Aviation Maintenance Alum to Study in Japan on Scholarship

During his time at Embry-Riddle, Jordan Garrett (’22) studied Aviation Maintenance Science (AMS). He was active with WIKD, the student-run radio station on the Daytona Beach Campus, the Japanese Student Association and the Cryptocurrency Club. Now, he’s preparing to earn his master’s degree from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.

Navy Opens Opportunity

Garrett says his interest in Japan and their culture began in middle school, and his dream of visiting came true when he joined the U.S. Navy in 2012. A classmate at the time told Garrett that he could see Japan by joining the Navy, so that’s what he did.

He served for six years as a fire controlman, performing maintenance on radar and computer systems. After the Navy helped him mature and introduced him to some useful technical skills, he decided he was ready to give college a second try. He found Embry-Riddle in an online search of best schools for aviation maintenance.

“The more I looked into it, I found that Embry-Riddle really was the best school for aviation, and I really wanted to get into the mechanics of aircrafts and how they work,” Garrett said.

Experiences at Embry-Riddle

Being a few years older than the typical college student, Garrett was nervous that he wouldn’t have anything in common with other students when he started attending Embry-Riddle. Luckily, that was not the case.

“It was very easy to make friends,” he said, “All the students at Embry-Riddle are very similar-minded when it comes to pursuing an education and the pursuit of higher intellect.”

Jordan Garrett (center) preparing for WIKD’s 2021 Paint U event. (Photo: Jordan Garrett)

His interest in music led him to the WIKD 102.5 office on the first day of classes, where he signed up for training to participate in the student-run radio station. Shortly after, Garrett had a radio show featuring global alternative music and an improv podcast that he said was “known for being terrible.”

One of his favorite places on campus was a lounge in the AMS building where he would study with his fellow AMS classmates, eat lunch and just hang out. He was also secretary of the Japanese Student Association and founder and president of the Cryptocurrency Club.

The MEXT Scholarship

“During my final year [at Embry-Riddle], I was trying to figure out how to get back over to Japan to be with my fiancé,” he said.

She had shown him a scholarship through the Japanese government that covers full tuition, so he applied.

“It turned out to be an extremely competitive process,” Garrett said. “I like to give her all the credit because she passed away shortly after I got the first interview, so she never found out the results.”

The MEXT Scholarship is awarded by the Japanese government’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. After a lengthy application and screening process that includes letters of recommendation and a comprehensive research proposal, Garrett finally received confirmation of his acceptance in February. The nine-month wait from his initial application in May 2022 wasn’t easy.

“The MEXT process is entirely non-transparent,” Garrett explained. “They don’t release any numbers, any part of the process at all. So basically, you apply and go based on previous applicants’ experiences and hope for the best.”

While studying at Tohoku University, Garrett will be a research assistant at the Takahashi-Karikawa Laboratory, working in aerospace resiliency with the main goal of studying how stress affects aviation mechanics, along with personnel safety and improvement of large-scale systems.

Embry-Riddle’s Impact

“No one else does it like Embry-Riddle,” Garrett said. “It gave me a love of education and aviation that I did not possess before going here. It’s because of that newfound interest in aviation that I decided to continue educating myself. And without the staff and students at the school, there’s no way I would have gotten as far as I did, especially during the hard times.”

His advice for current and future Embry-Riddle students is simple: study.

“When I went to college the first time in 2009 to 2012, I didn’t study and that clearly didn’t work,” he said. “When I went back to school, I had to set study habits and if I hadn’t set those, I would not have graduated with the grades I did."