Hata says she has always been a shy person. A major turning point came when she visited the United States in the first year of junior high school. She says the English she had been studying since childhood enabled her to smoothly carry on conversations, which made her realize that English is something that can expand her world. “Speaking English gave me confidence, and I had a feeling that it might lead to something. I began to think that, in the future, I would like to work in a field where I could use English, and when I told my parents about this dream, it led me to develop an overarching theme for my life—to become a bridge between people and countries,” recalls Hata.
Hata’s dream, which she has been gradually developing over the years, is to work for the United Nations or another international organization. She became aware of poverty because there was an orphanage in her hometown, and she became interested in the issue after hearing a former teacher at Ritsumeikan Moriyama High School talk about his experience in the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. It was not until her second year of high school that she began to actively express herself through extracurricular activities in order to fulfill her dream. “A friend I met on a short-term study abroad program in New Zealand changed my outlook on life. Influenced by her clear vision and independent thinking, I have learned to think about things from my own perspective. By having confidence in myself and communicating that, I started to think about how I could grow as a person since I used to care too much about what others thought.”

Upon entering university, Hata rose to the challenge and chose the Global Studies major in the College of International Relations, where all classes are taught in English. Maintaining the same passion for extracurricular activities since her study abroad days in high school, she energetically took on a variety of activities after coming to Ritsumeikan.
First, as a first-year student, she joined an association that she had come in contact with in an inquiry-based learning class in high school, and she worked on planning and implementing the Mother Lake Goals (MLGs)* Global Meeting, which her association was commissioned by Shiga Prefecture to run. The MLGs Global Meeting was held three times, and participants in Japan connected with overseas participants via Zoom to discuss the goals in English. The third conference was held in conjunction with the 18th World Lake Conference, and Hata served as moderator for the event, where she also gave a presentation on the MLGs project and exchanged opinions with participants from around the world. Then, in August of her second year, she gave another presentation on the MLGs project at an academic conference in Berlin, Germany called the Congress of the International Society of Limnology using the Ritsumeikan University Challenge Scholarship. As a community-based SDGs project, the MLGs project is a rarity in the world, and the participants seemed very interested in Hata’s initiatives.
In addition, during her second year, Hata joined the Honors Program, a special program for developing talent who will play an active role in the international community. Here, too, there was a major encounter that changed Hata's life: her classmates. “Everyone was hungry for a challenge, and they all somehow managed to handle a quantity of assignments you would think were impossible. I struggled to keep up with them. But the more I did, the more I found an environment where we could engage in friendly competition. I learned how to use my time effectively, and the experience of completing the one-year program while helping each other excel is sure to last a lifetime," says Hata, reflecting on how this encounter helped her grow.
Having served as a moderator at the 18th World Lake Conference, Hata also participated in the 19th World Lake Conference in Hungary during her third year, where she worked as a facilitator for the Youth Session.

Hata had many other experiences during her time at Ritsumeikan University. She served as a Student Ambassador for OIC Connéct, a program held on the Osaka Ibaraki Campus (OIC) to promote innovation and exchange pertaining to entrepreneurship, where she served as a session moderator, and she joined a short-term exchange program in France. The culmination of her activities was her participation in the Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative (HYLI) in Bali, Indonesia in July of her fourth year. HYLI is a social contribution program run by Hitachi to nurture the next generation of leaders in ASEAN and Japan. Thirty-two students from eight Asian countries were divided into four groups, each of which held discussions and gave presentations on SDGs-related topics over the course of four days. “I had a hard time incorporating the opinions of students from different countries with different backgrounds into a set of conclusions and presenting them in a way that would be understood by the entire audience. But the observation, communication, and language skills that I had developed over the past three years of activities came in very handy," says Hata.

Despite her extremely busy schedule, the driving force behind Hata’s many activities is her desire to give something back to the people she has met and who have had a positive influence on her. “I value my connections with people, and I have a strong desire to show all the people I have met so far how much I have grown. In the place I chose as my first career after graduation, I will be doing a job that focuses on observing and analyzing the world from various perspectives and connecting with people. My dream of becoming a bridge between people and countries and someday working for the United Nations has not changed, but I think I have found the best place for me based on all the extracurricular activities I did during my time at university,” she explains. We look forward to keeping an eye on Hata as she continues to meet many people and pursue her personal growth.

* MLGs: Mother Lake Goals. A set of goals for a sustainable society in 2030 centered around Lake Biwa, which are being pursued mainly by Shiga Prefecture. As the Lake Biwa version of the SDGs, the MLGs consist of 13 unique goals centered on Lake Biwa and aim to build a healthy cycle that links the environment with economic and social activities by 2030.