Building community one JET at a time.

The Microgrant Initiative for American JETs, funded by the U.S. Embassy Tokyo, provides small grants to U.S. assistant language teachers working in Japan on the JET Programme to introduce American culture and English language to students in their classrooms and the local community.

We are happy to announce that this year we have awarded a record number of microgrants to current American JETs: 27!

The high quality of applications for this program made the decision very difficult this year and we wished we could fund all of the projects. Projects were selected based on the uniqueness of the idea, the area of focus, the impact of the project, the budget, and the feasibility of the project.

The approved grant recipients are:

• Annabel Baker-Sullivan, Hokkaido, “To and from Hokkaido and New York: Pen-pal Project”
• Jordan Bauzon, Hokkaido, “Furnishing Popular Novels and Picture Books in English to Promote Cross-Cultural Awareness”
• Kameko Blair, Fukushima, “Holiday Party”
• Jessica Brooks, Ibaraki, “A Seat at the Table”
• Amber Bunnell, Tokushima, ”Mima International Food Festival”
• Michael Clogston, Shimane, “U.S. Study Abroad Scholarship/ Festival by AJET”
• Dylan Coffey, Miyagi, “Kesennuma Library English Language Revitalization Project and ALT Reading Event”
• Cassandra Fegert, Nagasaki, “Poetry Across Culture”
• Teresa Fong, Saitama, “Athletes Abroad”
• Michael Frazier, Kanazawa, “Black History Month Festival by Ishikawa JETs”
• Malcolm Harper, Gunma, “A Day in the Life”
• William Harvey, Nagano, “Voices of Nagano City Radio Journalism Program”
• Emily Masuda, Gifu, “Letters for Language and Culture: An Exchange between Japanese and American Students”
• Katherine Jordan Michels, Mie, “Wai-Wai Haru Matsuri: Let’s enjoy American Culture with Suzuka English teachers”
• Cynthia Mitchem, Ishikawa, “Little English Picture Book Library”
• Monica Narang, Osaka, “An English Language Library and Resource Center for Students and their Parents”
• Stephen Nguyen, Saga, “Conversation Community Improv Comedy Café”
• Caitlin Orwoll, Tokyo, “Pen Pal Letter and Video Exchange”
• Santisouk Saycocie, Kagoshima, “Pen Pal Exchange between two Rocket Towns”
• Niko Schultz, Fukuoka, “Kokura High School International English Seminar”
• Samantha Sodetz, Kagoshima, “Pen Pal Exchange between two Rocket Towns”
• Lindsay Teeples-Mitchell, Nara, “It’s a Small World: Let’s Discover it Together Through Books!”
• Hannah Winters, Saga, “Circle Time Spring Festival”
• Jacqueline Witwicki, Hokkaido, “Cleveland and Nakatombetsu Letter Exchange Program”
• Matthew Wong, Hyogo, “Curating Wadayama Public Library and Diversifying English Story-time”
• Angela Young, Aomori, “Native English Materials for Everyone”
• Kevin Yuan, Mie, “Taki Book Fair: ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go!’”