MINERVA VOICES

A Conversation with Minerva Graduate Student Marina

This is the third in a series of profiles introducing Minerva’s Master in Decision Analysis (MDA) students.

September 16, 2020

This is part of a series of profiles introducing Minerva’s Master in Decision Analysis (MDA) students from the Class of 2023. If you would like to learn more about the MDA program, please visit minerva.edu/graduate-programs.


Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Marina Nishizawa obtained her undergraduate degree in literature and philosophy. Currently, she works at Google as a Business Development Consultant and is set to begin Minerva’s MDA program in the fall.

A couple of years ago, Marina had an eye-opening experience with the Japanese pharmacy industry, when she was diagnosed with a disease and required extensive medical support. While she is healthy now, at that time she went through the feelings of anger and despair many patients go through when fighting an illness. Prior to this experience, she was not aware of how important the pharmacy industry and pharmacists were in Japan, thinking that they only served to dispense prescribed medications.

From her medical journey, she quickly learned about the extent of support pharmacists offer to people in Japan; whereas doctors provide care when a patient checks into a hospital, pharmacists can provide medical support in the communities where people live. This allows patients to continue their days as normally as possible and preserve their social lives — a factor she considers particularly important for the country’s aging population. This realization inspired and motivated Marina to dedicate her work towards supporting an industry that plays such an important role in society.

“I have actually been working to develop a business in the pharmacy industry from scratch since I was diagnosed with the disease. [Now], I would like to organize my experience so that I can make the business more scalable and sustainable. So I have decided to go back to study and work to develop a scalable model which works.”

Marina first heard about Minerva from her previous company, which partnered with Minerva Project for an executive leadership class. While Marina was not part of that group, another member of her team took the course and told her about the innovative pedagogy and Forum, Minerva’s active learning platform.

“I believe the most different aspect of Minerva is the fact that it focuses on execution, where other universities only focus on thinking. I’m interested in execution because it is the most important thing for startups and new businesses because the environment changes every day. So we have to make our decisions day by day quickly based on complex information. I would like to not only learn how to think, but [framed in] the way of execution.”

One of Marina’s biggest passions is to encourage and support vulnerable members of society, as she herself has been in that position. And her support for the pharmacy industry is only part of that mission. Her dream is to help alleviate the burdens of people suffering from social mobility, not just patients, but the general population as well.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting my peers [in the program] because the culture of the school was a big factor in my choice of program. When I first started to research Minerva, I saw many posts on social media made by current students which made it clear that everyone — students, teachers, and staff — contributes to the development of the school. I like this culture where everyone is important, and I’m excited to be part of it.”

Quick Facts

Name
Country
Class
Major

Social Sciences & Business

Business

Natural Sciences

Social Sciences

Cognitive Science and Economics & Political Science

Social Sciences & Business

Business & Computational Sciences

Business and Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Business

Computational Sciences & Social Sciences

Computer Science & Arts and Humanities

Business and Computational Sciences

Business and Social Sciences

Natural Sciences

Arts and Humanities

Business, Social Sciences

Business & Arts and Humanities

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Computer Science

Computational Sciences

Arts & Humanities

Computational Sciences, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Social Sciences

Social Sciences, Natural Sciences

Data Science, Statistics

Computational Sciences

Business

Computational Sciences, Data Science

Social Sciences

Natural Sciences

Business, Natural Sciences

Business, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Computational Sciences, Natural Sciences

Natural Sciences

Computational Sciences, Social Sciences

Business, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Science

Social Sciences, Business

Arts & Humanities

Computational Sciences, Social Science

Natural Sciences, Computer Science

Computational Science, Statistic Natural Sciences

Business & Social Sciences

Computational Science, Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Business

