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Back to All ProfilesDan Nishimura


Dan Nishimura

Vanderbilt MBA 2007
Product Manager, International Express Freight, FedEx

The Student Teacher

Nishimura Organized New Language Classes at Owen

Like so many other students, Dan Nishimura was sold on Owen when he visited the campus and met the people. But not until he began his studies did he realize how much the academic course work was intertwined with practical experience.

Not only did he study new products; he created one and then pitched it to executive managers to launch. Not only did he learn about effective promotions; he created a successful contest for the Career Management Center. Not only did he learn Mandarin at night; he practiced it during Owen's international seminar in China over spring break. Because of his own and fellow students' interest, Dan worked with administration to create the evening classes in Spanish and Mandarin just for Owen students and staff.

"It's so much more than classroom learning," Dan says. "Owen is truly a global business environment."

Without on-the-job experience in international marketing, the field he hoped to enter after working as a financial analyst, Dan worried that obtaining the internship he sought would be difficult. But the staff at Owen's Career Management Center and his peer counselor showed him how to leverage his transferable skills in an interview. Even before his internship at FedEx ended, Dan had received an offer of a full-time position.
Since 1969, Vanderbilt Business has been building a new kind of business leader. The kind who aren't afraid to challenge old ways of thinking. Who don't think they've heard it all before (or pretend they will ever know it all). The persistent kind. People who are ready to work harder and dig deeper, and who put ideas over ego and performance over pedigree.

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