SCHOOL SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
UST strongly believes that we should never forget that there are still people in the world for whom having one meal a day is a luxury and there are millions of children who do not have access to primary education. UST is dedicated to helping our students become conscientious, giving, compassionate and responsible world citizens by brining attention to social and environmental issues in Japan and around the world and getting actively involved.
At UST we employ several SSR (School Social Responsibility) programs and fundraising initiatives to support our mission of raising conscientious and socially active children.
The UST "Helping Hand" Programs
The UST Eco drives
UST employs various initiatives to help us stay "green" and teach our students their role in environment preservation.
Reduce
The UST "Change" Initiative
In the beginning of the academic year G2-G6 students are asked to come up with ideas for an individual or group project to find ways to introduce change in the world around them. The Change could be introduced on the family, friendship, school, local community and global community level.
The progress of the projects is monitored by the class teachers, with students producing several progress reports throughout the year. In the end of the year students present their projects to the class and the top project in each class gets presented to the entire school at the UST Change the World Assembly.
At UST we employ several SSR (School Social Responsibility) programs and fundraising initiatives to support our mission of raising conscientious and socially active children.
The UST "Helping Hand" Programs
- Supporting our sister-school in Siem Reap, Cambodia
- Help Tokyo (distributing food to homeless people in Tokyo; clothes drives)
- Organizing fundraising events to support various local and international charities
- Visiting a nearby nursing home with concerts and activity programs
- Collecting bottle caps to sponsor polio vaccines
- Scholarship program for low income foreign families
- Parent volunteering
- Raising corporate or individual sponsorship and donations
The UST Eco drives
UST employs various initiatives to help us stay "green" and teach our students their role in environment preservation.
Reduce
- UST tries to minimize its impact on the environment by reducing the amount of printed matter used at the school. We do not use informational packages for the prospective students: all information about the school is put online. We are also working on digitalizing all our application forms.
- Faculty members are also encouraged to share documents online and use digital copies instead of prints; use double-sided prints and recycled paper in their classrooms.
- Students learn the importance of conserving electricity when they are put in charge of monitoring the lights and paper usage in their classroom and the entire school. Students keep energy and paper saving charts in the classroom to help them become more accountable and gain a sense of accomplishment.
- UST encourages re-using by hosting sales of school uniform and organizing collecting donations of used clothes and toys to send to children in developing countries.
- The students are encouraged to participate in collecting PET bottle caps to sponsor polio vaccines. Using recycled paper for class projects is another important effort to help us stay "green".
- "Revitalize" is a very important initiative that helps children learn responsibility, become aware of their own actions and actions of others, and learn to take charge of what goes on in their own classroom and in the world around them. As part of the "Revitalize" initiative our students clean their own classroom every day before leaving the school; participate in monthly eco clean-up at the local parks; or bi-annual cleaning field trips to their destination of choice within the Tokyo/Chiba/Kanagawa area (the location is decided by the Student Council).
The UST "Change" Initiative
In the beginning of the academic year G2-G6 students are asked to come up with ideas for an individual or group project to find ways to introduce change in the world around them. The Change could be introduced on the family, friendship, school, local community and global community level.
The progress of the projects is monitored by the class teachers, with students producing several progress reports throughout the year. In the end of the year students present their projects to the class and the top project in each class gets presented to the entire school at the UST Change the World Assembly.