The Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership (ToTAL) has welcomed 12 new graduate-level students as the fifth cohort to its program. A registration ceremony and orientation for the new students were held on June 8 in hyflex format — meaning both in person and online — as was the case in June and December 2021.
New ToTAL students with President Masu (front, center) and ToTAL faculty members
Established in April 2018, ToTAL offers a five-year extracurricular program for graduate students. The academy's mission is to provide leadership excellence education to empower students in the science and technology fields, and to develop core expertise and leadership skills that bring out the best in each other and develop innovative global citizens in a rapidly-changing era.
During the registration ceremony, Tokyo Tech President Kazuya Masu expressed his respect for the fifth cohort for taking on new challenges at ToTAL. He mentioned that the world, including Japan, is changing rapidly as the international community strives to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and that structures in industry are expected to change significantly in the future. He urged the new students to keep in mind that they are studying at Tokyo Tech in order to cope with this big societal change. He added that people who are willing to change the world with leadership, followership, and entrepreneurial mindsets are in high demand, and encouraged the new students to acquire such mindsets and skills at ToTAL on top of their specializations.
Following the president's remarks, Executive Vice President for Education Jun-ichi Imura gave a welcome speech and explained the objective of ToTAL, including the three Seeds of Leadership that ToTAL aims to nurture in students. Next, Professor Yutaka Akiyama, the director of ToTAL, introduced each faculty member at the academy. After this, each student gave a self-introductory speech about their research and goals while at ToTAL. To conclude the ceremony, Executive Vice President for Institute Strategy Isao Satoh gave a speech to encourage the students in their future endeavors at ToTAL.
New ToTAL student and academy's faculty members participating in ceremony via Zoom
At the orientation session held before the registration ceremony, faculty members explained the offerings of the ToTAL program, such as the study plan and the curriculum — recognition of social issues, global communication, leadership, followership and consensus building, off-campus project, and cultural skills — to the students.
Orientation session participants
Tokyo Tech and ToTAL look forward to seeing the development and future activities of these students as they engage in friendly competition with their peers from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds.
