After Macalester

Alumni Stories

View videos from John Glasgow ’17, Myhana Kerr ’18, Eun Shin ’17, Lucas Myers ’17, and Iris Parshley ’18 and learn more about how studying Asian Languages and Cultures impacted their education, their careers, and their lives.

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Recent graduates who have focused their studies on Asian Studies, or Chinese or Japanese language and culture are in great demand in fields such as education, international banking and commerce, law, foreign service, studio and design art and journalism. Others have gone on to professional schools or to graduate programs in Asian Studies, Japanese language and culture, Chinese language and culture, linguistics and teaching English as a second language, history, economics and international business.

Joe Harrington ’24 is working at Our Streets in Minneapolis.

Ryan Cotter ’24 has moved to Bethel, Alaska to be a producer with KYUK Radio.

Finn Lewis ’24 is enrolled in the Linguistics graduate program at the University of Minnesota.

Anna Durall ‘ 24 is at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston.

Ceil Maus-Konn ’24 has joined the team at the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.

Isaac Wan ’24 is working at Macalester ITS.

Jack Peng ’23 is working in Kanazawa, Japan with the JET Program

Andrea Liu ’23 is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the Ohio State University.

Lisa Luo ’23 is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Michigan.

Noah Velick ’23 is working as a data scientist at Castro Labs, an all-queer start up based in San Francisco.

Mason Chambal ’23 is at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Ohio.

Alex Purves ’23 is a Financial Research Data Analyst at Bloomberg. He will assist in research on stocks or bonds for Bloomberg Intelligence.

Finn Lewis ’23 is studying at Nanzan University.

Mizuki Samuelson ’23 is attending Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama.

Maple Yang ’23 is in the Master’s program in Asian studies at University of Southern California.

Carter Rutherford ’23 is a Fulbright English Teaching fellow in Taiwan.

Zhenxiao (Victor) Wang ’22 works as a research technician in Dr. Takeshi Egawa’s lab at the department of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Ben White ’21 studied law at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Daphne Iskos ’21 is a Diplomatic Assistant in the Japanese Embassy.

Jingyi Guo ’20 studied Public Policy and Data Analysis at the University of Pennsylvania.

Andrew Taylor ’20 studied at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey.

Jane Acierno ’20 worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of Minnesota.

Reese Bresson ’20 worked as an Information Technology Solutions and Services Provider at CDW.

Caroline Norfleet ’20 pursued a PhD in Chinese Linguistics at the Ohio State University. Caroline completed a Fulbright Fellow, teaching English in Taiwan.

Rina Morisawa ’20 was a Curatorial Assistant at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Anisha RajBhandary ’20 was a Fulbright Fellow teaching English in Taiwan.

Natalie Mitsumoto Hoffman ’19, published How to Talk to the “Other Side”: Finding Common Ground in the Time of Coronavirus, Recession and Climate Change.

Andie Wilhelm ’18, Haruka Yuminaga ’18, and Shintaro Iwai ’18, worked for the digital company “Flywheel” as retail specialists.

Yi Ren ’17 pursued a PhD in Japanese Linguistics at UCLA.

Errol Phalo de Jesus ’17, worked as a freelance writer and published an eBook.

Megan Dietly ’17 worked in Tokyo for “YTA” as an event manager.

Connor Boyle ’17 pursued master’s degrees in East Asian Studies at Yale University and Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington.

EunGyeong Shin ’17 worked in product policy at Tik Tok.

Lucas Myers ’17 worked as a program coordinator for the Wilson Center’s Southeast Asia program. He received a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University.

John Glasgow ’17 served as the Program and Partnerships Manager at the Rural Schools Collaborative and holds a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center.

Amy Rapp ’17 worked on UX/UI design in Paris.

Lucy Woychuk-Mlinac ’17 was a Research Consultant at Harper Global.

Bailey Roberts ’15 and Dylan Jekels ’18 worked as translation checkers and localizers for a digital-manga company called NTT Solmare in Osaka, Japan.

So Nakayama ’15 joined the Bank of Japan in Tokyo.

Tara Cayton ’15 pursued a medical degree.

Samson Bialostok ’15 worked as an Associate Account Manager for Convey Compliance Systems.

Yang Zhang ’15 enrolled in the Master of Public Health program at Yale University.

Lina Mistron ’14 pursued a PhD in History at the University of Chicago.

Daniel Timm ’14, Benjamin Eagan-Van Meter ’14, Jill Romero ’14 and Nicole Miller ’14 worked for the JET program.

Lena Paulsen ’14 pursued a master’s in Japanese Studies at Heidelberg University in Germany.

Grace Sullivan ’14 studied law at The George Washington University Law School.

Jiajun Liang ’13 pursued a PhD in Japanese Literature at UCLA.

Louis Hendrix ’13 studied Linguistics with the PhD program at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Todd Skauge ’13 studied law.

Sam Frost ’13 received a FLAS fellowship to study in China and enrolled in the East Asian Studies program at Georgetown.

