Study your inner voice and let it resonate in the world.

"DE&I Award," where junior high and high school students delve into their concerns and frustrations through research. This initiative, launched in 2023, has seen seven junior and high school students selected, who have shared their research findings while confronting their own challenges. Starting in fiscal year 2025, the award name will be changed to the DE&I Award, and the system will be updated to include a multitude of participating partners. The initiative will move forward with expanded activities and further challenges. We spoke with Aoki-san and Takahashi-san of the Benesse Children's Fund (hereafter, the Children's Fund), an organization that launched this initiative with Leave a Nest and has supported the children's research, to learn about the origins and potential of this award.

That feeling of unease is the entrance to exploration.

The Science Castle Research Grant DE&I Award is open to "all development and research that focuses on one's own characteristics or minority status." However, some people may feel they don't have any particular challenges or may feel distant from the word "minority." In fact, Ms. Takahashi of the Kodomo Fund said she felt the same way. However, by listening to the stories of the junior high and high school students who participated, she realized that she also had difficulties and characteristics that were difficult for others to understand, and that everyone has them in different forms. "I want you to face even seemingly small themes like the discomfort that suddenly comes to mind, or things that are hard to tell others precisely because they are weaknesses," says Takahashi. The small voice or confusion within you can be the start of a unique research project that no one else can imitate.

Organize your concerns and take the first step with your research coach.

In the DE&I Award, based on the methodology of self-research, participants articulate moments of discomfort or difficulty they experience and, aiming for an ideal world, begin by documenting and exploring the background and causes of their challenges, or by developing products to solve them. Listening to others with similar experiences is also an important part of the research process. Even without prior research experience, a supportive environment is in place to proceed with the guidance of Leave-a-Nest and research coaches. Another characteristic of this program is that the common goal of "researching" fosters relationships where participants can respect each other's differences and questions. Among participants and the accompanying university researchers, phrases like "That's interesting!" and "I want to know more" are naturally exchanged, showing interest in new perspectives. Everyone is accepted as an equal researcher, and the diversity of research is respected as the diversity of individual existence. In such relationships, an atmosphere where everyone feels they can be themselves naturally emerges. What one thought was a weakness can become someone else's "I want to know," and it is respected as a unique research topic. The DE&I Award is a place where such chains of research can expand.

The voices of empathy are heard precisely because they were sent out.

This research has the power not only to foster deep self-understanding and facilitate the stepping up of researchers but also to change perspectives and pose new questions to society. "Children's messages resonate, raising the resolution of society and adults. Then society changes," says Aoki. The Children's Fund itself has also gained significant insights through encounters with junior and senior high school students who have participated in its activities. The fund originally began its activities by asking, "What kinds of difficulties are hard to reach with support?" In the course of this, it became clear that students themselves experience internal struggles and discomfort that are difficult for schools and institutions to grasp – the existence of such "nameless challenges." Based on the realization that challenges that cannot be captured by existing frameworks do indeed exist, the fund is expanding its activities to accommodate a wider range of voices.
The results presentation, which was also streamed online, saw the chat filled with hearts and applause, with messages like "I'm struggling with the same thing" and "I gained courage" coming in one after another. The research, which included experiences of hardship and embarrassment, becomes a small force supporting someone's tomorrow. The DE&I Award's research support also serves as a warm space where empathy and encouragement circulate. Even unspoken discomforts and small realizations, when voiced as questions, will surely find listeners. Shedding light on issues that one might feel are solitary struggles, objectively exploring them, and sharing them. That one step will surely enrich the future of the students conducting the research, as well as the future of society. (Text by Yuki Oshima)