A large-scale construction is currently underway at the Yotsuya Campus. The Office of Sophia Sustainability Promotion launched a project to name the terrace in front of Building No. 1, which is scheduled to be newly completed after the construction. We held a competition from October to January last year.

Among the many entries, we decided on “S-TERRASSE,” which was applied by Mr. Rei Sato.

We interviewed him about how and why he came up with the name.

-What made you decide to apply for naming of the terrace?

Mr. Sato: As I major engineering, I spend a lot of time on campus, so I was interested in applying when I heard about the opportunity to be involved in the campus environment. Also, before pandemic occurred, I met many students on campus and was able to interact with a wide variety of people. I believe that the appeal of Sophia is its ability to integrate both the liberal arts and sciences students. In addition, I thought that by applying for this, I could directly think about what I wanted Sophia to become in the future, which is why I applied.

-Furthermore, the “S” in S-TERRASSE has three meanings: Sophia, Sustainability, and Share.

Mr. Sato: I especially chose “share” in the hope that the number of interactions among students, which has decreased because of the pandemic, will increase in the future. Since the campus is a place where students communicate with different people who have various backgrounds, I expect that it will become a spot where active exchanges can occur in the future.

-Do you mean that you were also conscious of “sustainability,” and “SDGs”?

Sato: Seeing the construction poster gave me an opportunity to learn more about the SDGs, and recently I have been witnessing a lot of terms related to SDGs in the media. I hope that each individual’s behavior change will eventually lead to thinking about what the university as a whole can do to help.

Even though S-TERRASSE is available from September, I look forward to hearing from everyone who uses our campus about how they can take advantage of S-TERRASSE!