Interview with ICU Rotary Peace Fellow Alumnus Steven Houghton
Steven Houghton is Senior Program Manager, Global Scholarship Programs at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York. Prior to his move to NYC, he served at IIE in Bangkok as Program Officer in charge of outreach to the South East Asian Region. Steven has 13 years of combined International Education experience in the U.S., Japan and Thailand. He holds a Masters in Public Administration with an emphasis on Peace Studies from International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo and a BA in Spanish and Psychology from Lawrence University. Steven studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain and Moscow, Russia (when it was still the USSR) and spent three years on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. He speaks English, Spanish, Japanese, and his specialties include coordinating incoming international students and outgoing study abroad programs.
Japan ICU Foundation: Thanks for answering our questions, Steven! Where and when were you placed on the JET Program?
Steven Houghton: I was assigned to work as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in 1995 in Minamishinano-mura, located in the southern-most tip of Nagano. It is a beautiful mountainous region following the Tenryu River – which ran through the town- just scant kilometers from the Shizuoka border and considered to be isolated by all that I spoke to, especially those who live there! To give a sense of my beautiful valley, there was no train available and we only had one traffic light. It was situated directly in front of the entrance to the junior high school (there was no high school in the community) and I was told the only reason it was there was so children would know what one was when they went into the big city. Since there wasn’t an intersection there the only time it changed was when students pushed the button to cross.
I was provided with a newly constructed subsidized apartment that was very comfortable. The apartments were built to try and attract young single people to the town as they were struggling with the demographic changes that continue to impact small towns all across Japan. I ended up staying for the (at that time) maximum of three years. I was motivated to stay for the third year as Nagano was selected to host the Winter Olympics and I thought that I could use my newfound Japanese language skills in a direct way at that event. It turns out I had overestimated my abilities and so I was not selected for a paid position in Nagano City as were some of my colleagues. However, this worked to my advantage as I had the supreme pleasure of volunteering to help at the Olympic Youth Camp where I chaperoned youth from all over the world (most sent by their countries due to their promise of competing in future Olympic games as athletes) in experiencing the games and creating friendships and connections in the spirit of the Olympics.
JICUF: Sounds great! What was your specific day-to-day role on JET?
SH: I was a school-based ALT and so I supported the Japanese Teacher of English in approximately half of his classes with the 76 students that were there (divided by three grades mind you). This came to about eight classes per week so, as you can imagine, I had ample course planning time. I looked for additional ways to get involved and enjoyed helping to coach the girls volleyball team for all three years I was there. I taught once a month at the Elementary School and that always proved to be my most rewarding and exhausting day of teaching each month. It was frustrating to see a true love of learning and enjoyment at that level transform into a task-based source of stress by the junior high level. I also conducted an adult ESL class once a week that was open to anyone with interest in the town. This allowed me to make non-school adult relationships that I still maintain today.
JICUF: Did you have any previous background in Japan, Asian languages and cultures, or in living/studying abroad?
SH: I was drawn to JET mainly because of my lack of exposure to Japan. Growing up, my mother had a deep interest in China, the Chinese language, and the people of that country. We had traveled internationally as a family so it was always a “normal” thing for me. Both my brother and sister studied abroad during college and so I just always assumed I would as well. Based on a friend’s experience I decided to do two trimesters in Barcelona, Spain, and it completely enthused me! I returned with a different attitude towards language learning as I had experienced the joy and freedom of communication in Spanish, not just studying it as a means to get a grade on a test. So, as I was nearing graduation I chose to apply to the Peace Corps and was fortunate to be placed in Honduras as an Agricultural Extensionist.
Nearing the end of my two-year commitment there I was actively looking for another opportunity to live and work abroad and still recall my late-night post-party conversation with a friend of a fellow volunteer who had just finished their time as a JET. Once I was aware of the program I connected with a number of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) volunteers in Honduras and built on my knowledge of Japan. Five days after completing my volunteer experience and returning to Madison, Wisconsin I found myself sitting in an intensive Japanese course at the estimable Asian Language program at UW Madison. At the same time I applied to the JET program and the rest is history!
JICUF: It sounds like quite a journey, indeed! What did you do following your JET service?
SH: This was one of the more challenging transitions in my life. I had created a very strong community of friends in Japan so that when I returned to Wisconsin yet again, I was a bit lost in how to go about recreating something similar at “home.” After floundering a bit I was thrown a lifeline by a friend who sent me a posting for a position as International Student Coordinator at a university on the West Coast. I immediately recognized the convergence of many of my interests and so began looking for a position in this field. I accepted a position as the International Student Services Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. And so began five years of intense exposure to the realities of students coming from around the world into “my” community, eye opening to say the least. This was made all that more challenging in 2001 when the World Trade Center was attacked. At the very time we needed to open up and encourage even more understanding across borders things went the other way and there was a sense of getting closed off. This also led toward me looking to switch my field of expertise, as I will explain later.
JICUF: How did you first find out about the Rotary Peace Fellowship?
