About Sylff
Reflections on the Sylff Program (3 of 4)
Ellen E. Mashiko
Thinking and acting outside the box
In the case of the Sylff Program, thinking and acting outside the proverbial box is not simply an exercise but lies within its very essence. In 1986, then The Nippon Foundation President Yohei Sasakawa made a significant leap outside the prevailing box when he transformed his father’s vision into the Sylff Program, then a rare case for a private Japanese grant-making foundation. Twenty-two years later, it is still rare for foundations in and outside Japan to endow universities, particularly in developing countries.
Mr. Sasakawa’s strong commitment and belief in the program led him to take another big step when he led efforts by The Nippon Foundation to establish and fund The Tokyo Foundation in 1997, first and foremost to strengthen and enhance the Sylff Program and secondarily other scholarship activities (by the new foundation’s Scholarship Division), and to engage in policy studies (Research Division). (At the time, the Japanese government was limiting the number of new foundations hence the scholarship and research initiatives were joined into a single organization.)
During the second decade of Sylff, he continued to be a generous source of support and inspiration. Combined with the expertise and guidance of the Scholarship Programs Advisory Board (previously called the International Advisory Committee), the Sylff Program continued to innovate and translate the Sylff vision and mission into follow-up programs and activity, including the building of the Sylff Network, the mechanism that allows the Sylff community to keep the engines running at best levels of performance.
Sylff institutions not only participated in and facilitated follow-up programs but some also initiated and engaged in university-to-university and in some cases, consortium programs and activity with funding from sources other than Sylff. In other words, they too explicitly or implicitly thought and acted outside the box. A dozen universities have also hosted various forums and meetings and thus made incalculable in-kind contributions.
During the same period, a growing number of Sylff fellows actively participated in follow-up programs, including the Sylff Fellows Council. Through their research, social action and networking initiatives, they too innovated, experimented and acted on top of their ongoing academic work, and professional and personal responsibilities. They deserve a loud round of applause not only for multi-tasking but also for leading and serving as role models for others within and beyond the Sylff community.
For all stakeholders, thinking and acting outside the box involved both process and content matters―taking bold steps in making processes participatory and more transparent, and designing follow-up programs and activity to facilitate trans-disciplinary, trans-national research and social action.
