Abby McIver ’17: Connecting Japan and Oregon

Upper School students in the elective Global Issues class recently got the chance to converse with students at a Japanese high school through a connection with an OES alumna. Abby McIver ’17 teaches high school in Japan and reached out to OES to see if her students could interact with Upper School students.

“I was at OES from kindergarten until I graduated in 2017, so it has been a big part of my life,” McIver shared. She attended Boston University from 2017 to 2021 and majored in international relations, with a focus on social and economic development. “During my time at BU, I started thinking about ways I could potentially live and work in Japan for a few years. I’m half Japanese and grew up visiting family and friends there, but I wanted to experience the culture for myself and on a deeper level. I stumbled across the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program and kept it in the back of my mind as I looked for other jobs,” said McIver. She worked for a global expert network company for two years, then was accepted into the JET Program and was placed in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, and moved there in August 2023. “I plan to stay here for two or three years,” she added. “Fun fact: Toyama and Oregon are sister states!”

McIver said she has loved her time in Toyama so far. The city is known for its beautiful surroundings and the fresh seafood from Toyama Bay. “I was also extremely lucky with my placement at the high school where I work. It’s one of the top three high schools in the prefecture, so the students are very motivated and are working hard to get into some of the best universities in Japan,” said McIver. She is responsible for three different English courses, one of which is her Discussion & Debate class. The class consists of 20 second-year students (equivalent to juniors in the United States) who are on the humanities track and many of them are very interested in English.

“Many, if not most, of the students have never been outside of Japan and have little opportunities to interact with foreigners, let alone foreigners who are their age. So I wanted to give them a chance to connect with high schoolers outside of Japan,” said McIver. “I thought working with current OES students could be a great opportunity for this, so I reached out to Head of Upper School Sarah Grenert-Funk earlier this year and she reconnected me with Stephanie Portman [Upper School history and social studies teacher]. Stephanie actually taught one of my favorite classes when I was in Upper School called Modern India and China. While I was at BU, I contacted her to let her know that I believed her class helped to inform my decision to major in international relations. As you can imagine, I was thrilled that she was the teacher who offered to collaborate with me on this project!”

Once the connection was made, Portman asked her students in her Global Issues class to write short biographies about themselves and to ask the Japanese students three questions about school and their lives in Japan. McIver’s students answered in short videos, and then Portman’s class responded to those with their own short videos. 

McIver said, “This has been a really valuable experience for my students and helped reinforce the value of learning a foreign language outside of just doing their assignments and passing tests. This gave them the chance to successfully use English to communicate and connect with people on the other side of the world. And of course, I hope the OES students enjoyed getting to know more about Japanese culture and their peers in Japan!”

A couple of her students said about the video conversation:

• “I’m very happy to be able to talk with you in a faraway country like America!”
• “I haven’t had any exchange with students in other countries, so I’m very excited about this video exchange.” 

Portman said, “In my Global Issues class, we are exploring case studies on human rights and conflict, emphasizing that these are ultimately stories about people. Connecting with students from Japan was not only a fun activity but also an important reminder that we are all part of a global community. It was especially rewarding to share Abby’s video with the class, having not seen her since she graduated. It was inspiring to hear about her journey from college to Japan. Her story encouraged students to take risks and pursue their passions.”

Ellis M. ’26 from Portman’s class said:

“It was great to have the opportunity to connect with students internationally through our Global Issues course. I loved hearing the Japanese students we corresponded with express how ecstatic they were to communicate with us as American high schoolers. Unexpectedly, our conversations made me further appreciate the community at OES in terms of how close-knit day and dorm students become over four years. Not many high schoolers have the opportunity to interact with international students regularly or experience the cultural diversity and depth we do.”