Fellow:Tomohiro Loeer


Name Tomohiro Loeer School (Cohort) Sophia University (2020 cohort) Majoring in Political Science, Philosophy and Anthropology Country Tokyo, Japan Email Special:EmailUser/Tmloeer

Bio

“Use your heart, your courage, your vision to fix, to heal, to connect, to empathize. Because living life for something bigger than yourself is a hero’s journey.”

Tomo is a University Innovation Fellow currently studying Anthropology, Political Science and Business at Sophia University in Tokyo. Tomo enjoyed an interdisciplinary and multicultural upbringing by growing up in Japan, Germany, and Scotland. He enjoys learning about his native Japanese culture, modern innovation, mental health and what defines creativity. He is an avid lover of Italian cuisine, dive bars and pottery, and likes to keep himself active through team sports like football and volleyball.

For Tomo, the UIF program is a place where he can freely grow ideas with a like-minded team. In the last four years, he has been heavily active in leading student movements and diving into design thinking to empower himself and the people around him. He is the Co-Founder and former president of Horizon, a student empowerment group. He led a diverse team of 30 members into its second year and building projects focused on gender, refugee, environmental and innovation issues.

While also a Fellow at the Stanford d.school, Tomo is educated in design thinking at the HPI School of Design Thinking, a leading design thinking institution globally. Tomo's experiences with Horizon and UIF have inspired him to pursue new projects focused on leadership education. With four other Sophia students, he launched the project RISE, which provides self-empowerment and leadership workshops to students at middle and high schools across Japan. The project’s mission is to inspire youth and instill in them the confidence to pursue their passions and enact change in their communities.

In the future Tomo can see himself designing empowering learning experiences, such as developing new school subjects for K-12 students that encourage them to think about the connections between digital technology, sustainability, marine science and entrepreneurship.