SH: I found out about it through a different Rotary program. In 2000, a year after accepting the position in Superior, Wisconsin, a Rotarian working in HR sent around an email announcing selections for that year’s Group Study Exchange (GSE) program. Our District – 5580- was planning to do an exchange with District 2390 in southern Sweden. My direct supervisor and colleague suggested that I apply. After an intense selection process I found myself as one of five young professionals from northern Wisconsin/southern Ontario chosen to visit Sweden for five weeks. During that time we attended their District Conference and I heard about a new program that Rotary was just starting called the Rotary Peace Fellowship. I was immediately interested which, ironically, directly led me not to join Rotary. All four of my fellow GSE’ers became Rotarians in short order following the experience. I was well aware that as a Rotarian I could not benefit from Rotary Foundation funding and so held off until trying my hand at this opportunity.
JICUF: Did you choose ICU as your first educational option? If so, what led to your decision?
ICU was my first option, Argentina was my second. I had such a positive experience in Japan during JET and was also aware of the strong focus on peace that is infused into many aspects of Japanese life it seems like a natural fit for me. As I had a more generalized academic interest I didn’t feel as restricted in the programs that I applied to based on their curricular offerings.
JICUF: What kinds of things did you focus on as a Rotary Peace Fellow at ICU, both academically and socially?
SH: My initial motivation for returning to graduate school was to shift my professional area of expertise. I had been working for five years with international students and while I enjoyed my own interactions with them and was pleased to see them succeed both academically and socially, it slowly became clear to me that a secondary interest of mine was not happening. As a believer in the benefits and advantages of having multiple cultural experiences and viewpoints I was always hoping/assuming that having many international students on a campus would impact the Americans there. They would interact with “my” students and come away more engaged, open-minded and curious about the world. It was at one of the many graduation parties I attended for a proud graduate that I looked around and realized the majority of their friends were actually the other international students.
The handful of Americans there were those who had either studied or lived abroad themselves at some point. It became clear to me that to truly raise awareness and bring about a perspective change for American students more was needed than just passive exposure to “others.” What was needed was to encourage more Americans to study abroad. So I had decided to focus on challenges with and access to study abroad for American students. I ended up exploring the barriers to study abroad for American students with both a quantitative and qualitative approach. I used my former relationship with the university where I had worked and interviewed both students who did study abroad and those who didn’t. My results indicated that the greatest determinant as to whether a student chose to study abroad was the age at which they learned of the concept. Interestingly, socio-economic status did not play a factor as one would expect from many conversations surrounding the challenges to increasing study abroad numbers.
JICUF: That is a very interesting insight. What was your ICU post-graduate plan and how has it worked out thus far? Could you tell our audience about what you have been focusing on most recently?
SH: My post-graduate plans were to gain experience working with study abroad programs and look for opportunities to increase access to study abroad for Americans, but ultimately for all students in the world. I was able to begin this process immediately after graduation in a position as the Director of the Council on International Educational Exchange’s (CIEE) study abroad program at Sophia University in Tokyo. I was responsible for groups between 70-120 per semester of (mainly) US students who had chosen to study in Japan. I was instantly immersed in the day-to-day challenges of creating, implementing and trouble-shooting the issues that arise from intercultural exchange. It proved to be the most intense, time-consuming, and demanding role that I had held and it opened my eyes to the realities of the study abroad industry.
After two years in this role I made the decision to join my wife (a relationship directly attributable to Rotary, which is another story) in Bangkok, Thailand where she was working for UNESCO. There I took a position with the Bangkok office of the Institute of International Education (IIE) to work on a new, cutting edge program in collaboration with New York University. I was doing outreach in Southeast Asia on behalf of the new campus they were opening up in the UAE. A truly visionary project, it embodied the essence of international education in a way that no other university was, or is, doing. On this new campus there is a focus on identifying students from around the world that are creative, entrepreneurial, excelling academically, and looking to be leaders in their fields for the betterment of our global community. Our job was to find these students from any and all educational systems around the world. After three years in this role a position opened up at the main IIE office in New York to oversee the global team we have working on this endeavor. I then moved to New York and have been both working with this ongoing effort while also taking on additional program management for other programs as needed until the present.
JICUF: What specific advice would you have for people who might be interested in applying to become Rotary Peace Fellows (especially at ICU)?
SH: If you are interested in being a Rotary Peace Fellow, it is important to see this as both a professional development opportunity, but also a chance to improve on an innovative program to increase the options for those interested in advancing the field of Peace Studies. This is a two-way street and one should be prepared to give back as much as they receive when applying. I would encourage anyone interested in applying to research and network with Rotarians to learn more about the organization, since participating in this program binds you to their efforts, which is a wonderful thing. If interested in ICU I would also advise investing time and energy in learning more about Japan and the Japanese language. Both will help you make the most of your experience as well as develop local networks outside of the Rotary program.
JICUF: Thank you again for talking with us, Steven! Any last words?
SH: Best of luck in your applications!
