Daye Chun / 早稲田大学ビジネススクール
[Profile]My name is Isabell. I majored in Chemistry at UC Berkeley. After a year at Keio University as an exchange student in my fourth year of college, I decided I wanted to start my career in Japan, in a direction veering away from my major. I pondered on what I can do with my multilingual abilities, creativity, scientific background, and communication skills, and decided to aim for a career at a foreign company in Tokyo. Therefore, I chose to pursue the International MBA program at Waseda Business School. Once I successfully entered the program, I thought about which zemi I should join for my two years in the program. After skimming through the list of zemis, I decided on Prof. Maki’s zemi on innovation and entrepreneurship, as I believed it would best allow me to make use of my scientific background.
The topics of the zemi were very interesting. One of the sessions I enjoyed the most was one in the very beginning of my education at Waseda Business School, where Prof. Maki showed the class a movie called October Sky. The film demonstrated various aspects of the qualities of an entrepreneur and what entrepreneurship means. I was deeply moved by how the main character’s entrepreneurial mindset completely changed his life and gave him and his friends a chance to get a better education and, even, saved them from a serious crisis.
Another topic that caught my attention was what could be done to stimulate and encourage entrepreneurship in various fields of business. As an MBA student aspiring to join an innovative company, I got very much engaged in the papers Prof. Maki told the students to read, as well as in the class discussions. The zemi was, indeed, very demanding and required loads of work every week. However, it was, and is, a rewarding experience, and I plan to make the most out of the rest of my school year in Prof. Maki’s zemi.
One of the characteristics of this zemi that I am most thankful of is how it allowed me to realize what kind of management I would be suited for. This also gave me confidence and further improved my performance in discussions of other courses, too. This feature of the zemi is even more enhanced by the fact that the zemi allowed me to be surrounded by people who, while having various interests, were all interested in innovation as well as management of technology.
My current interests include innovation, technology, and environmental sustainability, as well as the management techniques and policies related to these fields. I have learned much throughout my time in Prof. Maki’s zemi about how an entrepreneurial mind is an important asset, not just for one’s career, but for one’s life, powerful enough to change destiny, especially in today’s world. Together with the other knowledge and skills that I have acquired through my education, both during my college years at UC Berkeley and my MBA studies at Waseda Business School, I am confident that I will be able to build a career that has a global influence, especially with the help of brilliant people that I will meet throughout the future.
All in all, the Seminar on Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a unique opportunity for students to truly find what kind of innovator they can be, and to foster an entrepreneurial mindset, as well as confidence in one’s skills. Yes, it can be demanding and difficult, but at the same time, the hard work pays off, and furthermore, it allows for networking with various kinds of people with different interests but commonly share an enterprising spirit. It is, in short, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that changes one’s way of viewing the world.
次回の更新は新年1月4日(金)に行います。次回は早稲田大学ビジネススクールのWijesinghe Ramesh Asankaさんです。
