Sep 21, 2025
EAP2 Guest Lecture: From Study Abroad to Starting a Business – A Senior Student’s Story
OBJECTIVE.
Karin Yajima, Co-Founder of Soara
In our EAP2 (English for Academic Purposes 2) classes, we regularly invite distinguished professionals from various fields as guest speakers to share their insights with our students. In the EAP2 class, a course designed for second-year students, we welcomed Ms. Karin Yajima, co-founder of SOARA, who spoke about her experiences studying abroad and her path to entrepreneurship.
Guest Speaker： Karin Yajima, Co-Founder of Soara and a graduate of Global Business Department
About Soara： Soara operates an “Overseas Study Support Platform” to assist those pursuing higher education abroad. Soara connects aspiring international students with those who have overseas experience, providing a marketplace where they can buy and sell authentic information and resources related to studying abroad.
Guest Speaker： Karin Yajima, Co-Founder of Soara and a graduate of Global Business Department
About Soara： Soara operates an “Overseas Study Support Platform” to assist those pursuing higher education abroad. Soara connects aspiring international students with those who have overseas experience, providing a marketplace where they can buy and sell authentic information and resources related to studying abroad.
For more information about Soara, please click the link below.
Representing the participants, Mr Seigo Imada, a second-year Business student, prepared a summary report of the lecture.
【Summary Report by Mr Seigo Imada, Second-Year Global Business Department】
On 11 July 2024, the EAP2 class of the College of Business (COB) at Rikkyo University welcomed Ms. Karin Yajima, co-founder of Soara, as a guest lecturer. She shared with us her study abroad experience, what she learned from this experience, and about being an entrepreneur.
Firstly, Ms. Yajima talked about her experiences in school life. She was plunged into a foreign environment between the ages of 12 and 15 through summer camps and experienced OEAP (Overseas English for Academic Purpose) offered by the BBL in her first year of college. At that time, she decided to go to college overseas, and at age 20, she entered University of South Australia (UniSA). Since entering UniSA, Ms. Yajima has obtained a degree in Business, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. She gained independence and confidence through her studies and internships and made global connections.
After graduating from college, she worked on an ERP project at PwC and then joined Dentsu Digital, where she was in charge of user-centered design and marketing strategy. After that, Ms. Yajima established Soara, which is an Ed-Tech startup that connects students who aspire to study abroad with mentors who have experience studying abroad. Ms. Yajima was inspired by her own global education journey, so she launched a program to make studying abroad more accessible through tutoring and community support. Soara provides honest advice and global communication. First, Ms. Yajima identified a market gap and then met a co-founder at a start-up event. Next, she did user research through students' and teachers’ interviews after building a prototype of her product. She then onboarded the first users. Ms. Yajima explained that doing comes before perfection, and confidence comes from action.
Finally, Ms. Yajima talked about four tools and tips for starting a business, which are “Learning,” “Building,” “Connecting,” and “Accelerating.” Ms. Yajima conveyed the importance of learning about business from a variety of sources, expressing this knowledge in a tangible form, and making connections to this knowledge through acting. For those of us studying business, this guest lecture was a very good opportunity to hear from a real entrepreneur.
【Summary Report by Mr Seigo Imada, Second-Year Global Business Department】
On 11 July 2024, the EAP2 class of the College of Business (COB) at Rikkyo University welcomed Ms. Karin Yajima, co-founder of Soara, as a guest lecturer. She shared with us her study abroad experience, what she learned from this experience, and about being an entrepreneur.
Firstly, Ms. Yajima talked about her experiences in school life. She was plunged into a foreign environment between the ages of 12 and 15 through summer camps and experienced OEAP (Overseas English for Academic Purpose) offered by the BBL in her first year of college. At that time, she decided to go to college overseas, and at age 20, she entered University of South Australia (UniSA). Since entering UniSA, Ms. Yajima has obtained a degree in Business, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. She gained independence and confidence through her studies and internships and made global connections.
After graduating from college, she worked on an ERP project at PwC and then joined Dentsu Digital, where she was in charge of user-centered design and marketing strategy. After that, Ms. Yajima established Soara, which is an Ed-Tech startup that connects students who aspire to study abroad with mentors who have experience studying abroad. Ms. Yajima was inspired by her own global education journey, so she launched a program to make studying abroad more accessible through tutoring and community support. Soara provides honest advice and global communication. First, Ms. Yajima identified a market gap and then met a co-founder at a start-up event. Next, she did user research through students' and teachers’ interviews after building a prototype of her product. She then onboarded the first users. Ms. Yajima explained that doing comes before perfection, and confidence comes from action.
Finally, Ms. Yajima talked about four tools and tips for starting a business, which are “Learning,” “Building,” “Connecting,” and “Accelerating.” Ms. Yajima conveyed the importance of learning about business from a variety of sources, expressing this knowledge in a tangible form, and making connections to this knowledge through acting. For those of us studying business, this guest lecture was a very good opportunity to hear from a real entrepreneur.
