Rei Hatayama
I was born in Osaka and raised in Kobe, Japan. My motto is to be happy, energetic and cheerful.
Until I enter college at age 18, I grew up in a baby nursery, and in various institutions. More specifically, I experienced various settings such as large capacity home, group home, combined institutions with small and medium capacity cottages, and “family group home”. Until I entered middle school, I was able to live in “seasonal foster homes”. From this experience, I was given an opportunity to be in a home-like environment with a mother and a father.
I am currently a senior student at the Kanseigakuin University, School of Human Welfare Studies, and am studying Social Entrepreneurship. I am also working for an organization that serves young people in the community. I believe that it is important for these children to experience the “real world”. Spending time with friends, superiors, teachers, people with various occupations, and “grandma and grandpa like figures” in local communities gives these youth valuable life-changing experience.
Recently, I became increasingly more interested in issues related to foster care alumni with borderline disabilities. It is important for me to help this special need population and to create opportunities for foster children and youth to lead lives that offer many choices.
