David Krause

LEAPed to Japan, 2004

Bio

David Krause was born and raised in Germany. In 2005, David was in Japan doing alternative service for the German military and worked with iLEAP while volunteering at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI). As one of the first Taking the LEAP participants, David’s experience helped to shape the current structure of the TTL program and his future direction.

LEAP to Japan

What follows is a 2010 quote from David about iLEAP, informed by five years of reflection on the experience of learning through iLEAP.

"The experiences I made while I was involved with iLEAP remains of great importance to me. Taking the LEAP addressed several questions that were increasingly interesting to me...about the meaningfulness of ones job/activities, about the reflected self, the role of the intellectual, about theory and praxis, social action and global responsibility. For me, iLEAP formed a structure of intellectual input through reading, classes and discursive sessions that fueled thorough reflection on the aforementioned questions and my activities at the time.

Much more than possible hopes to "do some good" in the world, I increasingly felt like I was participating in one great learning experience. I gained insights mostly about myself: my assumptions about global development, sustainability, work ethics, varying concepts of a meaningful life. By glimpsing into the lives of some of the trainees (at ARI) with their very much different backgrounds to my own, I believe to have broadened my perspective and was able to “relativize “some of the social pressure I had felt inside my native western society. This was possible not least because of iLEAP.

I am convinced that the experiences I made at ARI and the input and intellectual guidance I received through iLEAP helped to shape much of who I am today. It channelled my perspective through my early years at college. It shaped my view of myself in society and the role I want to play in the world. It helped me liberate myself from expectations of how to live my life. And still today, a critical reflection of myself, the people and institutions around me, paired with a sense of intellectual responsibility are some of the most important aspects of my identity."