George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, composed in 1924, celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. As a masterpiece that fuses classical music with jazz, it has been featured in many films, concerts, and even at the Olympic Games.

The piece has also become an iconic symbol of New York City and was recently showcased on local news channel Pix11. Interviewed in the story were David Ludwig, SSC chair and dean and director of the Music Division at the Juilliard School, and 2024 Sylff fellow Anoush Pogossian, who spoke about the composition’s opening clarinet solo.

Pogossian performed the piece with the Juilliard Orchestra at a concert on November 18 at Alice Tully Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center. The Juilliard Orchestra is the university’s largest and most visible student performing ensemble comprising nearly 400 students in the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.

The concert, performed before a thrilled audience as well as being streamed live, also featured Alan Hovhaness’s Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain”; Joan Tower’s Chamber Dance; and Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1.

Another 2024 Sylff fellow, flutist Phoebe Rawn, performed with Julliard’s AXIOM at a concert on November 25, also at Alice Tully Hall. AXIOM is dedicated to performing the masterworks of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century repertoire. She was featured in Charles Ives’s Central Park in the Dark and Augusta Read Thomas’s Solstice Ritual (Homage to Varèse and Ravel) for 14 Virtuosi.

Many of Juilliard’s performances throughout the year can be viewed free of charge, both online and in person, and the school invites those interested to check its Performance Calendar to enjoy the rich musical experiences Juilliard offers.

As 2024, marked by growing global challenges, draws to a close, we wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to each of you for your continued commitment to the ideals and operations of the Sylff program.

We have been able to relaunch in-person contact with many Sylff institutions following several years of pandemic-induced travel restrictions. Many new outstanding and motivated fellows joined our diverse community, helping to expand our global network and advancing the Sylff mission, which is to transcend differences and bring about positive social change.

In addition to visiting Sylff institutions in Japan—Keio University, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and Waseda University—members of the Sylff Association secretariat traveled abroad in 2024 to meet with university officials, SSC members, and fellows at the University of Oslo, University of Copenhagen, University of Helsinki, Uppsala University, National Academy of Governance, Gadjah Mada University, and Ankara University. The visits were opportunities to catch up on the operations of the Sylff program at each institution and to attend fellows gatherings, where SLI/SRG experiences and activities updates were shared, and connections were made with those in different fellow years.

Follow the links below for news regarding these and other Sylff community activities over the course of the past year. We wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday season and look forward to working with you to accomplish greater things in 2025.

The secretariat will be closed from December 28 to January 5 for the winter holidays. Please also note that we will be moving to a new office next year. Our new address as of April 1, 2025, will be: The Sasakawa Peace Foundation Bldg. 5F, 1-15-16 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8524, Japan.

Meetings with Administrators and Fellows

Feb 19
A Visit to the Multicultural Campus of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

May 7
An Online Orientation Meeting for “Pedro Arrupe” Fellows

May 9
Presentations by Waseda Fellows and Meeting of the Steering Committee

May 14
Chairman Sasakawa Visits Universiti Malaya

Jun 13
Visits to the Geneva Graduate Institute and Uppsala University by Chairman Sasakawa

July 17
Sylff Administrators’ Meeting for Five Chinese Universities in Tokyo

Support Programs

Jan 24
SLI Award for Project to Create an Educational Model for the Indigenous Amahuaca People in Peru

Feb 13
Sylff Research Grant (SRG) Recipients for Fiscal 2023

April 1
SLI Call for Applications Updated

April 8
SRG Applications for FY2024 to be Accepted from May

May 15
Launch of Preliminary Registration for SRG 2024

May 23
SLI Award for Project to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in Music through Concerts in Germany

June 11
An Initiative to Broaden Educational Horizons for Rural Youth in India

Highlights from the Sylff Community

Feb 2
Western Cape, Keio Fellows Featured at Symposium Co-Organized by the Tokyo Foundation

Sept 24
Sofia Fellow Supervises Bulgaria’s First Summer School of Ancient Near Eastern Studies

Nov 26
Juilliard Fellow Edits Routledge Handbook of Arts and Global Development

Dec 11
Event Held to Honor Sylff Alumni at Athens University History Museum

Sylff＠Tokyo

July 23
Sylff@Tokyo: Inspired by Sylff Leaders Workshop to Teach Food Justice

Oct 16
Sylff@Tokyo: Fletcher’s Multinational Focus on Meeting Global Challenges

Dec 3
Sylff@Tokyo: Developing Global Leadership Professionals at UCSD

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens hosted a Sylff alumni celebration event on October 4, 2024, at the architecturally distinguished Athens University History Museum．The event was attended by Japanese Ambassador to Greece Koichi Ito, former Rector and former Member of Parliament Theodoros Fortsakis, members of the university’s Sylff Steering Committee, NKUA faculty members, and Sylff fellows.

