Akiko Davis: GATJ College Teacher of the Year, 2022

Japanese Lecturer named College Teacher of the Year by state association

KENNESAW, Ga. (Aug 9, 2022) — The Georgia Association of Teachers of Japanese awarded College Teacher of the Year this summer to Ms. Akiko Davis, Japanese Lecturer in the Department of World Languages and Cultures.

Ms. Davis earned a Master’s Degree in Foreign Language Education from the University of Georgia in 1996 while she taught Japanese working there as a teaching assistant. She also taught various levels of Japanese and Japanese culture courses at Elon University in North Carolina as well as English at Futaba High School in Fukushima, Japan. While teaching at Elon University, she was the Assistant Director of the International Programs and organized orientations, activities, and services for international students.

She has also worked closely with the curriculum development team for Irasshai, the distance learning program of Georgia Public Broadcasting, and contributed to the program creation and training of part-time instructors. She then joined the Georgia Virtual School and taught Japanese to high school students online for four years. In addition to teaching, she worked as a translator/interpreter for seven years at a Japanese company in Georgia.

She joined Kennesaw State University in 2015 as a part-time instructor and became a full-time lecturer in 2019. She incorporates Project-Based Learning into her Japanese courses and arranged a virtual exchange program with a university in Japan. She also mentors part-time instructors and contributed to the rapid growth of the Japanese Program at Kennesaw State University. She serves as a faculty advisor of the Japanese Culture Club and assists student leaders in organizing monthly cultural events on campus as well as virtual events with the Japanese universities.