by Swathi Kumar
Special to the Tribune
WESTON, Fla.—Does what I do matter?
Spoiler alert: Yes, it does.
Spontaneous cheers filled the Friendship Auditorium when the new, student–focused exhibition “Does What I Do Matter?” was unveiled on June 14, 2025, at the student division conference at the Florida Nature and Culture Center.
Dee Gopi and Koichi Onogi, SGI-USA’s student division leaders, announced with pride that the student division has this year become an independent division. With this exhibition as a tool, the time had come, they said, to take the lead for kosen-rufu across college campuses like never before.
The exhibition was developed in response to a survey last year of youth leaders and both student and high school division members. One of the takeaways: young people feel powerless to affect the very issues they care most deeply about, namely large-scale, societal issues like war, gun violence, climate change, social injustice and health care access and affordability. The exhibit was created to address this feeling head-on with the empowering Buddhist perspective.
Along those lines, the exhibition focuses on the power inherent in all people and explores the process of human revolution, dialogue and community engagement. It is a tool that student division members can use to introduce Nichiren Buddhism and the heart of Soka humanism to their campus community.
Onogi said he was encouraged by the timing of these new developments in the student division with the SGI-USA’s new focus toward January 2028 to enable 10,000 youth to receive the Gohonzon and begin their journey of human revolution. “It perfectly aligned with the theme of our conference, ‘Embarking on a New Era for Peace,’” he said. “We can create a new era through shakubuku, and it will be the student division that takes the lead. Ikeda Sensei emphasizes that student division members must first study but also become trailblazers for kosen-rufu.”[1]
As students viewed the exhibition for the first time, many were heard saying, “I can’t wait to bring this to my campus!” One shared that the topics covered were relevant to his community, and another said he had been looking for something like this to bring to campus.
Gopi said that after the exhibition was introduced, she sensed a shift in the students, saying that the students really felt heard and that it helped them realize that facing such challenges is part of their mission.
“It was their sincerity that I felt throughout the whole conference as they spoke about planting seeds of Buddhahood, helping friends and creating campus clubs,” Gopi said. “I feel like this was the moment when the student division took full responsibility for the future.”
July 11, 2025 World Tribune, pp. 6–7
References
- See The New Human Revolution, vol. 6, revised edition, p. 257. ↩︎
You are reading {{ meterCount }} of {{ meterMax }} free premium articles