Students' Voices

I had never participated in a QREC program before, and this was my first time attending the Tech Bootcamp as a senior in college.
Looking back now, I strongly feel that I should have joined much earlier.
The Tech Bootcamp brought together highly passionate Kyushu University students, and interacting with them provided a valuable opportunity to view myself objectively and gain inspiration.
By encountering skills and perspectives different from those I encounter in my daily school life or in external communities, I was able to reevaluate my own position, identify my shortcomings, and recognize my biases.
Furthermore, during each session, I received sincere advice from people I would never have had the chance to meet in my regular student life, which led to some meaningful connections. Having an environment where I could share my ideas and progress and receive feedback made me feel much more focused than when I was working alone, and I feel it brought a pleasant sense of tension and rhythm to my daily activities.

Introduction to Digital Craftsmanship, which I took during the summer of my freshman year of college, was the most enjoyable class I took during my four years of college. The class consisted of two pairs of students working together to build musical instruments using 3D printers, laser cutters, and electronics.
The class was open to a wide range of students, from graduate students to undergraduates, and the person I was paired with was a first-year graduate student in the Graduate School of Engineering, who was five years older than me.
I was able to learn CA, programming, laser cutter, etc., and that was the moment when my mind was converted from college entrance exams to college studies!

The Entrepreneurship Marketing class was also a great learning experience, where I took classes with working professionals who were pursuing their MBAs, and we worked as a team to challenge ourselves to see how high we could sell a product that was available to the general public. After all, I thought it was a very valuable opportunity to get to know famous companies such as Google and Bourbon, and presidents who have started their own businesses, as a team. I had a desire to start my own business as a sole proprietor, so when I went out to dinner with working people, I asked a lot of questions and went to get the knowledge I needed.

QREC keeps me excited all the time in every class and leaves me feeling like I want to try something after class. Honestly, I would rather take an applied course at QREC than take a class where you just sit around! I think you will discover something new.

Honestly, as a student, doesn’t the word “business” alone sound a bit fishy?
I was the same.
Originally, I went abroad to study behavioral science, but I ended up stepping into business studies simply because it was the only field I could major in. That’s why I knew almost nothing about QREC.
But the biggest change I experienced after actually learning it was this.
“I used to act purely on instinct, but now I can think in terms of structure.”
Entrepreneurship wasn’t just about “starting a business.”
It is a way of thinking about how to perceive things.
Who is valuable?
Why does it work?
Where is the bottleneck?
The biggest takeaway is developing the habit of breaking things down to think about them, rather than just moving forward because “it seems okay somehow.”
After studying abroad, I wanted to deepen my learning further, so I also participated in an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.
Discussions with students and professors at top American universities, comparing the startup ecosystems of Fukuoka and the US, and the extraordinary pace of Silicon Valley. It was truly stimulating.
But what impressed me most wasn’t being overwhelmed.
What struck me was how little difference there really is between what I do and what others around me do.
That gave me confidence.
Learning business and developing critical thinking skills has not only been invaluable for event management and career decisions, but I also feel it has strengthened my friendships and my own mental resilience.
QREC didn’t create everything.
But it certainly was a place that elevated the foundation of my thinking.
If you’re wondering, “Does this even apply to me?”, I think it’s worth giving it a try at least once.
At the very least, it was a welcome update for someone like me who was operating purely on instinct.

The reason I applied to Idea Battle was that while preparing “Q-DELIVERY,” an online grocery service for students living near the Ito Campus, I wanted to receive objective advice on the business from university professors and adults with practical experience.
In student entrepreneurship, it’s not uncommon for projects with brilliant insights to remain stuck at the “idea stage” without being realized. However, through the Idea Battle I recommend, you can overcome these barriers with strong mentor support, significantly advancing your concept from mere conception to implementation.
My experience at QREC made me keenly aware that while accumulating knowledge through lectures is important, it’s equally vital for students to roll up their sleeves, take action, and boldly introduce their ideas to society without fearing risk. The feedback and experience gained from having people actually use your service far surpasses any theoretical knowledge gained from textbooks.
When implementing ideas and creating services that solve societal issues, the “connections with people” made here become a powerful asset. I encourage you all to take that first step toward bringing your ideas to life.

In the spring of my sophomore year, when I began to feel that a life of club activities, part-time jobs, and classes was not enough, I remembered the Introduction to Entrepreneurship course I took in my first year and began to actively participate in the program’s idea battles. Looking back, I am glad that unlike classes, part-time jobs, and internships, QREC activities allowed me to start with what I wanted to do, including the time I spent facing the question, “What do I want to do with my time as a university student? It was a good opportunity for me to think about getting out of the university and getting involved in activities outside the university.

Through Challenge & Creation (C&C), we were able to systematically learn the perspective of how to connect research results to business and the basic knowledge and thinking required for startups.
It was very meaningful to experience the process of objectively reviewing and fleshing out my own ideas not only through lectures but also through mentoring and individual advice.
I also felt that the multifaceted support, including financial support, created an environment in which researchers could take on new challenges with peace of mind.
This is a valuable opportunity for researchers interested in entrepreneurship to receive support in both learning and practice.

