior to coming to Ritsumeikan, I have no experience in working with other people. Here, we have to do group project and at first, I thought I was not gonna be able to do it. But when I was actually put into team, I realized like "Oh this is actually not as hard as I expected" and I was able to gain experience in teamwork and how to work well with other people. My grades in group project are the proof of the competency I acquired in teamwork.

Teamwork

Before COVID-19, I was a smart and hardworking person. When the virus began to spread, I stayed home and gradually became unmotivated. In my country, many of us started feeling uncertain about our future, leading to nearly two years of stagnation. Now, here I am at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. I've become more open-minded and am beginning to see a bright future ahead.

Resilience

I realized the competency that i had acquired was resilience was during the time around my exams. During the exam period there were many things that i had to study and i didn't know what to do. Instead of giving up and just failing the exams or getting a bad score, I continued to study hard and asked my professors, seniors and friends when i didn't understand something. I am someone who usually finds it hard to concentrate on tasks so this was very difficult to me. By asking my teachers and not giving up in the early stages I got good scores on my exams and i hope that translates to a good grade at the end of the semester.

Resilience

During my final year of high school, I volunteered as a mentor in our school’s peer support program, working with younger students facing academic and social challenges. One student struggled with feelings of isolation and self-doubt, initially finding it hard to open up. By actively listening, reflecting their emotions, and imagining their perspective, I built trust and created a safe space for them to express themselves. Over time, they grew more confident, and seeing their progress reinforced the importance of empathy in fostering meaningful connections. This experience not only helped the student but also deepened my understanding of others and myself, making empathy a lifelong skill I strive to nurture.

Empathy

In the last exam, I wasn't doing very well in Global Politics especially paper 2 but I reflected on myself and worked hard on improving my scores. In this exam, I did better than before which I am proud of myself for doing but I think there is still a lot of room for improvement and I want to continue working on my writing skills.

Resilience

Outside of school, I do horseback riding (show jumping), where the horse and the rider have to be interconnected to have a good run. Of course, the horse couldn't speak my language and I can't speak theirs, so from time to time,e I felt very frustrated because we couldn't communicate properly. At other times, the horse kicks or bucks me off but I'd have to get back on the horse. My trainer taught me that it is never the horse's fault but always the rider's. I must give my horse proper instructions for us the be able to communicate. My horse and my trainer taught me so much about resilience and being able to reflect on my mistakes immediately.

Resilience