From February 17 to March 4, the 15th “Social Work in Hawaii Seminar” was sponsored by a charitable organization, Univers Foundation, in which Ms. Yuka Okawahara of the Faculty of Letters, Social Welfare Course, participated.
　
　This seminar is held every year by the Univers Foundation collaborating with the University of Hawaii MBT School of Social Work, with the aim to foster social workers that can play an active role in a wide range of fields. Participants are selected from domestic students that major in social welfare-related programs and these students attend seminars by lecturers from the University of Hawaii MBT School of Social Work, tour facilities, and experience the traditional culture of Hawaii.
　In this training session, lectures were held on leadership, the importance of self-care, emotional care for the final stages of life, and community research, and tours were made to the American Red Cross Hawaii Branch as well as to shelters for the homeless. The participants also enjoyed various cultural experiences, including taro, digging, making leis, and hula dancing.

　As a participant, Ms. Okawahara commented, “Through this training, I felt the heart of ‘aloha’ and ‘ohana,’ which are deeply rooted in Hawaii as concepts for mutually cherishing one another, and I was able to learn an important sense of value for social work. Each and every day of the two weeks I spent in Hawaii was fulfilling, and this experience has become my life-long treasure. The challenge from now on is how I can apply what I learned in Hawaii to Japan. Using this experience, I want to become a person that can devote their life to the happiness of others.”