Count Me In -- Extracurriculars
If you are feeling intimidated by the college application process, I highly suggest breaking up the application into sizeable sections. One section…
Kento Nakamura came highly recommended by Coach Josh Shapiro and after talking for an hour I could totally see why. It felt like I was talking to an old friend, yet we had never met before. Talking to student-athletes like Kento truly cements my love of working at a place like Tufts.
Kento is from Tokyo, Japan and was looking for a liberal arts & sciences college where he could still be dedicated to playing soccer. He's also the only international student on the team. Being a city boy is a central part of Kento’s identity and he also loves the public transportation in Tokyo- which, by the way he talked about his home city, has me wanting to visit in the near future. Leaving home for Tufts pushed him out of his comfort zone and it took a little while to get used to the American Culture and mannerisms, but it was a welcomed challenge. He’s enjoyed getting to know his teammates and also peers outside of the sports arena at Tufts. Having a balance of athletes and non-athletes in his social circle has been a highlight for him because he just loves meeting new people and learning from their experiences.
In the classroom, Kento (who is a Biology major) has taken advantage of the science options at Tufts including conducting research at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences during his junior year. His researched centered on how medium fatty acids can effectively kill Candida albicans. Kento is really interested in the rare diseases that have no cure and not much money being put towards the development of the cure. With this in mind, he also completed an internship with a Pharmaceutical Consulting company in Washington D.C. in which he learned about the marketing of a product and how the market drives which drugs get to the shelves. In addition, this summer he worked at a Pharmaceutical Marketing company in Tokyo.
Personally, I thought the highlight of this conversation is that Kento is a young philosopher in the making. He’s taken a range of the liberal arts courses outside of his major, from Drama to Philosophy. From our conversation I would say he’d be successful in other majors besides biology. We talked about the word “fun” and how he has a completely different definition of fun in college. Fun for Kento is the ups AND the downs. He specifically cited that this is the first time some people have failed (referencing not getting into some colleges in which they applied, or getting lower grades than high school), but it’s how you deal with failure or setbacks that shows true character. He also mentioned that he’s learned to enjoy both sides of the scale because it’s taught him a lot about himself. Personally, I found his definition of “fun” intriguing because not all young adults have this grasp on life- Kudos Sir!!!
If you are feeling intimidated by the college application process, I highly suggest breaking up the application into sizeable sections. One section…
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