Evaluating the Roots
Jiyeon Kim
‘That we may live together’ is the motto of the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in Nasushiobara, Japan. Studying the execution and impact of this institute’s Rural Leaders Training Program as an EnviroLab Rural Futures Project fellow has been an experience characterized by the question: how can we translate sustainable core values into tangible impact? Visiting ARI for the first time in May of 2024, I gained an understanding of the importance of the institute’s core values—food life, servant leadership, and a community of learning—and how these values are thoughtfully and intentionally manifested in the institute’s physical and social environment.
The EnviroLab Rural Futures Project gave me the opportunity to learn about how sustainability can be more deeply rooted into rural communities around the world. Before this project, I was interested in how rural communities can be made more resilient in the face of climate change while also combatting climate change, specifically by increasing carbon sequestration efforts through sustainable agricultural practices. Though I came into this project with a focus on sustainability through agricultural practices, I am left with an expansive view on how sustainability can be embedded and exhibited in realms including and beyond agriculture, such as within the built environment and social environment.
Arriving at the Asian Rural Institute, the EnviroLab team was welcomed by Takashi-san, the institute’s head of domestic programs. Takashi-san gave us a tour of the campus and revealed how the campus’ physical infrastructure reflected the institute’s intangible core values, reinforcing the intertwined nature of food and life while fostering a community of learning and servant leadership. Program participants from Nagaland in Northeast India to participants from Ghana in Western Africa convened in Koinonia Hall, the institute’s rotunda-shaped fellowship and dining hall, for each meal. The modest rotunda, with its light cedar wood, invites people in from many entrances—connecting the classroom, kitchen, chapel, and terrace. It serves as a central hub that embraces individuals from drastically different climates and communities, facilitating an environment of learning from one another and embracing the differences each person brings to the table.
In addition to Koinonia Hall, Takashi-san showed us the Oikos Chapel where participants use the space for morning gatherings, singing, prayer, and meditation. Upcycled from a 100-year-old farmhouse, the chapel’s sliding door entrance welcomes participants to a wooden grandstand that steps down to a small speaking area. The small stage, positioned lower than the audience, reflects the institute’s core value of servant leadership, which aims to uplift the people and community rather than the leader. Learning about the design of the institute’s physical infrastructure and seeing how participants interacted with each other in the space revealed how each decision and alteration of space is a communication of values and priorities.
Seeing the Asian Rural Institute’s intentionality in exhibiting its values in every aspect—from agricultural practices, curriculum planning, physical campus design, and community building efforts—revealed to me the importance of reflecting on one’s own values and how these are values are enacted. When we are faced with contrasts, our values and priorities—once seemingly hidden and engrained within ourselves—begin to shine, and we are given the opportunity to question our mindset and actions. It is through this questioning that we may be able to create more inclusive, sustainable communities that treat everyone with respect and dignity.
The EnviroLab 2024 and 2025 clinic trip to Japan has equipped me with the tools to look beneath the surface, to identify and question the deeper values guiding that which appears above the surface. As I approach my senior year of college and further think about the values that govern my life and the systems I operate within, I feel empowered by a sense of responsibility to evaluate the roots rather than simply striving for superficial growth.