At first appearance, Brian Lawson looks like a normal college sophomore. But, spend a few minutes with him, and he will tell about his trip to Japan.
Lawson, a business management student, was one of 32 American Eagle Scouts selected to visit Japan as part of an international exchange program March 3 to 14.
The program sends Americans to Japan and Japanese students to the United States to stay with host families and attend seminars. Teenagers from 25 countries attend these seminars.
“They have scouts from the U.S. go over to Japan and learn about the culture and spend time with the host family, tour and learn about world issues,” he said.
Lawson said throughout the conference, the scouts were split into smaller groups with people from different nations.
“We talked about the world’s problems and how to solve them,” he said. “We also discussed different ways to make each organization better and that was actually given to the Japanese minister of education.”
Lawson was grouped with scouts from the United States, Japan, Nepal and French Polynesia. Despite the language barrier, he said communication was possible through drawings and gestures.
“We had interpreters — but the object was to communicate without the interpreters, so you had to find different ways to communicate,” he said.
When not attending the seminars, Brian said he spent his free time visiting Japanese landmarks and learning about the different cultures.
He said he observed that the Japanese youths have started to become “Americanized” — wearing popular American clothing and eating at McDonald’s and Starbucks.
By living with his host family, he said he was able to observe the Japanese culture from a unique perspective.
“You really get to experience the culture of Japan — not from the tourist aspect, but from the actual living aspect,” he said.
This trip is not the only time Brian has been to a foreign nation for scouting.
“Two years ago I went to Thailand for the World Jamboree, where they had like 40,000 scouts from every country in the world,” he said.
Brian was nominated for the trip to Japan by George Charlet, the International Representative of the Istrouma Area Council, which covers the area from Lake Charles to Jackson, Miss.
“Brian was selected with his recommendation and the things that he’s done,” Charlet said. “He’s a leader in the truest sense, a dedicated young man who can’t be easily swayed from making the right decision.”
Charlet said Brian has received numerous awards and recognitions for his dedication to scouting and the leadership he shows as a section leader for about 50,000 scouts.
In addition to his commitment to scouting, Brian also works as a volunteer firefighter in Baton Rouge. Although he started as junior firefighter, he quickly became fully certified and is able to perform the actual firefighting.
“I can do pretty much everything you can think of — like cutting people out of cars, going into a burning building and drive the truck,” he said.
Brian said his visit to a Japanese fire station was one of the greatest highlights.
Despite being on the opposite side of the world, Brian still keeps in touch with the friends he met in Japan.
“I actually e-mail back and forth between my host family,” he said.