USJETAA’s Bobby Nawbary took some time to hear how current JET, Michelle Barajas Perez, found herself making sugar skulls with her students in Japan. Michelle’s path to Japan was not typical. With roots in small-town, rural California, her hometown of Los Banos is not a town where its people venture far from in their lives.

If there is one constant within the JET experience, it is the feeling of community. No matter where JETs are placed throughout Japan, if asked about their favorite aspects of the program, you’ll often hear this. But even within the JET Program, community can have many different meanings. Community can be a JET’s placement or small town. It can be their school and the teachers they work with. And, it can be the other JETs in their area. When the JET community enhances the local community, the program is at its best.

Minoh City’s first Hack-A-Thon kicked off with a bang as middle school and high school girls across the city made their way to their first ever robotics and coding class.

This interview with current JET Adriana Nazarko (Osaka, 2022-205) delves into her project promoting sciences and advanced study in the US through a coding class completed entirely in English.

Parker Douglas Fairchild, a Tokushima ALT, was awarded a microgrant through USJETAA’s Microgrants for Current US JETs in partnership with the US Embassy Tokyo.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Parker was awarded the microgrant along with a team of co-recipients for their project, the Tokushima AJET Musical.

Current JET Amaris Lopez (Ehime, 2022-present) has used the USJETAA microgrant to spark curiosity and multicultural learning through the creation of an English library.

“Sports are such a great way to make friends. And with friendship comes a certain level of comfortability and confidence in trying new things—like speaking English.”

In this update, we had the opportunity to sit down with Adam to discuss his project, his love for American Football, and how the community of Yabu has grown to love football too.