Since the Sylff program was established at the university in 1993, more than 300 graduate students in the humanities and social sciences have received Sylff fellowships and moved on to careers in academia, social entrepreneurship, business, and government. Athens fellows have been among the most active in the Sylff community, many of them successfully applying for additional support through the Sylff Research Grant (SRG) and Sylff Research Abroad (SRA) programs to advance their studies.

We are really grateful to NKUA for hosting this event, which serves as a reminder of the significant role the Sylff program can play in the lives of both current and graduated fellows. We hope that Athens fellows will continue to demonstrate leadership in their respective fields and broaden their professional ties with one another. We also hope to continue developing the solid legacy of partnership and cooperation that NKUA and the Sylff Association have built over the past 30 years.

Read the article about the Sylff alumni event published on the website of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens at: https://hub.uoa.gr/en/event-in-honour-of-the-alumni-of-the-ryoichi-sasakawa-young-leaders-fellowship-fund-sylff-at-the-athens-university-history-museum/.

Grace Osborne, director of Global Leadership Development at the University of California San Diego, visited the Sylff Association secretariat on November 13, 2024, during her business trip to Tokyo.

(From left) Program Officer Maki Shimada, Director of the UCSD Global Leadership Institute Grace Osborne, and Director Keita Sugai.

UCSD joined the Sylff community in 1991, when a $1 million endowment was established there to support the education of outstanding graduate students with high potential for global leadership.

Sylff fellowships are awarded to students enrolled in the UCSD Graduate School of Global Policy and Strategy. Because today’s professionals need a strong understanding of how management, public policy, and international interactions shape strategic decision-making, GPS offers an innovative curriculum that blends the best of three professional school traditions—international relations, public policy, and management. The curriculum is designed to foster this understanding and takes a minimum of two years to complete.

GPS is internationally recognized for its excellence, attracting high-caliber students from a wide range of backgrounds and regions. GPS has trained more than 1,500 men and women who have assumed positions of leadership in business, government, and nonprofit organizations throughout the world.

The current Sylff fellow at UCSD is Daniel Hershfield, who is working toward a master of international affairs at GPS. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a BA in political science and a minor in global poverty and practice. At Berkeley, he served as a research assistant with the Program on Security Institutions and Violent Instability and researched communal violence in India while interning abroad at the Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism in Mumbai.

Post-graduation, he contributed to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the Jewish community as a member of the nonprofit UpStart’s inaugural Jews of Color Career Development Program. As a senior research assistant at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), Hershfield led the analysis of political violence, civil unrest, and domestic extremism in regions such as North America and Oceania.

The Sylff Association secretariat is very grateful for the visit from UCSD and hopes to continue working closely with the institution to promote leadership development among current and graduated fellows.

Patrick Kabanda, a 2002 Sylff fellowship recipient at the Juilliard School, has co-edited a “breathtaking” new book in the Routledge International Handbooks series analyzing the potential of the arts in promoting development.

The Routledge Handbook of Arts and Global Development provides a theoretical framework for the interdisciplinary field of arts and development, surveying a comprehensive range of art forms and development practices to explore the potential of the arts to strategically and beneficially contribute to more just and equitable conditions for communities across the globe.

Stretching across the arts from theater, dance, and music to poetry, film, and visual arts, the book covers topics as diverse as health, education, peacebuilding, livelihoods, sustainability, activism, and programming.

A native of Uganda, Kabanda is the author of The Creative Wealth of Nations (2018) and has consulted for the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. Through music, he helps people reconnect with their own rich cultural traditions and explore important social issues ranging from environmental challenges to poverty and human rights.

