West Virginia University is home to about 28,000 students from all over the world. After earning undergraduate to graduate level degrees, WVU Mountaineers show their pride from around the globe.
Julio Nakasato is one international student who is proud to be a Mountaineer, approximately 2,100 miles away in Panama. After earning his sport management master's degree (2016), Nakasato worked for Under Armour as a marketing manager in Peru and will now head to Panama as Under Armour’s Latin American brand marketing running manager.
Upon graduating from the University of Lima (Peru) in 2006 with a degree in communications, Nakasato found himself fulfilling a range of sports industry jobs. After interning with sports clubs and working with Adidas and IMG, Nakasato realized he wanted to learn more about sport management.
"I started my search for the best master’s program in the US, focused on sport management, and WVU came on top of many lists. I compared the education, quality and tuition costs of several universities and after a lot of research, I decided that it was my best fit," said Nakasato.
When asked about his time at WVU, Nakasato described it in one word. Amazing.
"I experienced a completely different culture while at WVU. I studied the sports entertainment side of sport management which was something I was interested in. I also learned more about the various sports students played around campus. Since I was a foreign student in the class, at first it was kind of different being somewhere where soccer is not the number one sport," said Nakasato.
After earning his degree, Nakasato continues to keep in touch with his mentors, such as Drs. Gonzales Bravo, Dallas Branch and Cindy Lee.