65th Anniversary Special
The Internationalist Spring 2015
Class of 2003
Alyssa Yoneyama “On the math front, I owe my math foundation to [Mr. Fujino]—he ran a solid program and a tight ship!”
Age: 27 Country of Residence: United States Education: South Torrance High School; University of California, Berkeley (B.A.); University of Southern California (M.S.) Occupation: Marketing Specialist Company: XYZ.com, LLC
The most important things I learned at Nishimachi: I learned the importance of being open to and learning from new experiences. We were lucky to be exposed to so many things at Nishimachi— everything from U.S. history and building a school in Cambodia to learning how to juggle in P.E., all of which contributed to the person I’ve become. Most enduring memories of Nishimachi: standing on stage with my fellow ‘03ers and delivering my graduation speech in Japanese and English. And one of my most painful (and funny) memories is simultaneously spraining both of my ankles on the basketball court. The teacher who had the greatest impact on the person I am today: Mr. Fujino. Mr. Fujino was the most challenging teacher I had; he was always very honest with me (I was a “difficult” teenager at the time) and helped me flourish. On the math front, I owe my math foundation to him—he ran a solid program and a tight ship!
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The teachers who had the greatest impact on the person I am today: I can’t name any one teacher because I had so many good ones I wouldn’t want to leave anyone out. The most exciting thing about my life today: After a few years in the working world, I’m very happy to be a student again and excited about my classes this semester.
The best part of my job is knowing that my team and I are building a new foundation that will enable others to build their online presence. It’s exciting to market a product like .xyz (a new domain extension that we launched in June 2014) and to watch our hard work pay off as it’s become the world’s largest and fastest growing domain with over 780,000 registrations. And Japan is our third largest market! When I’m not at work, you’ll most likely find me exploring new restaurants and bars throughout Los Angeles. If I were to write an autobiography, the book’s title would be: Goes with the Flow, Unless... If I could give one piece of advice to my 15-year-old self: Keep studying Japanese. It will be useful for your future. And eat as much nihonshoku as you can before leaving Tokyo!
The best part of my job: In my previous job as a reporter covering human rights news at Radio Free Asia, it was putting out stories that the world might not have heard about if not for me and my colleagues. If I could give one piece of advice to my 15-yearold self, it would be: Dream big.
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