2015 VIA (Volunteers In Asia) Student Exchange Program

Our faculty participated in the program organized and run at Stanford University by VIA, an independent NPO dedicated to cultural exchange between America and Asia.

Program Examples

1. Global Leadership and Engagement: Silicon Valley
A program which fosters leaderships for tomorrow’s global leaders.
Deepens understanding of social issues and intercultural exchange through meetings with representatives of specialized organizations implementing new ideas around the world (eg. The Asia Foundation, an international development NPO aiming to contribute to improving life for people in Asia; Food bank, an organization supporting homeless and low-income workers). Through workshops and projects, participants learn about leadership and skills for being active in the community.

2. Exploring Social Innovation
A program to cultivate social innovation (new ideas) for solving social issues, including empathy and risk-taking to enable new ways of thinking. The program also involves visits to companies such as IDEO and the Delencey Street Foundation.

3. Design-Thinking for Social Innovation (Stanford-Japan Exchange)
A program to develop skills which aid in social innovation to tackle social issues. Participants learn alongside Stanford students in projects and workshops, practicing design concepts using the following five steps: Empathy (understanding the feelings of others), Define (identify issues), Ideate (brainstorming, creative), Prototype (creating samples), and Test (feedback from users, etc.). Includes a visit to the Stanford University d.school (design school). The final stage of the project is a presentation to staff at Open IDEO (IDEO’s online platform).

Inquiries: Global Student Exchange Promotion Center
Tel: 092-553-4477