Rui Liang
4th Year at the School of International Liberal Studies
ICC Student Staff Leader: Jan. 2007 – Aug. 2008 & Apr. – Jul. 2010
It’s a big playground here, and you can make things happen with the support of the ICC!
As a starry-eyed freshman, every time I participated in events at the ICC, I was amazed by how these activities brought together people of different backgrounds and made it possible for them to share thoughts and questions, discuss different viewpoints, or feel the same way about a particular topic. And I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted more students to enjoy this kind of communication on campus that normal classes or student clubs can’t provide. So I took the first opportunity to become a student staff for the ICC. Called Student Staff Leader (SSL), it may sound like nothing unusual, but being a SSL involves so much more than being a staff member and a leader.
Little did I know what kind of effort or skill I needed to make these events happen when I first arrived on the job. It took me half a year to finally be able to take on an independent project. Being a responsible team-player while having the sound judgment needed to lead people at the ICC was nothing comparable to what I had previously experienced. I had been a reporter and an editor-in-chief in high school journalism, but working together with teachers and fellow students in a small school was easy to handle. But at the ICC, organizing events requires a huge amount of interaction with people outside of campus, people you have never met before, and yes, even people you are afraid of dealing with. A SSL has to be flexible and use the most effective approaches for good cooperation with all involved. Collaborations with private companies or organizations could be nerve-wrecking. That is not all, a SSL is a middleman. You have to be an effective communicator with both the outside party and the people working at the ICC, including other SSL, full-time staff members and student supporters. But with the advice and help of full-time staff, it is not all that hard, and in the process I learned a lot about how to communicate with different people.
A student staff leader needs to take the initiative and follow through on every detail until the end to bring an event onstage. There is no fixed manual for a successful event, because each one is different. On a campus with some fifty thousand people, the popular demand is constantly changing and divergent. Every event is like an experiment. Things turn out to be different from what you’d expect, it is normal. When you do not try everything possible to make it happen, that is what’s not normal. From event planning to promotion, a SSL is meticulous about every detail of the event and does not hesitate to use every resource possible outside of work to make an event happen. Sometimes, it needs self-motivation to keep going. And the best motivation originates in the simple wish that participants would enjoy themselves, make a friend and learn something at the event.
Since there are multiple of parties involved in every event, it is necessary to make sure expectations match and be flexible and responsive to changes and uncertainties. It is true, if the ICC alone is involved, coordination of events would not be so complicated. Yet, many of the values provided by ICC’s events are in collaboration with different entities outside of campus. The student supporters at the ICC are also an important part of this collaboration in the sense that international students and local students engage in long-term teamwork, and it is one of the ICC’s goals to provide the environment needed to foster lasting friendships for them. As a SSL, it is our job not only to be able to work in this diverse environment, but also facilitate and lead the group dynamics to keep it going.
Organizing events is my favorite part of the ICC because it is actually really fun as well! Inspiration for events is all around. Ideas I learned in International Relations, History, PE, music. etc. Even when I walk down the streets, watch TV, talk to my friends and roam around in shopping malls, ideas are everywhere waiting to be discovered. Turning an idea into event is a daunting process but it need not be when you have the passion and of course the full support of the full-time staff! International Relations is my major, so I am more influenced by it. I wanted to invite diplomats to speak at the ICC about Japanese foreign aid and public policy, I wanted students to discuss how the problem of natural resource shortages affect our daily life in Tokyo, and the role of the United Nations University and other IGOs/NGOs based in Tokyo. Being a foreigner here, I also wanted to let more people to know about the minorities, migrants, tourists, and foreigners in Tokyo in general. And these ideas did materialize! Even though I wasn’t able to do all of them, my dream came true.
ICC offered me the perfect working environment with a supportive staff and the wide network resources to make it happen.
