Aoyama Gakuin University Chaplain visits Schoonmaker exhibit at Grundy County museum

Rev Satoru Itoh, Dean of Religion and University Chaplain at Aoyama Gakuin University, visited the Dora E. Schoonmaker exhibit July 27 at the Grundy County Historical Society.

Schoonmaker, a Grundy County resident, opened the first girls’ school in Tokyo in November 1874, which evolved into the Aoyama Gakuin school system. This school system teaches students from kindergarten through university and graduate school.

Itoh visited the museum on behalf of Aoyama Gakuin and shared the thanks from the schools administration to the museum for honoring Schoonmaker, according to a Thursday news release.

Schoonmaker is held in high-esteem in Japan as being instrumental in creating the Aoyama Gakuin school system.

Itoh also provided the museum and Morris Mayor Chris Brown with “The Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World,” a book all incoming freshman must read. It contains biographical information on individuals who were instrumental in establishing Aoyama Gakuin. Each year, about 4,000 freshmen learn about Schoonmaker’s life in Grundy County.

“Our students learn about Dora through their textbook,” Itoh said. “It would be a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn more about Morris and Grundy County as Dora’s background. Also, it would be exciting if our students could visit where she taught and grew up, and experience life in a rural community in the near future.”

Itoh said he would like to develop a strong relationship between Aoyama Gakuin and Grundy County.

“This would be an exciting opportunity both for the city of Morris and Grundy County,” Brown said. “I would like to reach out to some key individuals in the City and County to start brainstorming ways to develop a relationship with Aoyama Gakuin. It is hard to comprehend how 150 years ago a young woman from Morris would travel to Japan to open a school that would have such a huge impact on so many people. I am sure there is a lot to learn from her experiences and determination.”

Aoyama Gakuin is building a new museum to display its history from 1874 to 2000, which will open in May, and it will include information about Schoonmaker from both museums.