University of Michigan - Flint

I graduated from the University of Michigan-Flint in the summer of 2000 and immediately headed off to Japan to participate in the JET Program. I was a junior high and elementary school teacher in Matsubara City, Osaka Prefecture for three years. I was the first individual to teach elementary in Matsubara and future curriculums were designed from my lesson plans. Being a teacher in the JET Program was one of the greatest experiences of my life. My three year contract with JET ended this year, but my interest in Japan has not. I am currently teaching at a Japanese preschool near Osaka City.

I could never have envisioned myself doing this growing up in rural Almont, Michigan. I always knew I wanted to do something out of ordinary with my life but a life in Japan never once crossed my mind. I have become fairly fluent in Japanese and have traveled extensively throughout Japan and Asia. If I never would have come to Japan I never would have been able to eat kimchee in Seoul or stand on the Great Wall of China. Although I have had many adventures since coming here its the little things that I value most.

am the center for the local basketball team, I go to the market and chat with the vegetable vendor, I talk baseball over beers andpeanuts with the fellows at the local bar, and I go hiking in the mountains near my house. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the professors and staff that guided me while at U of M- Flint, particularly my advisor, Dr. Hanashiro, and the entire History Department.

I have a new homepage. it needs some work but you can check it out. www.geocities.com/osakachero/magic.html

Robert D. Anderson lives in Horton Michigan and has nine science fiction short stories published from Dec. 2002 to present in the following magazines and e-zines: Nova Science Fiction, Shrodinger's Mouse, Open Wide, Ubertwinked, and God's Love

David Geraghty graduated from UMF with a history major in 1987. He is currently enrolled in the history graduate program at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville where he is a few weeks away from being ABD ("all but dissertation"). He received his MA from the University of Richmond in 2003. After leaving UMF, he taught high school (US and Virginia Government, US and Virginia history) in Amelia County, Virginia for twelve years. He enjoys his return trips to Flint with his family and notes that UMF has certainly grown considerably since the late 80s!

After graduation I taught for one year at a parochial school near Flint, six years at a military academy in Georgia, and seventeen years at Notre Dame High School in Harper Woods, serving the last seven years as chairman of the department of social science.

In 2000 Dr. Rubenstein brought me to the history department as an adjunct lecturer and in 2004 I became a full-time lecturer; it’s both an honor and a privilege to be part of the department.