If you listen closely, the age-old JET adage <\/span>every situation is different<\/i> can be heard echoing around the world. This is because it\u2019s said so frequently, but that\u2019s because there is truth to the takeaway: Paths to JET, experiences in Japan, and adventures thereafter run in every direction. But when the stories sit side by side, a greater context for, character of and meaning to the program and participants, takes solid shape.<\/span><\/p>\n Below are features on three New York City-based JET alumnae. Each carved a unique path to, on, and from the program, but they share one incredible thing in common: they are working at three of the largest Japan-related non-profit organizations in the world. For those interested in following in their professional footsteps, <\/span>JQ<\/b> would like to introduce to you them and share their advice about entering the world of Japan-related non-profits.<\/span><\/p>\n Meet\u00a0<\/b>Christy Jones<\/a>, Director of Special Events at Japan Society<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n ALT, Shimabara-shi, Nagasaki-ken<\/a>, 1995-98<\/i><\/p>\n Born and raised in Upstate New York, Christy received a degree in cultural anthropology and a certificate in Asian and African Languages and Literature from Duke University. That was the closest she could get to a degree in Japanese, but it wasn\u2019t the closest she got to Japan: Her junior year, she studied abroad at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka. But that stint didn\u2019t quite quench her thirst for the cuisine and culture. The following fall, she applied to JET, got accepted, and returned to Japan\u2014but this time for three years.<\/span><\/p>\n Christy served as an ALT at an academic high school in Shimabara-shi in Nagasaki. Thinking back, she has very fond memories of her time on JET: \u201cAs this was the pre-Internet era, I didn\u2019t know much about Nagasaki beyond the atomic bomb,\u201d she says. \u201cI came to appreciate the rich international history of the area, along with the stunning natural beauty. Some of my happiest moments were traveling around Kyushu, visiting fellow JETs in their own towns, checking out the local <\/span>onsens<\/i>, cafes, and <\/span>izakaya<\/i>s, and taking thousands of photos. I was befriended by a number of local residents, which allowed me to have some uniquely Japanese experiences: delivering mail as an honorary \u2018Postlady for a Day\u2019; making <\/span>yakimono <\/i>in a backyard pottery studio and kiln; watching a bonfire-lit Noh performance at the base of a castle; and marching in the city\u2019s annual parade dressed like a Portuguese missionary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When Christy returned home, she let her experience settle. \u201cEventually,\u201d she recalls, \u201cI visited NYC to attend JETAANY\u2019s annual Career Forum, which happened to be held at Japan Society that year.\u201d She connected with a couple of headhunters and landed a job working as an administrative assistant for a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical for two years, but the work itself didn\u2019t fulfill her: \u201cMy workday ended at 5:30 sharp, so I started volunteering at the nearby Japan Society events as an usher and ticket-taker,\u201d which is when everything began to change.<\/span><\/p>\n A job opened up at Japan Society and Christy was invited to interview for the position. After a quick interview process, Christy was brought on board as the lecture programs assistant. \u201cIt was a matter of \u2018right time, right place,\u2019 or as my colleague put it, \u3054\u7e01\u00a0 (<\/span>go-en<\/i>, or serendipity),\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n That was in 2001. Fast forwarding to the present, she is currently the director of special events. In those 13 years, she\u2019s held a variety of roles\u2014corporate membership manager, assistant director, deputy director of special events, and more\u2014and has been a part of monumental movements and milestones. In 2007, Japan Society celebrated its 100th anniversary with a gala that had 1,000 guests and Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker. She then went to Japan to help with their centennial dinner, where Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan were the guests of honor. And after the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, Japan Society immediately established a relief fund and has so far received over $13.5 million from nearly 24,000 donors. Christy says she is honored to have played a part in those efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n From time to time, her various roles have put her close to Japanese celebrities, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ken Watanabe, Hideki Matsui, Takashi Murakami, and four prime ministers. But like any job, these moments are more than matched by the tall tasks behind the scenes and screens. \u201cOf course, those are the glamorous moments,\u201d she says. \u201cAttending the society\u2019s events and eating leftover sushi are just a couple of the perks that make the sometimes-tedious office work worth it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As director of special events, she is responsible for Japan Society\u2019s hallmark fundraiser, the Annual Dinner. In 2013, they had over 700 attendees and grossed nearly $1.6 million. Christy works mostly on the private side of the organization in these kinds of special events. \u201cThe \u2018special events\u2019 that I organize tend to be invitation-only events for our high-category individual and corporate members, our board of directors, fundraising prospects, and other targeted groups such as young professionals,\u201d she explains.