Soka University and Soka Women’s College conducted a joint commencement ceremony on Saturday, March 18. Among the guests attending the event was Prof. Noranit Setabutr, President of Thailand’s Thammasat University Council.

Thammasat University ranks among the oldest and most prestigious national institutes of higher learning in Thailand. Formally founded in 1934, it has since graduated more than 300,000 undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom had gone on to become leading figures in politics and government.

Following the opening address by Soka University Vice President Ryohei Tanaka, Board of Trustees Chair Yasunori Tashiro read a message from the school founder, Daisaku Ikeda.

At the ceremony, baccalaureate, postgraduate and doctorate degrees were conferred on 2,407 individuals, including those receiving diplomas from the two-year college and certificates of completion from Soka University’s correspondence program. In addition, 37 international students from ten countries and territories were awarded certificates of completion from the Institute of Japanese Language, a one-year program; 11 Japanese students who completed the Dual Degree Course in literature received bachelor’s degrees from the Beijing Language and Culture University of China; and two Japanese students who completed the Dual Degree Course in English received bachelor’s degrees from the University of Buckingham in the UK.

In his speech, Soka University President Yoshihisa Baba encouraged the graduates to draw upon the inspiration and creativity they developed as Soka students to face and surmount every challenge they may encounter in life.

In her speech, Soka Women’s College President Keiko Ishikawa stressed that more than ever, this mercurial world is in need of creative individuals who have honed their innovative abilities and envision alternative possibilities. She urged the graduates to continue forging a diverse, closeknit community of women as they pressed onward, never giving up on themselves or on life.

In his address, President of Thailand’s Thammasat University Council Noranit Setabutr emphasized the importance of possessing a global network of friends from across world. “Building friendships with people from different countries is what creates world peace,” he said. Expressing high hopes for the graduates, he encouraged them to never lose sight of their lofty ideals as leaders of peace and to remain confident that their steady efforts, no matter how modest, would add new chapters to the proud history of their alma mater.

Selected students were also given awards in recognition of their academic excellence and contributions to campus activities.

In his message of felicitations read by proxy, university founder Daisaku Ikeda wrote, “Soka Education is about to enter a new golden age, and you are the young standard bearers poised to take flight, opening the gates to this new era.” He offered the graduates three guidelines with which to lead their lives: the first, to stand as “a beacon of hope and justice” for all; the second, to be drivers in the creation of a “century of dignity”; and thirdly, to adorn their lives with “indomitable triumph.”