World Summit of Educators Held

Soka University of America hosted the second World Summit of Educators virtually June 13–14, 2021, held in three sessions with international attendees.

Educators from around the world discussed global citizenship and how education can build a stronger world community. The conference featured speakers and panelists who discussed vital issues of equality, sustainability and peace.

Wanjira Mathai, vice president and regional director for Africa at the World Resources Institute, presented the keynote address, “Educating for Global Citizenship: Building a Sustainable World.”

Mathai is the current chair of the Wangari Maathai Foundation and the former chair of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, the organization her mother, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, founded in 1977.

In the first three decades after the movement’s founding, poor rural women joined Dr. Maathai in planting more than 30 million trees across Africa. SUA founder Daisaku Ikeda met with Dr. Maathai in February 2005 in Tokyo, calling her both the mother of African environmentalism and a representative of all the mothers of Africa.