On Friday, November 3, 2023, the first "Gifu University (GU) Homecoming Day 2023" was held online and offline. The event took place at the university auditorium, and the sessions were livestreamed by the GU YouTube channel.

GU launched the "GU Homecoming Day" to promote exchange and collaboration among GU supporters and stakeholders. The university aims to build a sustainable relationship between the GU members and supporters to facilitate mutual help. On November 3, a total of 238 people attended the event.

In the morning session, Ms. SUGIYAMA Ryoko, Representative Executive of Gifu Shimbun Newspaper, President of Gifu Broadcasting System, and Representative Director of Sugiyama & Kurihara Environmental Consultants, Inc., delivered a keynote speech titled, "Think about the realization of SDGs^*1 from the viewpoints of local residents." Her speech was followed by a report on GU's commitments to SDGs and discussions on SDGs by the panelists. The session was wrapped up with advice from Ms. Sugiyama on effective communications with the public concerning environmental activities.

In the afternoon session, after the report by GU President YOSHIDA Kazuhiro about the university updates, Mr. IWATA Hiroyuki, President of Nihon Nohyaku Co., Ltd., and a GU graduate, gave a special lecture titled, "Food safety, protection of crops and roles of agricultural chemicals." After listening to his speech, some commented that their views on agricultural chemicals had changed.

Next, Mr. AKAMATSU Ryoichi (a GU graduate, he is currently working for Awards Co., Ltd.), one of the hopefuls to win a medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics in a male high jump category, expressed his strong ambitions in his speech titled, "My long-term efforts and towards the victory in Paris."

Other events included reporting by GU student clubs. They were iGEM Gifu and UNESCO Club, Rakugo comic storytelling by the members of Rakugo Comic Storytelling Club, and dance performances by the members of Yosakoi Dance Circle. Among others, the students' dance performances were very powerful and dynamic, bringing additional excitement to the afternoon session.

At the end of the session, Vice President SUGIYAMA Makoto (General Manager) (Evaluation, General Affairs, Public Relations and Fund) referred to the GU Festival float parade. His closing remarks included GU's intentions to make the GU Homecoming Day another GU festival event on par with the university's annual festival in the future.

The Second Homecoming Day 2024 is scheduled in November 2024.

1) The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all." The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly (UN-GA) and are intended to be achieved by 2030. 　

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Thank you very much for your kind cooperation in completing the questionnaire. We will use the results for the improvement of our event organization and implementation. Please access the link below for the results.

・Questionnaire results for the morning session（download：PDF/1,052 KB）
・Questionnaire results for the afternoon session（download：PDF/1,017 KB）

A collection of photos for the First GU Homecoming Day 2023

Morning session

Afternoon session