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In today’s digital age of globalization, it might be easy to question the value of international education. If a new college graduate can hop onto a Zoom meeting with participants across time zones or scroll through TikTok videos with automatic language translation, would it matter if this graduate also studied abroad?
It would to Jason Cohen, SIS/BA ’92.
A proud Eagle alum whose own life was transformed by a semester abroad in Japan during his junior year, Cohen struggles to see technology as a perfect substitute for experience. In fact, an illusion of global connection makes the case for international learning that much stronger.
“There’s the false sense, now, of interrelatedness,” says Cohen. “There are a lot of assumptions that the world is one—that maybe it’s not as important to understand how, for example, the Japanese business world works.”
“But as we get into a more fractured world,” he explains, “that human connection—understanding regions, differences, and being able to make your own viewpoints and decisions about a culture, a place, a people—is just as important, if not more than it was [when I was a student].”
For Cohen, being immersed in Japanese society through his homestay with a family in a Tokyo suburb was essential for his language skills and cultural knowledge.
“I would sit every night speaking with [my host family],” recalls Cohen. “By the end of the semester, I was amazed at how much I learned the language, how much I loved it, and how much I realized . . . that speaking to people in their second language was very different from being able to experience the culture through their native language directly.”
This experience—and its timing—proved critical for Cohen’s life and career.
In 1991, Japan represented the world’s second largest economy and a key player on the global stage. And while Cohen arrived at AU with a long-term plan to pursue law, opportune School of International Service (SIS) classes sparked his interest in US-Japan relations.
In the months leading up to his semester abroad, Cohen interned at the US-Japan Business Council in DC—a role he memorably secured by searching the phonebook for “Japan” and cold-calling the council. Japanese language courses at AU prepared him for his homestay with a host family, and he learned as much as he could about current issues in trade, commerce, and diplomacy.
Still, actually studying in Japan opened doors he could have never envisioned.
When he completed his semester abroad and his degree at AU, Cohen returned to the country on the recommendation of an AU professor for a one-year language intensive to further his Japanese fluency. A job opportunity arose while he was there that led Cohen to stay for another two years. Even after coming back to the United States for law school, Cohen’s legal career ultimately again took him and his family throughout Asia, being based in Tokyo and then in Singapore for two different career opportunities.
“If I hadn’t gone to AU, how would my life have been different?” Cohen sometimes ponders. When he looks around at his country-spanning career and host of friendships, he doesn’t need to speculate.
Cohen has carried this perspective forward to deepen his connection with his alma mater in recent years.
After a small dinner with fellow SIS alumni in 2018 made him “remember everything [he] loved about AU,” he’s been committed to engaging with the school through his service with the SIS Career Mentoring Program, philanthropy, and support of the historic Change Can’t Wait campaign. He cites AU’s impact in his own life and his desire to minimize barriers for today’s students.
“Part of it is appreciating what the AU experience did for me,” says Cohen of his choice to support funding for study abroad. “Second, is trying to help other students get that same opportunity.”
In Cohen’s view, the skills of an SIS and AU education remain ever relevant for graduates today.
Within his own legal profession, Cohen knows how a semester of research or study abroad helps candidates stand out in a sea of applicants to law firms. Having language skills or regional expertise gives graduates a distinctive story to share about themselves and stand out in job interviews.
Even more broadly, however, Cohen points to the power of international education to throw one’s world view into relief—and then reshape it.
“Being a lawyer, studying US law and the way our system works, is one thing,” Cohen says. “But when you get the chance to work internationally and deal with the laws of other countries—that’s how you gain clear perspective and become a better US lawyer. And it applies to anyone in any job or profession.”
It’s easy to imagine that the AU junior who once set off for Tokyo was already embracing this formative idea.
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