Esel Seda Arat
Turkey
Business Development Director
ChemOrbis/SteelOrbis
MBA Class of 2005

“It’s 8 am in the morning and I’m on my way to my Japanese language class. It’s the conversation class today and we will have some local Japanese helping us practice our spoken Japanese. Once the class is over, I head to the study room for a group meeting with my classmates from Lebanon, Venezuela, India and France where we discuss a case study for Brand Management. In the afternoon, I stop by the Career Services office and discuss my cover letter for one of the positions to which I’m planning to apply. I spend most of the afternoon in the library catching up with my readings.

It’s dinner time and I join my Vietnamese classmates and taste delicious authentic Vietnamese dishes. After great food, I go to the gym for this week’s “Salsa Dance” classes offered by fellow classmates from Latin America. The steps are getting a little more difficult, but it’s a lot of fun. I plan to go to bed a little early today since we have a ski trip first thing tomorrow morning.”

In short, we were like a small family. We would stay up very late in our favorite e-lab and study rooms to finish our assignments while exchanging snacks, songs and movies. We would argue with other group members on trivial things such as what is the best color and font size to use for presentation slides. We would be procrastinating work to the last minute, especially during the last week of the semester where most final presentations and assignments would be due at the same time. We were a close-knit group, so close that gossip and rumors spread like wildfire and were usually better than Britney Spears' tabloids.

Despite being known as E-Busy students, we still had time to shine in extra-curricular activities. Who could forget the golden times we had in learning Indonesian dances, croaking our voices in karaoke sessions until the wee hours, watching movies and dancing in the CNP lounge, pampering ourselves in hot springs, camping at Ikazawa, swimming at the Riverside beach, watching stars, eating food made indifferent countries etc. Activities such as Open Day, ASEAN Night, Unplugged Night, Ken's Bar, Green Day and the IUJ Olympics brought much respite to our '30 credits in a year' mission.

IUJ is the ideal place for studying. Surrounded by beautiful mountains and rice fields, it sometimes makes me feel like I am inside of a poem rather then a business school. In summer you can play tennis on campus or just walk around under the sakura trees, in winter you can go skiing, work out in the gym, or just “switch off“ in one of many onsens which are in this area. There are also many clubs you can join and enjoy. I myself am trying my luck with two quite different ones: the karate club and the consulting club. That of course does not mean that you don‘t have to study. IUJ‘s MBA is tough, so you‘d better study hard, but there are always moments when you forget about all your cases and projects, sit under a tree, relax and just chit chat with your friends.

Student life at IUJ is fascinating with students from over 40 countries, especially Asia. It provides us with a good sense of a global student community which is very important for students who want to have an international education and in particular gather an Asian prospective, which was my main objective.

IUJ with its calm and pleasant location not only gives us a perfect atmosphere to study but also to pursue outdoor activities of all kinds. Moreover, because of its smallness one has more chances to build and expand a close network with students as well as professors from diverse backgrounds. The rapport between professors and students is very close and perfectly supported us in our tasks during the academic year.

Working together in groups with people from different parts of the world and getting help from professors makes our study at IUJ fulfilling and enriching. Besides the academic side we have various cultural exchange activities such as Open day and ASEAN Night and interaction with the local community which all give us a chance to absorb different cultures. Perhaps, in IUJ, learning takes place not only within the four walls of the classrooms but outside the classrooms among different cultures and with the local people.

“People” is the added-value of IUJ, their different points of view, the enriched perspective that we develop together, and their enthusiasm in knowing different approaches to solving problems.

As you may have noticed already, once you step onto the IUJ campus, you see a different world than that outside, and do not even feel you are in Japan.

We have over 50 different nationalities here. We all have different professional backgrounds.
As students from the host country, we Japanese students feel the responsibility to contribute to this international community, and proactively initiate or interact with a majority of the foreign students.

By doing so, I broaden my perspectives and gain optimal opportunities to achieve my career objectives. Our classmates are so dynamic, and have ambition and potential. By exposing myself to those future leaders, I am convinced that I will be a successful leader too.