Sophia Magazine vol.1 / SUMMER 2015

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16countries including Japan, participated.” During his internship in Ghana, Kensuke taught third year Mathematics and English at the junior high school in the village. “I was bewildered by the lack of schedules and routines.” He noticed that the lifestyle greatly affected students’ mo-tivation and progress. “There is a huge gap between those who study hard and those who are not keen to learn, and there is a correlation with their study environment. Besides the lack of infrastructure like electricity, most families don’t even have a desk where children can study. After school, children of all ages typically help their families with house-hold chores or agricultural work; they don’t study.” Seeing this, Kensuke, along with other interns from Japan As far as the eye could see, there were cacao trees. Ken-suke Noro recalls this image vividly as he talks about his rst stay at a village in Ghana. It was the summer of 2012, and Kensuke had gone there to live and work as an intern. “It was my rst time travelling outside my own country, and I felt Japan was unbelievably far away.” Kensuke’s interest had always been assisting people in developing countries, and that was the reason for choosing Sophia University. “Graduates from Sophia are active in nu-merous countries around the world. I thought studying there would be like a passport to the world.” Upon entering Sophia University, Kensuke joined AISEC, the student organization for international internships. Through AISEC, he contacted several NGOs and received a welcoming reply from one in Ghana. “Initially I had con-sidered going to Asia, but the internship program in Ghana included education support, in which interns from different Fascinated by Ghana, Sophia Student Promotes “From Bean to Bar”Kensuke Noro, a Senior at Sophia University, ew to Ghana for an edu-cation internship where he was astonished to learn that in the world’s second largest producer of cacao beans, the Ghanaians typically did not eat chocolate. Kensuke has since made it his mission to connect produc-ers and consumers of chocolate around the globe.Student: 01KENSUKE NOROCultural Differences at the School