The Global Citizens Initiative hosts an annual Fellowship Summit to cultivate young “global citizens” to become “lifelong leaders of positive change.” In July of 2019, 28 high school students from 15 different countries gathered together for a 10-day experience in Tokyo, Japan. These students are each responsible for the design and development of a service learning project to be carried out over the course of a 10 month period. Their projects are “glocal” – addressing a global problem at a local level. In Tokyo, the students were supported by a group of Teaching Assistants, themselves all alumni of the GCI Fellowship Program. The Good Project has been in consultation with GCI since its formation, and we follow the work of its participants with interest. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with several GCI alums and ask them about their work, their thoughts about Good Work, and reflections about their experiences with GCI.
About Shinn Taniya
My name is Shinn Taniya. I am a Japanese citizen, but you will usually find me in Southern California as I attend college there. As a junior, I am majoring in Computer Science, and I also hope to concentrate in Economics and Philosophy. I participated in the Global Citizens Youth Summit during the summer of 2016 and worked on a service project to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ teenagers in Japanese schools. I was also a TA for the summer 2019 session held in Japan. My passions range from music and sports to studying the ethics of technology.
What does it mean to do “good work” today?
To me, good work can be defined in multiple ways. One interpretation is the act of working on values and causes that one is passionate about. Hence, it is a way in which one can fulfill a purpose in life by earning achievements that are representative of their core beliefs.
Another way in which I understand this expression is the act of challenging the status quo. I am not stating that one should take on an anti-establishment persona. Instead, I am pointing out the importance of identifying and protesting against existing socio-political flaws.
Finally, I believe that good work can be interpreted as practicing self-care. Since almost all advocacy groups place the utmost importance on vulnerable communities, they often forget to maintain their personal health and wellness. Therefore, “good work” should not only be defined as bringing about change for others but also should include practicing self-improvement, as no “good work” can be done if the person attempting to achieve it is exhausted and insecure.
Tell us about your understanding of the community. What are the communities of which you feel a part of?
Since I had the privilege of being able to travel around the world, I have been able to immerse myself in a wide variety of communities. Through these experiences, I was able to master Japanese, Chinese, and English, which has enabled me to further comprehend the distinct attributes of each community.
However, this multi-cultural experience also complicated my sense of identity. Due to frequent transitions between significantly different environments, I do not identify with any particular community. Everywhere I go, I feel alienated to a certain extent due to this multicultural identity I have developed. For example, when I am in Japan, I am treated as Japanese-American due to my foreign mannerisms, and when I am in the United States, I am viewed as a Japanese international student. Since having a strong self-identity is essential in building one’s character, I am working hard to establish a deeper understanding of myself. Furthermore, I know that my struggle and circumstances share many similarities with others that embody this notion of a multicultural identity. Therefore, in any community, I try my best to make myself and those around me comfortable by encouraging the establishment of a just community sentiment.
Is there a particular role model who has helped inspire you to do “good work,” either real or fictional? What is it about this role model that has inspired you?
A role model who has inspired me to do “good work” is definitely my father. Although I see how this is a cliche answer, my father is the person who allowed me to explore all avenues of life and understand the moral values which define the person I am today. As an entrepreneur investor, my father has always reminded me that his work philosophy is to motivate himself and others to practice my above-defined notion of “good work”.
Tell us about your work. What projects are you currently involved with? How might what you are doing now relate to the work you began with GCI?
There are many different projects I am currently involved with. First of all, I am taking online courses to fulfill my requirements as a computer science major. This has taken up the majority of my time and has altered my sleep schedule greatly, as my classes go from 1 am-8 am in my time zone. Second, I currently have an internship as a bioinformatics programmer. My role is to extract/analyze genomic information to contribute to continuous improvements in the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, I engage in activism through my involvement with the advocacy group Japan in Solidarity. This student-led organization has the mission of educating the Japanese public about a wide variety of socio-politico-economic challenges. The three central topics for the past couple of months have been BLM, COVID-19, and LGBTQ+ discrimination.
A brief summary of my background includes: multiple internships with Human Rights Watch, a leader of my high school’s Human Rights Coalition, and organizing a project under GCI’s mentorship to tackle discrimination against LGBTQ+ teenagers in Japanese educational institutions. To provide a brief summary of my achievements in each, for Human Rights Watch, I worked as a journalist to write articles and attend conferences pertaining to topics such as: International Justice, North Korean and Syrian Refugees, LGBTQ+, Women’s
and Children’s Rights, Migrant’s Rights. For my high school, my co-leaders and I established a network between our high school and prominent human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Resources. Finally, for the GCI project, my greatest achievement was working with Human Rights Watch personnel to film a documentary that highlighted the immoral treatment of LGBTQ+ teenagers in the Japanese community. Consequently, I was able to assist and participate in the premiere of the film at the Human Rights Watch Annual Summit in 2016.
It is evident that my current advocacy work aligns with the ethical issues I tackled in the past.
How do you feel your current projects are connected or not to this view of “good work”?
From an ethical perspective, I believe that the work I am doing is definitely connected to my interpretation of “good work.” However, the overwhelming amount of work I have on a daily basis is definitely exhausting and has taken a toll on my health. Furthermore, adding on COVID-19 induced stress definitely does not help my situation. In order to focus on recovering, I have taken a few initiatives. First, I have been spending more time exercising which I believe helps improve my mood significantly. Second, I have been frequenting my close friends’ homes so that I can enjoy non-academic activities without placing myself and others at risk of COVID-19. Third, I picked up new outdoor hobbies such as hiking, biking, and tanning to decrease the time I spend in front of a computer. Finally, I started to turn down requests to complete what I perceive as less meaningful tasks so that I can focus on more significant matters.
How and where do you find meaning in your work?
I have been asked this question many times, but the meaning in my work has always been the ability to personally observe the “good work” I have done on individuals and communities. Nothing is as fruitful as successfully challenging values and conditions that contradict my moral code, as I feel rewarded for my hard work. An archetype of this would be the aforementioned instance where I was able to attend the Human Rights Watch Annual Summit to premiere the documentary I helped to realize. Since I assisted in all aspects, including introducing to the director the protagonist of the film, an elementary school friend of mine who is a victim of extreme bullying that targeted his sexuality, it felt as though the documentary represented the culmination of all of my efforts. I still remember feeling incredibly satisfied after prominent activists walked up to me after the premiere and congratulated our team for shedding light on this complicated issue. Hence, I find meaning in my work by observing the impact it has on individuals and communities.