Riko Kasai 笠井 凜心
Ubunture UTokyo Local Coordinator (Johannesburg, South Africa)
As the only student from Asia at African Leadership Academy, Riko lives in a dorm and learns alongside students from across the African continent.
Born in 2008 in Yamanashi, Japan. Sparked by a school‑issued PC during the pandemic, she pursued her interests through relentless self‑driven research, visiting companies such as WOTA and joining the NGO Imeai. Those first steps broadened her world: she was selected as the youngest Japan delegate for Novo Nordisk’s science camp in Denmark and continues to take on global challenges. Her activities—founding the NGO “Yuri‑Food” to build communities through food and conducting research on natural coagulants at IIT as a Tobitate! (MEXT) scholarship student—led to her selection as the only Japanese Rise Fellow 2024 (a global scholarship contest by the former Google CEO’s foundation), chosen from 50,000 applicants. After withdrawing from Tokyo Metropolitan Nishi High School in March with a full scholarship from the ASSIST Scholars Foundation, she is now studying long‑term in Johannesburg for the first time. She shares reflections on her worldwide experiences through her ongoing posts on Note.