Career Launch Stories – International Students in America, 2 of 3

by Kathy Seaton

Two weeks ago we announced that we would be sharing stories about three of our international accelerated certificate program (ACP) students. This is the second in the series of three.

Blending Business and Science for Global Success
Yuta Okanoya age 25, Japan
ESL, ACP IBOM, ACP Project Management, Internship

Yuta Okanoya was right in the middle of earning his master’s degree in bioengineering and chemistry in Japan when he decided to pack up and leave. As he began to forge his career intentions, he realized that it would take more than a strong science education to stand out from the competition and achieve his goals. It required a bold move—and a one-year absence from a program he was enjoying. It was only when he took a step back and looked at the big picture of his career that he determined that learning English and international business skills in America would give him a cutting edge, even if it meant delaying his advanced degree—and missing his friends and family—during his time away.

“My dream is to work globally,” says the Accelerated Certificate Program (ACP) student. “So it’s very important for me to learn about other cultures and the way they do business.” He studied English for several months at UCI Continuing Education before beginning the ACP in International Business Operations & Management (IBOM). He is in the U.S. to polish his language skills, study business and complete a professional internship. “Usually one year is not enough to do all of that,” he says, so he was thrilled to discover UCI’s program through an agent and applied.

In Irvine, Yuta finds a welcoming community. “In Japan, it is almost impossible to talk to strangers,” he says. “I like the people. Tokyo is humid and crowded. Everything here is very big, at UCI and in America.” Yuta is one of the ACP students who lived with a local family rather than living in campus housing or renting an apartment. “I had planned to stay three months, but my host family is so nice that I decided to stay for a year,” he reveals happily. His host mother is Japanese-American and his host father is Chinese-American, which he says gave him an instant comfort level. “They invite me to go to church with them and meet people there,” he says. “And they helped me buy a car,” which will be imperative for getting to and from his internship.

Despite his jam-packed schedule, Yuta arrives to his ACP classrooms looking relaxed in newly purchased flip flops, a SoCal wardrobe staple and affordable fashion statement. There, his focus is apparent. Without a business background, he occasionally experiences information overload, but he also knows this means he is absorbing what he came to learn.

Before he arrived at UCI,“I only knew things specific to biochemistry, so every day I learned new things about business,” he explains. (VIDEO) While the frequent group presentations with classmates from all corners of the globe challenge him, “it is getting easier” with practice, he smiles. “At grad school in Japan, the professors just talk and talk,” Yuta says. “At UCI, we have a conversation; there is discussion. For me, it’s very comfortable, and I didn’t expect that.”

In fact, Yuta says he didn’t like the popular online classes that he took in his home country because he couldn’t interact with fellow students or ask questions of the instructors. “I didn’t learn anything,” he says. “I prefer a face-to-face classroom. If I have time, I would come back and study again.”

Yuta says that during class he was always thinking about how he could use the methods he was learning to export Japanese devices in the future. “When I go back to Japan, I hope to combine that knowledge for my career.” For Yuta, the ACP program has expanded the way he will approach his career upon his return. (VIDEO)