As a journalist, I stay on top of the news of the day, including the higher education reporting I cover for the Monitor. This year I had to take a lot into account in my rhythm – from settlements between colleges and the White House to conduct research and earn a Ph.D. cutsAmerican teachers looking for international assignments. But nothing has given me more pleasure in my work this year than traveling to Japan to write about black male students from the United States studying abroad.
Not many black men make this leap, so I wanted to reach out to him for the scholarship I received from the Education Writers Association. My reporting took me to Tokyo to meet a student named Tremaine Collins, originally from Ohio but now studying art at Temple University's Japan campus. Mr. Collins is thoughtful in his desire for a greater reality for himself than what his family, including his grandmother and mother who raised him and his absent father, have seen. There I met other students, including Demarris Johnson, a business major from Delaware who had enough confidence and self-belief to make his dreams a reality.
“I hope that by seeing what I do and what others like me are doing, people will believe in themselves that they can do it too,” Mr. Johnson says of black men studying abroad. Although some family members tried to sow doubts in Johnson's mind about the trip, his mother supported him, he adds. Her blessing boosted his confidence.
Why did we write this
Last year was a year in which U.S. colleges and universities came face to face with the federal government, affecting everything from funding to staffing to student enrollment. Education writer Ira Porter discussed the implications for college campuses and the choices schools made regarding the agreement with the Trump administration. However, his favorite task in 2025 was not the battles, but the opportunities. Inspired by fellowship and a little nostalgia, he traveled to Japan to spend time with black men from the United States studying abroad. How did this experience help them? What kept them going? “Watching their journeys brought me collective moments of joy,” he writes.
“I want too [other] families to see that it's possible, it's happening, and we're doing it,” he says. “And if you just gave these kids a little more support in their big, outrageous thoughts, they could go a lot further.”
Their stories made me nostalgic for college days long gone. Like Mr. Collins and Mr. Johnson, I enjoyed the privileges of being an adult—my own dorm room, no curfew, a schedule I could create, and the freedom to choose how I moved in the world. They are full of pride and optimism about their ability to create a world they enjoy looking at. Me too.
“I wanted to go out into the world and find my own path,” Mr. Collins says of leaving his family in Ohio.
I loved watching him look forward to joining the jiu-jitsu club on campus. Watching from the shadows as he toured the campus, I witnessed him enthusiastically greet everyone from the school's dean, Matthew Wilson, to the faculty and other students. He paid particular attention to a group of students who took turns wrestling each other, throwing their opponents to the ground with their weight and using techniques such as chokeholds and knuckle locks to force them out of the game.
“I have an interest in mixed martial arts, especially Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and while I'm in Japan, I think this will help my positive experience continue,” Mr. Collins shared with me after snatching a flyer to join the club.
A few months later, I found him on Instagram and saw that he had remained true to his commitment to try.
I never studied abroad in college and really regretted it when I became a full-fledged adult. Travel is spiritual and life-affirming. Every journey is filled with lessons that you can only learn by taking it. Meet people who are different from you: different races, religions, nationalities, genders and beliefs. Eating foods different from those you grew up eating. Crossing oceans and watching the sun rise and set from different perspectives.
When I was in college in the United States, there was political instability. I was afraid for what my future would look like after listening to all the people ranting on cable news and newspaper columns. The students I met in Japan found themselves in the middle of something similar, but instead of allowing themselves to be distracted by the news of the day, they sailed further from shore and forced themselves, without mom and dad or anything familiar, to figure it all out.
“One of the things about being here is the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom, just interacting with so many people from so many different cultures, in a friendly and open environment where everyone is in the same boat,” Mr. Wilson, the dean, shares with Mr. Collins during a campus tour.
Mr. Wilson says students studying in Japan are going off the beaten path and choosing something different than going to a community college or a college in a neighboring state. They also buck the trend of people going to colleges all over the country, because even those people go to places where everyone speaks the same language.
“Cultures aren't that different. You turn on the TV and you see the same language, the same programs, the same food you eat,” he says.
In Japan, students were a large group of people with different ambitions.
“Everyone is unique. It just helps you realize and allows us to help you realize that you are an extraordinary person doing this,” he shared as he said goodbye to Mr. Collins.
I loved hearing that kind of encouragement. We hear a lot these days about the low return on investment of college. College has become too expensive, as is true for many, and laws like the One Big Beautiful Bill, which restricts and eliminates certain loan programs for students and parents, can put additional strain on those trying to earn a degree. What Mr. Collins heard from the administrator about how his university experience would set him apart from other candidates and make him more desirable.
After each visit to Temple, I used the hour-long train ride back to the hotel to tell my wife how inspired I had been by listening to these young people talk and seeing their dreams in living color. These were black men who were as bold and ambitious as they wanted to be, unafraid of anything that might deprive them of their opportunities. They learned to write from hiragana And katakana while I exchanged messages with readers about skepticism about university research projects, faculty moving abroad, and the consequences of political polarization.
Watching their journeys brought me collective moments of joy, and it was the best reporting assignment of my year.
