YUTA SASAKI

ASPIRE 2030,
Youth Ambassador

Yuta Sasaki is a sporty student who loves basketball, track and baseball. Outside of his interests in sports, he’s interested in the engineering process of daily things like shoes, and through adding a dose of innovation, ideate and create solutions for current economic and social issues. 

Being able to grow up through different environments has given him different perspectives of himself and the people around him, helping him become self aware and having a deeper understanding of his surroundings. When Yuta was 15, he had a moment in history class that opened him to images of himself as a Japanese student. When the unit on world war 2 started, the Japanese, who were the antagonists, were brought up on several occasions, and every time he heard the lecture he was very uncomfortable. Luckily his teacher was very thoughtful and caring about his well being, as he talked to him in person one on one and did his best to avoid offensive comments. Although Yuta recognized the effort his teacher was making, often observing careful word choices and possibly provocative topics, his discomfort in class never changed. When he talked about what was happening in class to his Pakistani friend who was also taking the same class in a different period, he acknowledged the difficulties he faces because of his race. 

Yuta also observed that the context taught in the class was slightly misleading, as he thought it portrayed the Japanese race as a whole to be wicked and blameworthy, in reality the Japanese citizens had no choice but to obey the policies of the army due to several laws that were passed a couple years ago which restricted freedom of thoughts and speech. Throughout numerous instances of when he found misdirection and negligence in school based off of his knowledge on education systems he obtained through research and social media, he began to develop his own viewpoint on subjects and techniques to learn academics and the real world, while also creating his own image on himself and others by utilizing characteristics and behavioral traits he perceives.

To realize this ambition, he was recently chosen to be a youth lead at ASPIRE 2030, a global youth campaign supported by UNESCO and UNDP. Through this engagement, he collaborated with students from 10+ countries to co-design innovative engineering frameworks. His other extracurricular activities include sports (distance track), volunteering (teaching Japanese culture to people in Indonesia), and sports games. He attends church on a weekly basis along with monthly bible readings. Looking ahead, he aims to take an interdisciplinary approach in the areas of engineering, sustainability and mathematics to create real world impact. 

Looking ahead, Yuta aims to fulfill his ambition of designing environmentally friendly engineering solutions which advance long-term sustainability, for both people and the planet.