NEWS

The Top Winner of ICU Global Youth Essay Competition 2024 Visited ICU

Update: July 9, 2025

On June 26, 2026, the top winner of ICU Global Youth Essay Competition 2024, Ms. Inaya Aggarwal, and her family visited ICU. Inaya and her family first toured the campus with the ICU student guide who also escorted them for the whole day. Then, they visited the Center for Gender Studies of ICU, where she greeted Professor Etsuko Kato (Major: Cultural Anthropology, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Japan Studies), Assistant Professor by Special Appointment Kairi Shimabukuro (Major: Sociology), a staff member working at the center, and a student to exchange ideas about gender issues in India and Japan. Following lunch with an ICU student who did a Service-Learning in India, they greeted President Shoichiro Iwakiri and Senior Associate Professor Kana Takamatsu (Major: International Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Peace Studies, Politics, and Developmental Studies) and an exchange student from India in the President Office. As the last place to visit, the group greeted Japan ICU Foundation's Japan Office, which co-hosted this competition.

The Winner's Comments

All the people I met today were friendly, and I liked the natural environment of the campus. It was impressive to learn at the Center for Gender Studies that an incident I wrote in my essay happened also in Japan. I thought that accumulating and analyzing similar incidents in the world may relate to a solution. A day here helped me imagine myself studying at ICU.