<\/span><\/p>\n Occasionally, she pivots into the public side. \u201cFor the past two years, Japan Society and JETAANY have teamed up to run the <\/span>yo-yo fishing activity tent<\/a> at <\/span>Japan Day @ Central Park<\/a>,\u201d she says. The partnership plays to both groups\u2019 strengths: \u201cJapan Society\u2019s strength is in dealing with some of the bureaucratic and logistical aspects of the event, and JETAANY provides the enthusiasm and power!\u201d Christy also frequently promotes events and job openings to the JETAANY community. \u201cJETAANY is fortunate to have a group of executive officers that are very reliable and are able to maintain an active network of contacts. They are a pleasure to work with,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n As for other events at Japan Society, there are hundreds through the year, which are handled by the different program departments\u2014including film, performing arts, gallery, and others. (To see a list of those, visit their schedule of events<\/a>.) While Christy\u2019s time on JET ended in 1998, her interests and insight have continued to expand. Being able to understand basic Japanese, though advanced language skills aren\u2019t required for the job, is \u201can added bonus,\u201d as she puts it. And not just for her events, but to be able to connect to her colleagues, as about 30% of the staff, including the president, are Japanese.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single day at Japan Society, I learn something new about Japan,\u201d she says. \u201cIn that sense, it has been an extension of the JET Program.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Meet Alexis Agliano Sanborn<\/a>, Executive Assistant at Asia Society<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n ALT, Gotsu-shi, Shimane-ken<\/a>, 2009-11<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/i>Alexis\u2019 story is one of plans, both those that have worked out according to design, and ones that didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n Plan Number 1: \u201cGo to college, study Japanese, and get into JET,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis,\u201d she decided at age 14, \u201cwas more or less the goal.\u201d Alexis had visited Japan on a sister cities exchange program that year and while in Japan, she met a JET in Yamanashi who inspired to pursue that path. By senior year in college, things were going according to plan: she was on track to receive dual-degrees in East Asian Studies and Japanese from UC Santa Barbara and that winter, she applied to the JET Program.<\/span><\/p>\n But her eight-year plan came to an unexpected and abrupt end. \u201cI did not even make it to an interview,\u201d she said. \u201cI was extremely disappointed\u2014and had no idea what to do. When you\u2019ve been working for something for so long, then don\u2019t get it\u2014it shakes you.\u201d But Alexis didn\u2019t give up. \u201cI decided I would apply to the program again, and if I didn\u2019t get in again, I would find another way to get to Japan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She returned to Sacramento and worked until application season. \u201cI remember how nervous I was that year\u2014it was like everything had been put on hold for this dream.\u201d But it proved to be a positive one, as she not only got an interview and was accepted into the program, but came away having learned a great deal. \u201cI was so amazingly happy when I got a call for an interview,\u201d she recalls. \u201cBelieve it or not, I practiced for about a month with my mom all manner of interview questions and thought of all possible scenarios. I learned that things do not always go as planned. These struggles instilled the importance of hard work. Good things do not come easy. This entire experience more or less has shaped all that has come after.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Plan Number 2: \u201cBased on my time abroad, use this experience to help shape what came next in my life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n During pre-departure orientations in the States and conferences in Japan, Alexis was repeatedly told to have an \u201cexit strategy.\u201d She heeded this advice during her second year on JET and applied to graduate programs in her area of interest. This time around, things went her way in round one. When she left Japan, she went straight to Harvard, where she received a master\u2019s in regional studies of East Asia. Though this didn\u2019t give her much down time, she says this \u201cno-pause situation\u201d was the best for her: \u201cIf I had time to think about things, I might have second-guessed myself. I had a truly wonderful experience at graduate school\u2014I met many like-minded people and was able to use much of my JET [experience] into my studies.\u201d Her thesis is a prime example: \u201cI wrote my thesis on the school lunch program (<\/span>kyushoku <\/i>anyone?) in Japan and had the opportunity to present it at several conferences,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n Plan Number 3: \u201cTranslate my graduate degree into an actual job title.