Andrew Masterman, ‘89 political science major, was the first person to go to abroad to Japan as a cc student. He joined a Japanese production company with three months of formal Japanese language training prior to the trip. As the only foreigner in the company, he was fully immersed in the Japanese culture during this year in Japan. The company was located in a rural part of Japan where people had minimal English skills, although he occasionally found outlets to practice his English with American English teachers. Through this experience, he was able to immensely improve his conversational Japanese skills. After this period, he returned to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in business at the University of Michigan. Upon the completion of his Master’s degree, Masterman worked for Intel for a couple years until he was offered a position as the president of the Japan branch of the company he had fulfilled an year of internship after his CC graduation. During his years as president, he was able to master his Japanese language skills and gain experience in working not only in Japan but also South Korea and China. Soon he because the president of all Asian branches for the company. The company was eventually sold, and Masterman moved on to manage other multimillion dollar companies. He accredits his success to his fluency in Japanese and the liberal arts education he received at Colorado College.
