Thanks for stopping by NABEA’s website!
My name is Paul Yarabe, and I’m on the leadership team of NABEA.
I work in biotech (gene therapy) in NYC, and did my undergrad in molecular biology at Harvard, and my MBA at Harvard Business School.
I joined NABEA because I want others like me to find opportunities to visit or study in Asia, and to even work there someday.
I grew up watching Japanese animations and trying to sketch all my favorite characters. When I moved to Nebraska for high school, I was lucky enough to have a teacher who had studied in Japan and came back to Lincoln to teach Japanese. She encouraged me to apply to a 10-day fully-funded scholarship to go to Japan and take pictures of youth culture with 7 other foreign high school students from around the world. I loved the experience, was touched by the kindness of the Japanese, and came back to Nebraska motivated to finish my Japanese studies and go back to Japan again.
After graduating college, I worked as a strategist at a people analytics startup in Tokyo. We invented an app called GROW to help students assess their strengths and weaknesses in a social, dynamic, and quantitative way. When I returned to Boston for business school, I had a chance to co-author an HBS case study “GROW: Using Artificial Intelligence to Screen Human Intelligence” (published August 2017).
One of my professional goals is to collaborate with the Japanese people to address issues in education and the medical field. I’ve seen firsthand the Japanese people’s creativity, diligence, and desire to make a difference in the lives of those around them. It is also clear that with their aging population, there are opportunities for regenerative medicine (which I dabbled in as an undergrad) that Japan can help take the lead on. If I can help in either of these respects, and help others like me find opportunities to pursue their curiosities as they relate to Japan, that will be something I can be truly proud of doing.
Sincerely,
Paul T. Yarabe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Join our community of black individuals who engage with Asia through discussions, local events, and programming by visiting our Join US page!
Input your areas of expertise and contact information to gain access to our professional database, a collection of black specialists on Asia-related on our Professional Database page!