Beyond These Walls
Experiences abroad lead UO alum John Darland '96 on path of opportunity

There's a quote by Saint Augustine that I particularly like, "The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." I'm the kind of person who prefers to read the entire book.

After graduating from the University of Oregon in 1996 with a degree in sociology, my wife, one-year old son and I moved to Japan. During my previous four years at the UO, I had run -- along with my family -- Oregon Adventure, a company that organizes home-stay visits and learning activities for Japanese students. I realized that this was the kind of career I wanted to continue and decided I should go to Japan to improve my language skills and learn the business culture. It seemed to be the perfect way to complement my work and educational experiences.

Traveling to any foreign country requires a certain amount of flexibility. However, going with a one-year-old and having a wife eight months pregnant, required major flexibility. (You must have a sense of adventure as well!) Most of our friends told us we were crazy, but we figured people had been having babies in Japan for a lot longer than they have in the U.S. and seem to be doing fine, so we didn't worry. Plus my wife and I had both traveled to Japan before, which made adjusting to the customs and culture much easier.

Living in Japan was an amazing experience. Through the Japanese Exchange Teacher (JET) program, run by the Japanese government, I taught English at a public high school for girls in Fujioka-city, Gunma-prefecture. The purpose of the JET program is to expose students to English-speaking foreigners and their cultures. I was the first American teacher that these kids had had. Previously, only one foreign teacher had been at the school and that was six years earlier, so most people weren't used to having someone like me around. I noticed that I was more aggressive in my approach to education -- especially in challenging the curriculum and grading systems for the English classes. When I first arrived, the students were graded on just one final test, which primarily required short-term memorization. By the time I left, students were graded on a much broader proficiency system. I was fortunate to have been placed in a school that was flexible; I knew many people in other schools who felt they were human tape recorders.

While teaching, I worked on building my relationships with the schools, businesses and people I had previously known, and I also tried to make as many new connections as possible. Even though I was an ocean away from my alma mater, it was two new friendships with people who happened to be affiliated with the UO that played a pivotal role in my personal and professional development.

The first was Ingyu Oh, my former UO political sociology professor from Korea. I had stayed in contact with him since college, and during my years in Japan, we became good friends. He also continued to have a major impact on my education. Professor Oh could speak and read several languages, and knew about many different countries in general. I spent a lot of time working with him on an independent study research topic, "A Historical Analysis of Japanese Education." Professor Oh helped me see things in a different light and encouraged me to learn to figure out why things are the way they are. For instance, why did Japan go through the particular changes that it did in education. He taught me that learning about other cultures and their histories is a great way to understand our own culture and the changes it has gone through. He was an inspiration.

Toward the end of my first year in Japan, I met Mr. Tak Takhara, a UO alum and member of the Tokyo Ducks club -- a 250-plus member club of UO alumni that would do anything just to have an excuse to visit Oregon and the UO campus once every couple of years. So began another new realm of opportunity through a university connection.

Tak and I had many things in common -- we both played soccer, liked jazz and believed that our jobs/careers should include our friends and be fun. We started to communicate weekly. He began to help Oregon Adventure, of which I am still a partner, by arranging for students to get their visas and doing orientations for students going on short-term home-stays -- both of which enabled Oregon Adventure to have permanent representation in Japan. During this time, Tak also started a business with Ken O'Connell, a professor in the UO Department of Fine and Applied Arts, called Imagination International, Inc., an import/export company that focuses on international business consulting, software development and publishing. I helped Tak explore ideas related to this business, and this year, I became Imagination International's new vice president. In addition to working on several import/ export projects, we are developing plans for software development and publishing.

If space permitted, I could continue with many more stories of how my travels, educational experiences and university connections have merged together to play an important role in my life. Going beyond the university's walls has been a constant theme in my life. My education, combined with the international friendships I've made, both at home and abroad, have not only been personally fulfilling, but have also exponentially increased the opportunities for my future.