I participated in a program that views the school festival as an opportunity to start a business. My motivation was to try to create something that people would enjoy through knitting, which is my specialty. I branded the knitting I had been doing as a hobby under the name “Kinari no Mori” and tried my hand at selling goods made from yarn and craft bands.

Through this experience, I learned especially the managerial viewpoint of “how to create value-added products while keeping costs down. From the selection of materials to packaging, we balanced cost and quality while devising a pricing structure that would make the product accessible to customers. In order to ensure profit generation while minimizing risk as much as possible, we repeated simulations from the fundraising stage and carefully planned the flow of the product up to the day of sale. It was not easy to generate a profit while maintaining the quality of the products, but we were able to experience the real difficulties and fun of management.
The “venture finance” lectures I had taken the previous year were also very useful. By learning about the flow of money, the structure of account settlements, and the concept of profit calculation in advance, I was able to smoothly apply the knowledge to actual sales planning and pricing. I highly recommend taking the QSHOP and Venture Finance lectures together!

QREC classes are a place where you can seriously learn about “value creation” by sharing ideas with peers from diverse backgrounds, from undergraduates to working adults.
I usually live my college life while working as a working university student. I took various QREC classes with the motivation of wanting to run my own business in the future, but the tips I learned at QREC were not limited to those who wanted to start their own business. I realized once again that no matter what type of work you do, the essence of “putting yourself in the other person’s shoes and providing the value or service that is being sought” is common to all. I feel that the most attractive point of QREC is that it enables us to have such “multifaceted viewpoints that can provide clues to solving problems.
I took classes such as Advanced Lecture in New Value Creation, Advanced Lecture in Technology Based Entrepreneurship, and New Business Creation, all of which brought together members of different fields of expertise and ages to seriously think about value creation. From basic knowledge of entrepreneurship to in-depth knowledge of the business domain, all of the lessons are so memorable that I can recall them immediately.
Frankly speaking, it was a shame to graduate…. Please experience the high quality classes that you can take because of the blessed environment of Kyushu University while you are still a student here.

My motivation for applying to Challenge & Creation (C&C) was my goal of competing in iGEM, an international synthetic biology competition. However, I was shocked to hear during the C&C selection process that “it is not enough to perform well in the competition.” In C&C, we must always be aware of how much impact we can have on society, whether we really need it now, and whether our experiments have become mere tricks. We had a very great responsibility for the funds we were allowed to use, especially in terms of considering the people who had “financed” our activities. In this sense, I felt that C&C is different from mere support for students, and that it is a place that requires meaningful activities. If you want to know more about QREC, I recommend the Entrepreneurship and Career Design course that I was involved in administering. The course is a great way to learn what you need to know right now.

I began to look into QREC after seeing some of my good friends and seniors participating in the QREC program and seeing how much fun they were having.
However, because I found out about QREC so late, I was not able to get involved in the classes or the program very much, but I still had a meaningful time and was able to rethink my future plans. I wish I had known about it earlier (laughs).
I myself am an architectural design major, and although I had a strong education in design thinking and was unfamiliar with entrepreneurship and business, I have incorporated those ideas and am now struggling daily to commercialize my ongoing projects. I am still in contact with the people I attended the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp with in the QREC class, and I am glad I participated because I was able to expand my network and receive good opportunities from them. I think one of the advantages of attending QREC is that I am able to interact with people from completely different backgrounds.
Because I was able to participate in the QREC program and other programs, I was able to have an intense graduate school experience. I would like to make the most of this experience and push forward toward my goals. Thank you very much!

I first became interested in business and entrepreneurship when I took a course at QREC, “The Technology Marketing Game,” which I took lightly and found more interesting than I had expected. I was then selected for the Challenge & Creation (C&C) and Acceleration Programs, which gave me the opportunity to experience many hands-on opportunities.
The most impressive of all was the learning I gained through design thinking. I was able to learn the process of uncovering issues that users themselves were unaware of and finding solutions in a practical way through repeated failures. The ability to verbalize issues, which I developed through this process, has been a great help not only in my business and research, but also in my daily life and relationships.
I recommend the QREC Acceleration Program. In this program, you will learn through lectures and workshops the general flow of the process up to proof of concept. You will also receive valuable feedback on your ideas from a diverse group of people, including entrepreneurs and investors.

The classes in my major department were mostly classroom lectures in specialized fields, so I decided to take the practical QREC classes. All of the classes are friendly to first-time students and are a very good first step in starting something you are interested in. Also, in the Idea Battle, the idea we had when it was accepted did not work out, and after mentoring, we changed our idea several times. In the end, we only created part of the product and did not complete it, but we were able to learn how to think in a social problem-based manner without being limited by what we had learned at QREC or in our major classes.