During his senior year of high school, he became a spokesperson for several climate strikes in the city, which drew thousands of youth and environmental activists to the streets of Tokyo for hours-long demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also did public relations with nongovernmental organizations, hosted training events for activists, and planned strategies to challenge the government\u2019s energy policy. Sakai was even interviewed for a story published by Bloomberg that documents his group\u2019s March 2020 Protest outside the headquarters of Mizuho Financial Group Inc., a large coal financier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith the various actions other NGOs made we succeeded in making Mizuho pledge to divest from coal,\u201d Sakai said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sakai learned about Earlham from the Grew Bancroft Foundation<\/a>, which provides scholarships to Japanese students seeking a liberal arts education in the United States. The Earlham-Grew Scholarship provides at least 70 percent of the College\u2019s tuition for four years. Up to three Earlham students each year may earn the scholarship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI am really interested in learning about the power of imagination and literature to solve climate change,\u201d Sakai said. \u201cI just learned that this field is called environmental humanities in my American Literature and Ecology class at Earlham. I would like to focus more deeply on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though Sakai remains in Japan due to the coronavirus pandemic, he has grown to appreciate how dedicated his professors are to supporting students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThrough the learning experience with passionate students and faculty, I think can explore more about the values and multidisciplinary approaches to imagine the world beyond climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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