December 2021: Adam Wolf
Our guest today is a former Great Lakes JETAA President. Adam has a Master’s of Business Administration, has experience working for the Japanese consulate, and is now working in higher education. Read on to find out more about how Adam’s JET experience influenced his career!
Where are you from in Michigan or Ohio?
I currently reside in Clawson, Michigan but have lived all over Metro-Detroit.
Where was your placement, and how long were you there?
From 2012-2013, I lived in Higashioumi-shi in Shiga-ken. My city was actually Youkaichi-shi, but it merged as part of a conglomerate a few years before I got there.
What was your school setting like?
I taught mainly at Tamazono Junior High School, which was under construction when I arrived. While I didn’t teach there, I also had the chance to visit a local elementary school and a local kindergarten.
What is a memory you have in Japan that sticks out to you?
I know it’s an overused trope but I really have too many memories to narrow just one down, but I’ll try to do one inside my prefecture and one outside my prefecture. In Youkaichi, I remember having the opportunity to climb Tarobou Mountain with my fellow Aikido-ka in the late fall when all the momiji were out. I also had the opportunity to travel to Arashiyama in Kyoto during the fall season and was able to canoe on their river and visit Iwatayama Monkey Park with some of my Japanese friends.
What are you doing now?
I’m currently an academic advisor at Walsh College. I guess you could say JET indirectly helped me land this position, but it did directly help me land my last position at the Consulate-General of Japan in Detroit and help me build connections with the local Japanese business community.
How has your time as a GLJETAA officer helped you since the time you served?
My time as JETAA President helped me change my leadership style and challenged my ability to be more open-minded and understand how to delegate properly.
What, if anything, are you proud to have accomplished during your time as a GLJETAA officer?
I am most proud of the fact that our officers were able to create a new website and launch the first Great Lakes JETAA Job Fair.
Do you have any advice, or other support that you can offer to your fellow alumni?
Figure out how to best utilize what you have acquired from the program. Keep up your Japanese knowledge if you can because there are always openings for people that are bilingual or have Japanese ability (unlike me lol).
If you could bring one thing from Japan to where you live now, what would it be?
The one thing I would most love to have from Japan would be onsen.
Where can we reach you for networking?
I can be reached at or can be found on LinkedIn.
Please do reach out if you have any questions for our alumni. Thank you, Adam Wolf, for sharing your story.
Alumni Spotlight is an outreach activity through the Great Lakes JET Alumni Association seeking to build stronger connections between alumni and to provide bridges for networking. If you or an alumnus you know would like to be featured in an installment of Alumni Spotlight, please email Kyle Belanger at .