From Saying Yes to Carrying It Forward: How JET Keeps Shaping What Comes Next

by Marti Deyo, Ph.D. (Aomori, 2004–2009)

When I arrived in Aomori Prefecture in 2004 as a JET ALT, I had no idea where the experience would eventually lead.

My days often began with an hour-long drive through the countryside to one of the five elementary schools, three junior high schools, or agricultural college where I taught. Every school was different. Every community had something new to teach me. Even the drive itself became part of discovering this place I was beginning to call home.

And then, as so often happened during my years in Japan, one experience opened the door to another.

During the annual teacher rotation, one of the teachers I had worked with asked whether I would like to join them at a newly established combined junior and senior high school—the first of its kind in the area.

Of course, I said yes.

Later, when the opportunity arose to serve as a Prefectural Advisor during my fourth and fifth years on JET, that was another very enthusiastic yes.

Looking back, that became something of a rhythm during my time in Japan. Doors kept opening. Conversations became invitations. Invitations became opportunities I never could have planned for when I first arrived.

Every day seemed to bring a new discovery, a new challenge, or a new way of learning about myself and the people around me.

I didn't know it then, but that willingness to stay curious, build relationships, and say yes when an unexpected door opened would shape far more than my five years on JET.

It would shape much of what came afterward, too.

When JET Ends—but the Experience Doesn't

One of the strange things about JET is that there is such a clearly defined beginning and ending to the program, while the experience itself rarely fits neatly inside those boundaries.

Eventually, the contract ends. You leave your school—or perhaps Japan. Your routines change. The people who were once part of your everyday life may suddenly be scattered across Japan and around the world.

But you don't simply return to being the person you were before JET.

You carry pieces of the experience with you: relationships, perspectives, confidence, questions, interests, skills, and sometimes an entirely different understanding of what you want your life to look like.

That was certainly true for me.

My professional path continued in international education, youth development, global learning, and higher education. I eventually earned my Ph.D. But even as the titles and settings changed, I kept finding my way back to many of the same things I had loved about JET: bringing people together, creating opportunities for cross-cultural learning, helping people navigate unfamiliar experiences, and watching what happens when someone discovers that they are capable of more than they realized.

And somehow, I never really got away from the JET community.

I'm very glad I didn't.

Creating the Support I Wished Existed

In 2025, I founded Positive Global Learning, a nonprofit organization focused on transformational global learning through travel, reflection, wellbeing, and community.

And once again, one conversation seemed to lead to another.

What began as an idea for helping prospective JETs prepare more intentionally for the experience gradually became something much larger.

Today, our work with the JET community stretches across the entire journey.

Through JETPrep, we work with prospective and incoming JETs as they prepare for applications, interviews, departure, and life in Japan—not simply asking, "How do I get onto JET?" but also, "Who do I want to become through this experience?"

Through JETThrive, we support current JETs as they build lives in Japan, navigate transition, develop relationships and community, care for their wellbeing, and think intentionally about the experience they want to create while they are there.

And through JETBeyond, we're creating space for alumni to reconnect, reflect on what their international experiences have meant, and explore what they want to carry forward into whatever comes next.

Different stages. Different questions.

But underneath all three is something I learned during my own years in Aomori:

The experience isn't only about where you go. It's about what happens when you remain curious about where it might lead.

Coming Back to Japan Differently

One of the most meaningful parts of building Positive Global Learning has been returning to Japan in an entirely different role.

This summer, our first JETPrep participants spent a month in Aomori through an education and cultural immersion program developed with Hirosaki Gakuin University.

They visited schools. They engaged with students and educators. They explored Japanese education and community life. They navigated moments of uncertainty and discovery. They reflected on what they were learning about Japan—and about themselves.

Watching them reminded me so much of my own early days in Aomori.

Except this time, I wasn't the young ALT trying to understand everything around me.

I was helping create the experience for someone else.

There was something wonderfully full-circle about standing in Japanese schools again, now alongside young adults imagining their own futures in international education and on the JET Program.

And perhaps even more meaningful has been reconnecting with people and places from my own JET years while building new relationships alongside them.

The relationships that once shaped my experience in Japan are now helping make new experiences possible for others.

That is something I never could have imagined in 2004.

The JET Community Keeps Opening Doors

That same sense of possibility is one reason I'm so excited about continuing to build relationships within the JET alumni community—including here in Tokyo.

JET alumni are doing extraordinary things in Japan and around the world. They're educators, artists, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, researchers, government professionals, parents, community builders, and so much more.

But what fascinates me isn't simply what everyone does after JET.

It's what we continue to carry with us.

The ability to walk into a room where we don't understand everything yet.

The curiosity to ask another question.

The willingness to build a relationship across difference.

The resilience to navigate uncertainty.

And perhaps most importantly, the understanding that a conversation with one person can sometimes change the direction of your life.

I've certainly experienced that one more than once.

Keep Saying Yes

More than twenty years after I first arrived in Aomori, I still don't think I could have drawn a straight line from that first ALT position to the work I'm doing today.

And I'm grateful for that.

Some of the most important parts of my life weren't part of a carefully constructed plan. They started with a conversation.

Would you like to teach at this school?

Yes.

Would you consider becoming a Prefectural Advisor?

Yes.

Would you like to collaborate on this program?

Yes.

Would you like to meet this person?

Absolutely.

And somewhere along the way, all of those small yeses became a life filled with people, places, work, and possibilities I couldn't have imagined when I first stepped off the plane.

That is one of the things I hope we can continue creating for people throughout the JET community—not a prescribed path for what should come next, but opportunities to pause, connect, explore, and notice the doors that might already be opening around them.

Because JET can be an incredible chapter.

But I've come to believe that one of its greatest gifts may be everything it makes possible afterward.

So wherever you are in your own JET story—just beginning, somewhere in the middle, approaching the end of your contract, or looking back from many years away—stay curious.

Keep having conversations.

Keep building relationships.

Keep noticing the unexpected invitations.

And every once in a while, when the right door opens...

say yes.

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About the Author

Marti Deyo, Ph.D. served as a JET ALT and Prefectural Advisor in Aomori Prefecture from 2004–2009. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Positive Global Learning, a nonprofit creating global learning, reflection, wellbeing, community, and travel experiences for young adults, educators, and the JET community. Through JETPrep, JETThrive, and JETBeyond, PGL supports prospective, current, and former JET participants across different stages of their international journeys.