I can't imagine my life in Japan without the JEP.

First things first, I participated in the Empowerment Program as a Japan-based international student who directly worked with the interns from the US and other international students in Japan. I regularly joined the Japan Empowerment Program each summer and winter. I started out as an Activity Leader/ Group Discussion Lead. As such, I lead small groups of 4 to 5 high school students of the client school and worked with the Program Facilitator and the ISA staff. After just one year, I assumed the position of Empowerment (EMP) Facilitator.

Throughout those five years, each EMP left an incredible memory or experience that I still cherish even now that I am not based in Japan anymore. I met wonderful people - ISA staff, GPI-US interns, facilitators, Japanese teachers of the client schools, ALTs, and best of all, cute Japanese students. They're really cute like kids.

If you're up for experiential learning, friendship, and cultural appreciation, please join this program. By the way, I put 9/10 for fun not because it was "just close to fun" but only because I want you to discover this missing tenth for yourself. Sure, there's an iota of challenge in a few programs... This is also pretty normal in every program where diversity is deemed part of the learning process. How do you deal with cross-cultural understanding if there's no hint of difference? What matters is our focus on building friendship, learning, and understanding.