I applied to the Stanford GSE for two reasons. First, I was interested in learning how to evaluate, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the impact of educational projects. In researching graduate programs, I realized that Martin Carnoy, the father of human capital theory and a professor at Stanford, might have answers to my questions. So I applied to Stanford specifically because I wanted to study under Martin Carnoy and learn all that I could from this prominent professor.
Secondly, my father is a serial entrepreneur, and I always felt his entrepreneurial blood in me. From my friends who had studied both on the East Coast and the West Coast, I sensed that the entrepreneurial spirit on the West Coast would be strongest. Stanford didn’t disappoint, and what I learned at the GSE led me to found the International School of Asia Karuizawa (ISAK) in 2014.
Lin Kobayashi received her MA in 2005 in International Education and Policy Analysis. She works in Nagano, Japan, where she is founder and board chair of ISAK, the world’s 17th and Japan’s first United World College. The school’s curriculum incorporates design-thinking methods developed in collaboration with Stanford’s d.school (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford) and IDEO Japan. Lin received Nikkei awards for Changemaker of the Year in 2013 and Woman of the Year in 2014. She serves on several national and prefectural government committees.
