In November we participated in a 5-day ‘Learning by Exploring’ session organized by the Yokohama-based Salesio Gakuin High School. Although Seibo’s involvement was limited to two days of actual participation, we came away feeling enlivened and full of hope for the future. In this article we will outline the details of what transpired during the lessons. Needless to say we at Seibo are always grateful to be involved with these school projects.

Lesson Contents
Vocational & Career-Focused Education
The theme for this year’s event was to explore how social enterprise can assist the fight against poverty. Being a Catholic school, the students were asked to consider how to live their ‘calling’ whilst also living in the world. The sub-context was therefore to encourage students to explore, by means of metacognition, to consider what their calling might be.

It might be that many schools try to develop their students’ vocations in terms of career education. At Salesian schools this self same route to self-development is referred to as a ‘vocation’ or ‘calling’.

In the lessons led by Seibo, we introduced an encounter between Mobell’s CEO, Tony Smith, whose company financially support Seibo’s activities and Seibo Japan’s Country Director, Makoto Yamada. In that session we explained how Tony sowed the seeds for a social business model of fundraising for Seibo in Japan. Through this true story we hope that students will feel encouraged to explore their own calling.

The Next Step: Beyond Selling Coffee