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe hard part,\u201d Alexis recalls, \u201cwasn\u2019t getting into Harvard, but applying my degree to an actual job title. There are limited career opportunities in the United States related to East Asia, so searching for a position was an effort.\u201d She spent the majority of her second year traveling up and down the East Coast to meet with people, many of whom were JET alums. These informational interviews were a new concept to her (she had been introduced to them from a colleague). Though they didn\u2019t land her any job offerings, they did create a lasting network of professional contacts, some of whom she has since collaborated with.<\/span><\/p>\n After graduating, Alexis applied to many jobs: \u201cI won\u2019t say how many positions I applied to, but safe to say, it was a lot.\u201d She applied to a position at Asia Society, and after several interviews, was hired on as the executive assistant to the vice president. Asia Society is dedicated to developing partnerships between Asia and the U.S. in the arts, business, culture, education, and policy. The bulk of Alexis\u2019 work gravitates toward managing, scheduling, and coordinating communications between the various departments in Asia Society, but she\u2019s written articles on <\/span>Japanese cuisine<\/a> and the <\/span>Great East Japan Earthquake<\/a> for their blog, and recently took a leadership role in <\/span>an event on the maritime\/territorial disputes between China and Japan<\/a>, which offered her programmatic experience directly related to her degrees. \u201cFor someone as Japan-specialized as me, it has been a good opportunity to learn about other cultures and issues as well,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n Alexis holds her time on JET close to her heart. When she thinks about those days, she remembers the sights and scenes of the <\/span>inaka. <\/i>She taught at seven schools\u2014two junior high and five elementary schools. \u201cI remember living life in the countryside and just what that lifestyle meant. I remember harvesting rice, plum picking, hiking mountains, going to remote <\/span>onsen<\/i>s, riding around Hokkaido in the snow, and all the fun times I had with friends,\u201d she says. \u201cInteracting professionally and socially with new types of people taught me a lot about relationships.\u201d But it took some time for the experience to really sink in: \u201cYou don\u2019t really realize how much JET has changed you until you come back. It took me about a year or two to realize this. Somehow, there is this intangible bond.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy first two years back I wasn\u2019t really able to pursue involvement with the JET community as much as I would have liked. But now,\u201d she says, \u201cI am on the Boston, New York, and DC JETAA email lists and I read the postings about events happening all over.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Meet J. Renay Loper<\/a>, Associate Program Officer at the Japan Foundation<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n ALT, Numakunai-shi, Iwate-ken<\/a>, 2006-07<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Renay took a separate path to and on the program.<\/span><\/p>\n Born and raised in West Chester, PA, Renay attended West Chester University for undergraduate and graduate school, though not consecutively. After majoring in business management, she worked in banking for three years, but her passions began to take a turn toward education. She returned to West Chester to pursue an MS in higher education and post-secondary counseling, and applied to JET the fall before graduating.<\/span><\/p>\n JET and Japan had been on her radar since undergrad, where she studied Japanese for a year and a half. With her degree in education almost complete, JET presented the perfect opportunity for her\u2014to explore the language and culture while gaining experience in her field.<\/span><\/p>\n Renay was placed in a tiny town in Iwate called Numakunai-shi. Similar to the larger trend in rural Japan at the time, the size of her town was shrinking each year as people were moving to more populated places, and the high school she taught at was shrinking one class each year. Her school decided they didn\u2019t need a full-time ALT, and so at the end of her contract, she was given the choice to move elsewhere in Japan and continue JET, or move on to something else. She chose a hybrid: she moved elsewhere in Japan and moved on to something else, by moving to Tokyo and working at Kanda University.<\/span><\/p>\n After she returned to the States, she taught ESL at a community college in Philadelphia, but then began her current career in non-profits. She first worked for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Northeastern University in Greece. \u201cThese opportunities,\u201d she says, \u201callowed me to have a broader set of experiences working with non-profits, building partnerships and bridges between communities and companies, as well as education.\u201d But Japan was still on her mind, so she began doing informational interviews with members of JETANNY and their networks. It was through those conversations that she found out about a position open at the Japan Foundation, which she applied to and has been working at ever since, currently as its associate program officer.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Christy-Jones-CROP-2-300x259.jpeg\")
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