With master’s degrees from both Juilliard and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, he was awarded the 2013 Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service from Tufts University.

The Sylff Association secretariat was delighted to welcome two distinguished visitors from Tufts University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on October 10.

Newly appointed dean of the Fletcher School Kelly Sims Gallagher and Tufts University Vice President for Development Sara Judge met with Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research President Izumi Kadono and members of the Sylff Association secretariat staff.

The history of the Sylff program began with the Fletcher School at Tufts University when it became the very first institution to receive a Sylff endowment in 1987. To date it has produced many outstanding fellows who have gone on to illustrious careers.

Examples include Amal Jadou, newly appointed Palestinian ambassador to the European Union; Jan Havranek, the deputy chief of mission at the Czech Republic Embassy in the United States who has been engaged in NATO coordination in Washington, DC; and Kaddu Sebunya, who as CEO of the African Wildlife Foundation is rallying the continent’s leaders to fight against the destruction of valuable habitats and wildlife.

Other recent fellows include Seth Owusu-Mante, who is working on renewable energy in Africa, and Bethany Christine Tietjen, who is involved in climate adaptation policy.

Gallagher noted that about one-third of Fletcher graduates go into private business—including social entrepreneurship—another third into the government sector, and the remaining third into intergovernmental organizations like the UN and the World Bank and also global nonprofits.

“This year we have seventy-five countries represented in the student body at Fletcher,” Gallagher noted. “It’s like a microcosm of the whole world, with there being many different perspectives in the classroom. This has an impact on their leadership style, and it’s very healthy in promoting cultural awareness. Our alumni are very comfortable working globally.”

Fletcher is also unique in not only offering fellowships but also supporting internships for Sylff fellows. “Internships can be very powerful for the students because they’ll have a chance to experiment with different careers and different types of organizations, so this is very much appreciated. We find that the students benefit a lot from ‘experiential education,’ where they have an opportunity to learn on the job and take new risks without having to make a permanent commitment.”

The Sylff Association secretariat is very grateful for the visit from the Fletcher School and hopes to continue working closely with the institution to promote leadership development among current and graduated fellows.

(From left) Program Officer Konatsu Furuya, Director Keita Sugai, President Izumi Kadono, Dean Kelly Sims Gallagher, Vice President for Development Sara Judge, and English Editor Nozomu Kawamoto.

The first Summer School of Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Bulgaria was held from August 26 to 30, 2024, in Sofia. Supervised by Zozan Tarhan, a 2020 Sylff fellowship recipient at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” the program was held at the Regional History Museum Sofia and featured guest lecturer Priv.-Doz. Sebastian Fink of the University of Innsbruck, an expert on the language, literature, and ıntellectual history of the ancient Near East.

Program participants listen to a lecture on ancient Mesopotamia. ©Mario Filipov

More than 20 people from different countries took part in the program. Students, alumni, and researchers from Sofia University were joined by those from the New Bulgarian University, the University of Plovdiv, the University of Veliko Tarnovo, the University of Oxford, the Free University of Berlin, the University of Göttingen, the University of Amsterdam, and the National University of Kyiv, who were all eager to learn more about ancient Mesopotamia.

The Summer School offered basic knowledge about the field of ancient Near Eastern studies, also known as Assyriology. Participants received philological introductions to the basics of Akkadian and Sumerian—two of the world’s most ancient languages—worked with cuneiform texts, and were introduced to the history, culture, and religion of ancient Mesopotamia.

The program comprised intensive courses introducing ancient Near Eastern studies (S. Fink and Z. Tarhan), Akkadian (Z. Tarhan), Sumerian (S. Fink), religion in ancient Mesopotamia (S. Fink and Z. Tarhan), and archaeology of the ancient Near East (Z. Tarhan).

The Summer School was an outgrowth of Tarhan’s endeavors to develop a center for Assyriology and ancient Near Eastern studies in Bulgaria, both for study and research. Following the model of other international intensive and summer programs, Tarhan held the first intensive course in Akkadian on August 21–25, 2023, also hosted by the Regional History Museum Sofia. With the success of this course, Tarhan and the museum began preparations for an expanded program, culminating in the August 2024 Summer School of Ancient Near Eastern Studies.

