{"id":25748,"date":"2018-04-27T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=25748"},"modified":"2018-04-27T02:29:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T07:29:18","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-student-holly-bunner-is-one-of-three-apsu-students-heading-to-japan-in-august-to-take-part-in-the-japanese-exchange-and-teaching-jet-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2018\/04\/27\/austin-peay-state-university-student-holly-bunner-is-one-of-three-apsu-students-heading-to-japan-in-august-to-take-part-in-the-japanese-exchange-and-teaching-jet-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University student Holly Bunner is one of three APSU students heading to Japan in August to take part in the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) program."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Holly Bunner shouldn\u2019t have fond memories of Japan. The last time she was there, the Austin Peay State University student spent four hours on a bus, then bicycled through the rain to a small noodle shop. After her meal, she took an awkward step on a small ledge outside the shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cHolly stepped on it in exactly the wrong way and broke her foot,\u201d Dr. David Rands, APSU associate professor of history and director of the Asian Studies program, said. \u201cSo she\u2019s had the experience of going to a Japanese doctor and getting a Japanese cast on her foot, and after all that, she still seems to like Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University student Holly Bunner is one of three APSU students heading to Japan in August to take part in the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) program.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

She likes the country so much that, following her graduation this May, she plans to move there in August. Bunner is one of three APSU students recently selected for the Japanese Government\u2019s highly selective Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. APSU students Geno D\u2019Arco and McKenzie Mullins will also head to Japan in August to work as assistant language teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of larger schools treat the JET program applications the same as Fulbright applications,\u201d Rands said. \u201cThis is pretty much the biggest grant the Japanese government can give. With our students being accepted in such big numbers, it makes a statement about how dedicated they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a recent April afternoon, Bunner and Mullins stopped by Rands\u2019 book-lined office to talk about their upcoming adventures East. The room\u2019s subdued, academic atmosphere did nothing to diminish their enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just always been interested in learning Japanese, and then when I found out Austin Peay had Japanese classes, I signed up,\u201d Mullins said. \u201cThen I heard about the Asian Studies minor, and I was really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bunner\u2019s interest in Asia started when she was a girl, when her family briefly lived in the Philippines. Once at Austin Peay, she enrolled in the Asian Studies minor and soon learned about the JET program.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I want to go to graduate school for Japanese literature, but to do that I need better Japanese language skills than I have now,\u201d she said. \u201cThis seemed like a good thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the JET program, Bunner, Mullins and D\u2019Arco were awarded a yearly contract to teach in Japan, with the ability to renew that contract up to five years. They\u2019ll receive around $33,000 a year, subsidized housing and health insurance during their time in Japan.<\/p>\n

And what are the APSU students looking forward to the most? They want to see the other side of the Pacific Ocean, visit rural villages, connect with friends from Study Abroad programs and, according to Mullins, eat ice cream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we studied abroad in Japan, they had soft serve ice cream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Austin Peay had more JET placements this year than some larger schools in the state. The Japanese Government receives about 5,000 applications a year, but it awards less than 1,000 placements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the JET program right after my undergrad, in 1993,\u201d Rands said. \u201cAnd it really help set me up to go on and do my master\u2019s in Japan. It\u2019s a really good stepping stone. There\u2019s a really good JET alumni association. Once you come back, there\u2019s all types of networking.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the APSU\u2019s Asian Studies program, contact Rands at randsd@apsu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Holly Bunner shouldn\u2019t have fond memories of Japan. The last time she was there, the Austin Peay State University student spent four hours on a bus, then bicycled through the rain to a small noodle shop. After her meal, she took an awkward step on a small ledge outside the shop. \u201cHolly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,7207,262,825,16057,31864,31863,6327,31865],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6Hi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25749,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25748\/revisions\/25749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}