Alumna talks about living and working in Japan
March 28, 2003
KALAMAZOO -- A Western Michigan University alumna will return to campus next month to share what it's like to live and work abroad.
Sharon Rasul of Temple University Japan will present "Living and Working Abroad: A WMU Grad's Experience in Japan" at 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 7, in Room 1120 of Schneider Hall. The talk, which is part of WMU's Japanese Business Speaker Series, is free and open to the public.
Rasul, a 1987 graduate of WMU, is assistant director for business education programs at Temple University Japan. Temple has seven different programs in Japan and celebrated its 20th anniversary there in 2002. Rasul oversees the Executive MBA Program and coordinates faculty and course development in undergraduate, continuing education, and executive education programs.
While at WMU, Rasul majored in international business and marketing with a minor in Spanish. She studied in Madrid for one semester and also was a member of the Lee Honors College. Upon graduation, Rasul received the University's Keio Exchange Scholarship for study in Keio University in Tokyo. She went to Asia knowing only the Japanese word for "yes," and learned the language by immersion during her one-year stay.
In 1989, Rasul began studies at Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz., where she studied international management with an Asian emphasis. She took an internship with Ajinomoto, a large packaged food manufacturer in Tokyo, and received a certificate in international management from Thunderbird shortly thereafter. She continued to work in Japan at an English Cram school and later for GE-Yokogawa Medical Systems, a joint venture company that manufactures hospital equipment. Rasul joined Temple University in Japan as the Executive MBA Program manager. After several other assignments, she was named assistant director in October 2002.
The Japanese Business Speaker Series is one of seven key elements of Focus Japan, a WMU project funded by a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Led by Dr. F. William McCarty, professor of finance and commercial law in the Haworth College of Business, and Dr. Hideko Abe, associate professor of Asian and Middle Eastern languages, Focus Japan aims to strengthen the University's study of Japan's language, culture and business environment.
Media contact: Jessica English, 269 387-8400, jessica.english@wmich.edu