Sebastian Fink and Zozan Tarhan (right and second from right) and other Summer School participants at the Regional History Museum Sofia. ©Mario Filipov

Zozan Tarhan is a recognized Assyriologist at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski with experience in philological work on cuneiform texts, mainly in Akkadian, and an expert in the study of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. She is currently editing unpublished texts .

Sebastian Fink is an Assyriologist at the University of Innsbruck focusing on Sumerian texts and is one of the leading specialists of Emesal. He has studied topics on various aspects of Mesopotamian history and culture.

Susan Banki, a Sylff fellowship recipient at the Fletcher School from 1999 to 2001 and now an associate professor at the University of Sydney, visited the Tokyo Foundation on July 12, 2024.

After participating in the Sylff Leaders Workshop in 2018–19 that was held on the theme of food justice, she developed a deep interest in this issue. She now addresses this topic in her courses at the University of Sydney’s postgraduate Social Justice Program, of which she is the director.

She is currently planning a 12-day food justice trip to India, where she and her students will visit seed banks, agricultural cooperatives, and markets to explore the gender, economic, and political dynamics of the farming sector and the consumption of food.

(From left) Program officer Yumi Arai, executive director Mari Suzuki, Susan Banki, director Keita Sugai.

Sylff administrators from five leading universities in China gathered in Tokyo on July 1–5 to share updates on how the program is being operated and how Sylff funds are being managed at the respective universities. Owing to pandemic-related travel restrictions, this was the first in-person meeting between Chinese Sylff institutions and the Sylff Association secretariat since the series of events in 2018 to commemorate the program’s 25th anniversary in China.

Attending the gathering in Tokyo were representatives of the five universities where Sylff endowments were established in 1992: Fudan University, Jilin University, Lanzhou University, Nanjing University, and Peking University.

After a welcoming address by Tokyo Foundation Executive Director Mari Suzuki, Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa, in his opening remarks on July 2, pointed to the major role the Sylff program and other Sasakawa fellowships have played over the past several decades to develop Chinese leaders in a broad range of fields and to deepen friendship and mutual understanding between Japan and China. He also expressed his wish that fellows would spearhead efforts to build a peaceful future in an increasingly globalized world.

Fudan University Executive Vice President Xu Zheng, right, and Sasakawa Japan-China Friendship Fund Program Director Yu Zhan, left, listen as Chairman Yohei Sasakawa delivers his opening remarks.

Following presentations by the Tokyo Foundation on the history and recent developments in the Sylff program, as well as on the various support programs available for current and graduated fellows, the universities introduced the current status of their respective Sylff programs and the illustrious careers many graduated fellows are now pursuing. Private meetings with individual universities were also held to discuss in greater detail the various challenges posed by the pandemic and other external developments on program operations and fund management.

Chairman Sasakawa accepts a gift from Peking University Education Foundation Deputy Secretary-General Geng Shu.

On July 3, meeting participants visited Waseda University—a Sylff institution in Tokyo—to learn from Sylff Steering Committee Chair Shinji Wakao about Waseda’s unique approach to industry-academia collaboration and its highly selective Sylff program, which selects one outstanding graduate student each year to receive a fellowship over a two-year period.

“This was a truly wonderful event,” noted Fudan University’s Executive Vice-President and Sylff Steering Committee Chair Xu Zheng. “It was a valuable opportunity to look back on the past three decades of the program in China and to look ahead to the next thirty years. The seeds sown by the Sylff program not only at the five institutions attending today but at the five other Sylff institutions in China are now flowering and bearing fruit.”

“The administrators’ meeting for five Chinese Sylff universities in Tokyo was a great success,” added Peking University Education Foundation Deputy Secretary-General Geng Shu. “As a rare opportunity for the universities to gather together, this meeting made it possible for us to learn from successful experiences in program operations, which play an important guiding role in the subsequent development of our university’s program. In the future, we also hope to continue to work with The Nippon Foundation and the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research to cultivate more outstanding young talents and contribute to friendly exchange and cooperation between China and Japan.”

