Stardust House: 1st Year Spring

CHAPTER 4: Icebreakers

First day of the Welcome Ceremony for all incoming high school students at the historic yet prestigious Momiji Gakuen kicked in with some words of wisdom from the principal, Dr. Koyahito Shibasaki. I heard from the little birds that Dr. Shibasaki had only been the school’s principal for seven years and this would be his eighth year. His grandfather, Dr. Kouzen Shibasaki, was the previous principal and recently retired. The current Dr. Shibasaki’s parents were genetic engineers and had more interests towards research than inspiring and teaching the younger generation to become future science engineers. The “doctor” in his title indicated that he earned a doctorate in child psychology and sociology and loved to teach. During his doctorate studies, he worked as a homeroom teacher at the elementary school subsidiary of Momiji Academy. His dream was to build another branch of Momiji Academy at the most urban cities so that all students from all backgrounds would have a chance to be enrolled in such a privileged school and have a chance for a better education for a brighter future. Rather than calling him kouchou, everyone called him “Doc” instead. It may sound informal for the traditionalist educators, but Dr. Shibasaki believed in being close and open to the students and that he was there to guide them and be their counselor if you call it, rather than someone who would intimidate them because of their violation of the rules.

Three years ago, the Doc introduced a brand-new system that would allow kids from the far distance to experience distant education and online education without leaving home. This system really helped the handicapped students, students who were bedridden, and of course, students with so much potential but the distant location prevents them from attending the campus in person. On graduation day for the senior students, these distant students are also given a chance to walk on stage and receive their diplomas for graduation. This new system became so effective and truly enriched and inspired other educators from other schools that they decided to introduce the system to the other schools. Some purist administrators of Momiji Academy were not exactly happy with the Doc sharing his methods with other schools, however, Doc only cared about educating the young in the most effective ways as possible regardless of the school they may be attending.

Two years ago, Doc’s new distant education system at Momiji Academy caught attention of the executives at Japan’s most highly recognized entertainment talent agencies like my dad’s agency, StarPros. Although there was already the nationwide-famous H-High (I don’t have to tell you the entire name because I’m pretty sure you already know the name of that school I’m referring to), Doc’s distant education system made it a lot more convenient for their young talents, especially the super-famous ones who was always busy in and out on their movie and TV shoots to having nationwide concerts. Last year, many of these famous celebrity teens began enrolling at Momiji Academy as distant education students and occasionally attend campus whenever they’re in town. Unlike H-High, which the campus was separated in to two sections: one for celebrities only and the other for the rest of the student body, Doc didn’t believe in a separated society, so all students regardless if their celebrities or not were in the same homeroom classes.

Now we all know the explanation as to why there are a lot of famous models and a lot of kids from StarPros are students here at Momiji Academy. My brother was one of the first starting last year. Now it’s Kaito, Shunta, Shinoda, and Himemiya. Oh, and I forgot about Mirai Hanakouji too. I feel bad for neglecting Mirai all the time and she’s Tai-nii’s girlfriend also. Bad me. As far as admissions go, Doc made sure that his admissions administrators only accept students who truly deserved to be there and made sure that the entrance exams for those interested in attending this school were no breeze-through tests but fair enough to make the tests passable. Students who passed these entrance exams with flying colors but have little or no means of paying for tuition were provided financial aid or scholarships. In short, even if Momiji Academy seemed to be the school for the rich due to its sophisticated architecture and system, there actually a lot of students from the small two-bit countryside to the urban, low income ghetto areas here. Other than financial aid and scholarships, there are other factors that students can get in to Momiji Gakuen, in addition to passing the entrance exams, of course. Students who are children or descendants of Momiji Gakuen alumni can enter. They can also be sponsored by the elite who are also donors to the school. If you are celebrity, depending on the agency you’re being managed at, the agency connections will eventually help you get admitted.