Undergraduate Honors: Shunji Fueki Is 2021 Founder’s Award Winner

The 2021 graduates of Soka University of America will be remembered for their resilience during a challenging year. Among them are the following undergraduate students recognized for academic excellence and contributions to the university:

Founder’s Award

The Founder’s Award—SUA’s most prestigious—honors the graduating undergraduate who exemplifies the university’s ideals through service and academic excellence. This year’s recipient was Shunji Fueki, the 2020-21 Soka Student Union executive committee president. In addition to the challenge of leading in a remote environment, Fueki is spearheading a 20th anniversary project to publish university founder Daisaku Ikeda’s speeches.

Fueki was awarded a prestigious scholarship for graduate studies sponsored by the Japanese government. Starting this fall, he will study at Georgetown University Law School and prepare for his future career as a lawyer specializing in international law.

“Thank you very much for this significant award, which I received on behalf of my amazing classmates,” Fueki said. “I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the university founder Mr. Ikeda for founding SUA. As an SUA alumnus, I will do my best to live up to SUA’s mission statement. I look forward to celebrating SUA’s 30th, 40th, and 50th anniversaries and hope to give back my skills and experiences to the SUA community then!”

Lei Loi Tak Memorial Scholarship

This year SUA established the Lei Loi Tak Memorial Scholarship, funded by the Virtue Education Trust, Hong Kong, in honor of the late Lei Loi Tak, an entrepreneur and philanthropist from Macau. He was a generous donor to SUA beginning in its foundational years and his daughter, Doris, is an alumna from the Class of 2006.

The scholarship is awarded to students who pursue an accelerated MA or MBA program at Claremont Graduate University—and starting next academic year the University San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies—while attending SUA. Through these partnerships, SUA students enter the program during their third year of study and take courses that concurrently fulfill undergraduate and graduate study requirements.

2020-21 Recipients

• Warren Feasel, Claremont Graduate University (Business Administration)
• Hannah Fradkin, Claremont Graduate University (Cultural Studies - Museum Studies specialization)
• Muskan Agrawal, Claremont Graduate University (International Studies)

Makiguchi Scholarship

Each year, the $10,000 Makiguchi Scholarship is awarded to top SUA seniors attending graduate school.

2020-21 Recipients

• Tram Vu, University of Cambridge (Education, Globalization and International Development)
• Chloe Simson, San Francisco State University (Sociology and Sexuality Studies)
• Kenichi Kagatani, Central European University (Public Policy)
• Anju Okamura, Columbia University (Social Work)
• Anri Yoshii, Central European University (Gender Studies)
• Taiga Morioka, University of Chicago (Statistics)
• Rodas Bekele, Rutgers University (International Development & Transportation Policy)
• Koichi Sakakibara, John Hopkins University (Health Science – Social Factors of Health)
• Christelle Inema, University of Chicago (Public Policy)
• Thokozile Changufu, Yale University (Forestry)