Jessica C. Morton, known as Morton-Sensei to her students, lived in Japan for more than three years as a student, teacher and professional. Morton-Sensei attended Doshisha University in Kyoto for one academic year while living with a host family. Upon graduating from Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA), she returned to Japan as an English teacher and worked for an English conversation school in Takamatsu, Shikoku.

In Seattle, she interned at the National Bureau of Asian Research while attending University of Washington for graduate school. Morton-Sensei ultimately received her Masters degree in Japan studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At UM she taught Buddhism and served as a Research Assistant/Translator for the Center for Japanese Studies. After obtaining her Masters degree, Morton-Sensei served as translator, interpreter and cultural liaison for Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems, a Japanese corporation in the automotive field, and worked as a Japanese interpreter for the University of Michigan Hospital Systems. While she enjoyed translating, her passion was to teach, so she starting teaching Japanese at Steppingstone, a K-8th grade private school for the gifted, as well as a local community college in Michigan.

 

A native to Kent, Morton-Sensei decided to return to the Pacific Northwest to teach Japanese in her hometown. She is an active member of the Washington Association of Japanese Teachers, and is on the Board of the Eastside Nihon Matsuri Association as well as co-chair of the Auburn-Kent-Tamba Sister City Association. In her free time, Morton-Sensei teaches Autistic children formal Japanese, volunteers on her sorority’s alumni board and plays and coaches volleyball and tennis.