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Soka University company history timeline

1930

The small education society that Makiguchi founded in 1930 has since grown to become one of the world’s largest lay Buddhist organizations.

1987

Founded in 1987 as an independent, non-profit organization, Soka University of America dedicated its first campus in Calabasas, California.

1994

The Graduate School opened in 1994, offering a Master of Arts degree in Second and Foreign Language Education with a concentration in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

1995

In 1995, the university bought 103 acres (0.42 km) of rough-graded property in Aliso Viejo in southern Orange County for $25 million.

In 1995 Soka University acquired a 103-acre site in Aliso Viejo, California, for a private, nonprofit, four-year liberal arts college.

Founder’s Message — 1995 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

1996

Founder’s Message — 1996 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

1997

Founder’s Message — 1997 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

1998

Founder’s Message — 1998 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

1999

Founder’s Message — 1999 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

2000

Founder’s Message — 2000 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2000 peace proposal (PDF)

2001

The Aliso Viejo campus opened May 3, 2001, with its first entrance ceremony for a first-year class of 120 students from 18 countries and 18 states.

Full text of 2001 peace proposal (PDF)

Soka University of America is a related school founded in 2001, located in Aliso Viejo, California, which offers both graduate and undergraduate degrees.

2002

Since 2002, students have hosted an annual Halloween Fair for the community, transforming the recreation center into a "haunted house" and providing food and game booths, such as bounce houses, henna, face painting, and various other carnival-like games.

Founder’s Message — 2002 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

­Full text of 2002 peace proposal (PDF)

2003

Founder’s Message — 2003 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2003 peace proposal (PDF)

2004

The SESRP is a student initiated and run project established in 2004 to encourage serious study and research related to the methods and philosophy of education at Soka.

Founder’s Message — 2004 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2004 peace proposal (PDF)

2005

On May 22, 2005, the undergraduate program held its first commencement and Soka University received its accreditation from the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Students have organized a successful two-day conference each year since 2005, featuring student-written research papers as well as keynote speakers such as former John Dewey Society President Jim Garrison and Sarah Wider of the The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society.

The academic journal Annals of Scholarship has been edited at SUA since 2005, when Humanities professor Marie-Rose Logan joined the faculty.

Founder’s Message — 2005 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

The year 2005 was marked by a series of devastating natural disasters, continuing terror attacks and conflict, and the threat of virulent new diseases.

­Full text of 2005 peace proposal (PDF)­

2006

Founder’s Message — 2006 Graduate Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2006 peace proposal (PDF)

2007

In 2007, a group of SUA students convinced the SUA administration to sign-up with the Worker Rights Consortium, an organization that monitors the production conditions for apparel sold to universities in the United States with the expressed purpose of rooting-out sweatshop practices.

Founder’s Message — 2007 Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2007 peace proposal (PDF)

2008

Founder’s Message — 2008 Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2008 peace proposal (PDF)

2009

Founder’s Message — 2009 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2009 peace proposal (PDF)

2010

Founder’s Message — 2010 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2010 peace proposal (PDF)

2011

Founder’s Message — 2011 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2011 peace proposal (PDF)

2012

Founder’s Message — 2012 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2012 peace proposal (PDF)

2013

In 2013 the Graduate School announced a new MA program in Educational Leadership and Societal Change.

Founder’s Message — 2013 Commencement Ceremony

Full text to 2013 peace proposal (PDF)

2014

In 2014, Soka University was ranked #1 in Most International Students (%) among all colleges and universities by United States News & World Report.

Founder’s Message — 2014 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2014 peace proposal (PDF)

2015

Founder’s Message — 2015 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2015 peace proposal (PDF)

2016

Founder’s Message — 2016 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2016 peace proposal (PDF)

2017

The adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in July 2017 was a breakthrough in a field that has been marked by seemingly unbreakable impasse.

Founder’s Message — 2017 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2017 peace proposal (PDF)

2018

Founder’s Message — 2018 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2018 peace proposal (PDF)

2019

Founder’s Message - 2019 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2019 peace proposal (PDF)

2020

Founder’s Message — Graduating Class of 2020

Full text of 2020 peace proposal (PDF)

2021

Founder’s Message — 2021 Commencement Ceremony

Full text of 2021 peace proposal

2022

Full text of 2022 peace proposal

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Founded
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Headquarters
Aliso Viejo, CA
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Founders
Daisaku Ikeda
Company founders
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