Building community one JET at a time.

The 2019-2020 Microgrant Initiative for American JETs, funded by the U.S. Embassy Tokyo, provides small grants to U.S. assistant language teachers and coordinators of international relations working in Japan on the JET Programme to introduce American culture and English language to students and the local community.

USJETAA is happy to announce that we have awarded 22 grants to current American JETs!

This year there was a record high number of applicants to the Microgrant Initiative. All of 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:

• Monica Aguilar-Scion, Okinawa, “Bridging Cultures through an American English Library section and Read-Aloud Sessions”
• Taylor Allen, Kochi, “Board Game Night”
• Annabel Baker-Sullivan, Hokkaido, “To and from Hokkaido and New York”
• Isabel Bush, Tokyo, “2020 Tokyo Olympic English Day Camp”
• Domenic Cella, Shimane, “One World Shimane”
• Andrew Crispin, Wakayama, “In Season: Celebrating America’s Diverse Culture with Seasonal Cuisine and English Cooking Lessons”
• Alex Crockett, Kyoto, “Mystery Hangouts to Improve our communication ability, geographical awareness… and to have fun”
• Anne Echols, Hyogo, “An International Exchange in Kobe”
• Teresa Fong, Tokyo, “Join U.S., Mate!”
• Michael Frazier, Ishikawa, “2020 Kanazawa Black History Month Festival”
• Rachel Gregory, Iwate, “Portable Magic: Founding an English Library”
• Nia Hamilton, Shiga, “Adventuring through American Cultural Diversity!”
• Marissa Hanabusa, Kyoto, “A Taste of America: Exploring English language and US culture through food”
• Kira-Ann Hayashi, Kumamoto, “Bridging the Big World to Asagiri Town: A Diverse Resource Center”
• Elizabeth Kalt, Wakayama, “Eat Your Way to a Fairy Tale Ending”
• Gerlin Leu, Shizuoka, “Let’s Meet, Eat, and Taco ‘Bout It: Cuisines Across Cultures”
• Katherine Jordan Michels, Mie, “Wai Wai Haru Matsuri: An All-American Culture Experience with Suzuka English Teachers”
• Lena Pham, Shizuoka, “Cross-cultural Exchange through Desserts”
• Birdie Trotter, Chiba, “The World at your Fingertips! Connecting the international community of Kamagaya with the local community”
• Yoshika Wilson, Aomori, “Multicultural & Multilingual Manga Library Collection”
• Michiko Yoshino, Yamagata, “English Through Play: Immersive Language Learning Through Board Games”
• Lydia Zumbrun, Kagoshima, “Connected by more than Rockets: Kimotsuki and Cape Canaveral Pen Pal Project”