List of Participants

Fudan University
Xu Zheng, Executive Vice President (Sylff Chairperson)
Zhu Yifei, Program Manager, Office of Global Partnership
Shabahaiti Mansuer, Deputy Section Chief of the Financial Aid Office, Department of Graduate Student Affairs
Yun Xiaojing, Deputy Director, Department of Liaison and Development

Jilin University
Zhao Yue, Vice Dean of the Graduate School; Researcher
Sui Yining, Vice Dean of the Academy of Social Sciences; Associate Researcher

Lanzhou University
Cao Hong, Vice President (Sylff Chairperson)
Li Chenyang, Program Manager, Graduate School
Yang Yi, Program Manager, Office of International Cooperation and Exchange

Nanjing University
Lu Yanqing, Vice-President (Sylff Chairperson)
Li Ning, Director of Scholarship Administration Office
Liu Dongbo, Assistant Professor

Peking University
Geng Shu, Deputy Secretary-General, Peking University Education Foundation (Sylff Chairperson)
Li Ying, Finance Specialist, Peking University Education Foundation
Li Huishu, Project Director, Peking University Education Foundation

Nippon Foundation
Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman
Takeju Ogata, President

Sasakawa Peace Foundation
Yu Zhan, Program Director, Sasakawa Japan-China Friendship Fund

Waseda University
Shinji Wakao, Vice President for Research and Industry-Academia Collaboration; Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering
Masahiko Gemma, Vice President for International Affairs and International Fundraising; Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences
Hiroyuki Matsumoto, Administrative Director, Research Promotion Division
Yang Zhen, Administrative Director for International Projects, International Affairs Division

Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research
Izumi Kadono, President
Hidewo Furukawa, Executive Director (General Affairs)
Mieko Nakabayashi, Executive Director (Policy Research)
Mari Suzuki, Executive Director (Leadership Development)
Keita Sugai, Director for Leadership Development
Yumi Arai, Program Officer, Leadership Development
Konatsu Furuya, Program Officer, Leadership Development
Maki Shimada, Program Officer, Leadership Development
Nozomu Kawamoto, Senior Editor, Leadership Development
Riaki Tanaka, Program Officer, Leadership Development
Chie Yamamoto, Program Officer, Leadership Development

On May 28, Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa visited the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, where he met with Sylff fellows and members of the Sylff steering committee.

Mr. Sasakawa is the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and was in Geneva to attend the seventy-seventh World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization, held from May 27 to June 1. The Sylff program at the Graduate Institute, located near the WHO Headquarters and UN Office in Geneva, generously supports two postgraduate students each year, many of whom pursue careers at the United Nations and other international organizations.

Chairman Sasakawa with Graduate Institute fellows Kanikka Sersia, left, and Paula Gonzalez.

The meeting at the Geneva Graduate Institute was attended by Director of Cabinet Laurence Algarra; Director of Studies and SSC member Andrea Bianchi; Executive Director and SSC member Bruno Chatagnat; Executive Director of Studies, Senior Academic Adviser, and SSC member Laurent Neury; and Financial Aid Officer and SSC member Kasia Wasiukiewicz.

From Geneva, he flew to Sweden, calling on Uppsala University on May 30 to meet with Sylff officials and fellows. The Sylff program at Uppsala has a very strong track record over many years and has produced many outstanding fellows. Mr. Sasakawa was graciously greeted by Vice-Rector Tora Holmberg and met with Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and SSC Chair Joakim Palme; Professor of Business Studies and SSC member Linda Wedlin; Professor Emeritus in Peace and Conflict Studies Peter Wallensteen; along with Sylff fellows Caroline Brandt (peace and conflict research) and Naira Topooco (psychology).

Seated facing Mr. Sasakawa are (from left) fellow Naira Topooco, Professor of Business Studies Linda Wedlin, Professor of Political Science Joakim Palme, Vice-Rector Tora Holmberg, Professor Emeritus Peter Wallensteen, and fellow Caroline Brandt.

He also visited the head office of the Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation, as well as Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, meeting with Chair of the SIPRI Governing Board Stefan Löfven and Director Dan Smith.

He then returned to Geneva to attend the award ceremony for the 40th WHO-Sasakawa Health Prize, held during the May 31 plenary of the World Health Assembly.

Professor Doreen Ramogola-Masire of the University of Botswana, the 2024 recipient of the WHO-Sasakawa Health Prize, is flanked by Chairman Sasakawa and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.