Alex Vega-Byrne ’13 and Tiffany Lee ’13 worked in Japan with the JET program.

Devon Kristiansen ’12 pursued graduate studies at the University of Minnesota and did research in Beijing.

Evan Coles-Harris ’10 enrolled in the Linguistics program at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Hae Yeon (Alice) Jeong ’10 worked at the Korea Development Institute in Seoul, South Korea, and pursued a graduate degree in International Relations and Political Economy.

Kevin Johnson ’10 ran a translation company in Osaka.

Cryxine Costanzo ’10 worked with H.I.S. International Tours in New York City.

Maureen Leeds ’10 went to graduate school and joined the Minnesota Department of Health as an epidemiologist.

Erin Meitzner ’10 worked for Nintendo America as an IT Manager.

Lexi Lepler ’10 worked China.

Molly Gaines ’09 studied Asian Art History in the Columbia program of Art History and Archaeology.

Keaton White ’09 received a Fulbright and traveled to Japan, and then worked as a video game developer.

Monique Murphy ’08 studied French Linguistics at the University of Texas-Austin.

Kristyn Martin ’08 studied Japanese Language and Linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Raven Parsons ’08 worked on the JET program and then moved to a role as a recruiter for a Japanese company.

Wes Robertson ’08 received a PhD in Japanese Linguistics at Monash University in Melbourne Australia.

Matthew Rosenbaum ’07 received a Fulbright for study in Japan and then studied medicine.

Naomi Rubin ’07 worked for the CEO at Japanime Company in West Kawaguchi, Japan.

Ben Livingston ’07 worked for a web design company.

Elena Kamenetzky ’06 teaches Japanese language courses at Eastern High School in Louisville, KY. She received the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ 2021 National Language Teacher of the Year Award for her excellence in teaching.

Mashal Saif ’06 pursued a PhD in religion at Duke.

Laura Bower ’06 studied law at the University of Virginia Law School.

Sasha Kirschner ’06 attended the Seattle University School of Law.

Kate (Cohen) Maruyama ’05 managed study abroad programs in Japan, Vietnam, and China with CET. She spent three years on the JET Program in Osaka.

Michael Tobin ’04 joined Daitec in Fukuoka, Japan as a technical writer.

Ethan Bushelle ’03 studied in the Regional Studies East Asia (RSEA) program at Harvard.

Brian Steininger ’03 is associate professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University.

Colleen Laird ’02 enrolled in the Modern Japanese Literature and Film at the University of Oregon following one year working with Jet.

Erik Slivken ’02 received a Fulbright scholarship and traveled to Japan to do mathematical research. After completion, he worked at a Japanese software company as a video game programmer. He then enrolled in the Mathematics program at the University of Washington.

Bailey Eder ’02 was the campus director for the Gold Coast Holmes Institute in Australia.

Matthew West ’02 received the Bridging Scholarship to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. He then managed the language lab at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Gretchen Wolf ’02 attended law school at Hamline University.

Matthew Healy ’01 received a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Japan to do research in economics.

Eric Kosinski ’01 worked as a coordinator for the JET program. He received a law degree from Temple University Law School and worked for a firm in Japan.

Yukiko Norton ’00 worked as an Advanced IT Analyst for 3M.

Dave Bernotas ’99 entered the University of Illinois after graduation to pursue a PhD in economics.

Jessica Blythe ’99 worked in the international travel industry.

Lei Bryant ’97 received a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in ethnomusicology and joined the Department of Music at Skidmore College.

Heather Schlesinger ’97 and Ardis Burr ’97 worked for JET.

Lisa Kerszencwejg ’96 became an attorney.

Harry Kobrak ’94 spent one year in Japan on a Fulbright fellowship and then enrolled in Georgetown’s MBA program.

Ben Rosenthal ’94 received a PhD in Japanese Linguistics from UCLA in 2006. He worked as a translator for a video game company and published a book on Japanese linguistics.

Yan Qiu ’94 worked for Imagineer Co. in Japan.

Jenny Nagaoka ’92 received a Fulbright fellowship for study in Japan and then enrolled in the Public Affairs PhD program at University of Chicago.

Erika Schneller ’92 studied law at Indiana University and served as the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota.

Brian D. Landberg ’91 received a two year Rotary Foundation Japan Program Scholarship that allowed him to research alternative energy sources at Hokkaido University.

J. Robert Magee ’91 moved to Japan and published three books on contemporary Japan.

Jeff Bayliss ’88 received a PhD in Japanese history from Harvard. He is currently a faculty member at Trinity College.

Michael Bourdaghs ’87 received both Mellon and Fulbright scholarships. He continued his education and was awarded a PhD in Japanese literature from Cornell and teaches Japanese literature at the University of Chicago.

Kenneth Port ’82 was a Fulbright Scholar to the University of Tokyo twice. He was a professor and Director of Intellectual Property Law Studies at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. Ken was recognized worldwide as an expert on Japanese law.

Aileen Gatten ’69 finished a PhD from the University of Michigan and is an independent researcher specializing in classical Japanese literature.