Dec 9

Life After JET: Return to Japan? You can, and I did, as a Rotary International Peace Fellow

Career, LifeAfterJET, Return on JET-vestment , , , Comments Off on Life After JET: Return to Japan? You can, and I did, as a Rotary International Peace Fellow

Mark graduating with his MA in Peace Studies from ICU, Tokyo

Mark Flanigan (Nagasaki, 2000-04) is a Program Director with The Japan ICU Foundation in NYC. Prior to his current position, he was a Rotary Peace Fellow at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Japan. He would like to share his story with you in the hopes of helping other JET alums apply for this great Fellowship opportunity. 

As a JET alum, have you ever thought about returning to Japan in a different capacity? Are you interested in earning a fully-funded MA in Peace Studies in Tokyo? You can, and I did, as a Rotary International Peace Fellow. (In fact, there have been at least five JET alums who have gone on to be Rotary Peace Fellows) For me, it was a perfect chance to return to Japan and advance my career at the same time.

Like many JET alums, I’d always thought it would be nice to live in Japan once again, but was not as interested in taking the Eikaiwa route. I had a wonderful experience as an ALT in Nagasaki (2000-04) and truly treasured my time there. After my time on JET, I had returned to the States and was living and working for the US Govt in Washington, DC through the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program. Still, I missed the experience of daily life in another culture and was looking for a way to make it happen. Through a friend of mine named William Daniel Sturgeon, who is also a JET alum and a former Peace Fellow, I learned about this great opportunity.  Thanks to his great advice and mentoring, I was able to complete the application and selection process successfully and become a Rotary International Peace Fellow in Japan in 2010.

Through the Rotary Fellowship, Read More


Page Rank