Business

Arts and Humanities

Computational Sciences

Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Computational Sciences

Social Sciences & Computational Sciences

Social Sciences & Arts and Humanities

Computational Science

Minor

Sustainability

Computational Sciences

Computational Sciences

Computational Science & Business

Economics

Social Sciences

Concentration

Economics and Society & Strategic Finance

Enterprise Management

Economics and Society

Cells and Organisms & Brain, Cognition, and Behavior

Applied Problem Solving & Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence & Cognition, Brain, and Behavior

Designing Societies & New Ventures

Strategic Finance & Data Science and Statistics

Brand Management and Designing Societies

Data Science & Economics

Machine Learning

Cells, Organisms, Data Science, Statistics

Arts & Literature and Historical Forces

Artificial Intelligence & Computer Science

Cells and Organisms, Mind and Emotion

Economics, Physics

Managing Operational Complexity and Strategic Finance

Global Development Studies and Brain, Cognition, and Behavior

Scalable Growth, Designing Societies

Business

Drug Discovery Research, Designing and Implementing Policies

Historical Forces, Cognition, Brain, and Behavior

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology

Designing Solutions, Data Science and Statistics

Data Science and Statistic, Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science

Strategic Finance, Politics, Government, and Society

Data Analysis, Cognition

Brand Management

Data Science and Statistics & Economics

Cognitive Science & Economics

Data Science and Statistics and Contemporary Knowledge Discovery

Internship
Higia Technologies
Project Development and Marketing Analyst Intern at VIVITA, a Mistletoe company
Business Development Intern, DoSomething.org
Business Analyst, Clean Energy Associates (CEA)

Conversation

This is part of a series of profiles introducing Minerva’s Master in Decision Analysis (MDA) students from the Class of 2023. If you would like to learn more about the MDA program, please visit minerva.edu/graduate-programs.


Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Marina Nishizawa obtained her undergraduate degree in literature and philosophy. Currently, she works at Google as a Business Development Consultant and is set to begin Minerva’s MDA program in the fall.

A couple of years ago, Marina had an eye-opening experience with the Japanese pharmacy industry, when she was diagnosed with a disease and required extensive medical support. While she is healthy now, at that time she went through the feelings of anger and despair many patients go through when fighting an illness. Prior to this experience, she was not aware of how important the pharmacy industry and pharmacists were in Japan, thinking that they only served to dispense prescribed medications.

From her medical journey, she quickly learned about the extent of support pharmacists offer to people in Japan; whereas doctors provide care when a patient checks into a hospital, pharmacists can provide medical support in the communities where people live. This allows patients to continue their days as normally as possible and preserve their social lives — a factor she considers particularly important for the country’s aging population. This realization inspired and motivated Marina to dedicate her work towards supporting an industry that plays such an important role in society.

“I have actually been working to develop a business in the pharmacy industry from scratch since I was diagnosed with the disease. [Now], I would like to organize my experience so that I can make the business more scalable and sustainable. So I have decided to go back to study and work to develop a scalable model which works.”

Marina first heard about Minerva from her previous company, which partnered with Minerva Project for an executive leadership class. While Marina was not part of that group, another member of her team took the course and told her about the innovative pedagogy and Forum, Minerva’s active learning platform.

“I believe the most different aspect of Minerva is the fact that it focuses on execution, where other universities only focus on thinking. I’m interested in execution because it is the most important thing for startups and new businesses because the environment changes every day. So we have to make our decisions day by day quickly based on complex information. I would like to not only learn how to think, but [framed in] the way of execution.”

One of Marina’s biggest passions is to encourage and support vulnerable members of society, as she herself has been in that position. And her support for the pharmacy industry is only part of that mission. Her dream is to help alleviate the burdens of people suffering from social mobility, not just patients, but the general population as well.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting my peers [in the program] because the culture of the school was a big factor in my choice of program. When I first started to research Minerva, I saw many posts on social media made by current students which made it clear that everyone — students, teachers, and staff — contributes to the development of the school. I like this culture where everyone is important, and I’m excited to be part of it.”