Ryo Suzuki’s Found His Field of Dreams in Kearney, Nebraska

Years ago, as a young boy, Ryo Suzuki grew up playing baseball in Tokyo, Japan. If you had asked him back then about his plans for the future, he would have told you he was going to grow up to play in the Major Leagues. It wasn’t until he injured his elbow and shifted his focus away from baseball that he realized he enjoyed learning. This discovery would lead him to the University of Nebraska at Kearney where he would walk on campus as a freshman and eventually become the Senior Director of Strategic Marketing and External Relations for the College of Business and Technology and the Nebraska Safety Center. 

Kearney, with its population of around 32,000, is nothing like Tokyo, a city Suzuki shared with around 14 million other people. Leaving the only home he had ever known wasn’t an easy choice. It was when he was a high school student and met with a school counselor who asked him what he wanted to do with his life that Suzuki began to think about what his future might look like without baseball. He had recently realized he liked learning and, since he had already picked up a bit of English by watching movies and baseball games on television, he thought he would try to get a scholarship to a college in the United States.

With the support of his family, his new interest in learning eventually led Suzuki to UNK. As an undergraduate student, he met many Kearney locals who inspired him. One such person told him that “Kearney is a great place if you work hard.” Suzuki listened to him politely while thinking to himself that once he got his degree, he would leave Kearney. Little did he know, he would soon be telling others that he had found his new hometown.

It would be his experience with an internship that would change his mind. During his senior year, he got an internship with the University of Nebraska Foundation. He was their first international student, an honor which would lead to him becoming an International Recruitment Specialist. He took that job, one that included him sharing with others what his new hometown had to offer them. As he talked to prospective students and their families, he learned that they assumed he was from Kearney. Sharing with these students, who come to UNK from up to 50 countries, was exciting for Suzuki as he understands how much his own life has been impacted by the kindness of the Kearney community. It was at this point, while working hard to give others the opportunity to discover the greatness of UNK, that Suzuki states he realized that “Kearney is my home.” This mindset, as well as his previous work as an experienced international affairs officer for the university, will help Suzuki fulfill his goal of recruiting talented students to the College of Business of Technology. After all, he understands exactly what motivates international students to come to the U.S. for an education.

By now he had earned his MBA and was approached by Dean Jares of the College of Business and Technology about his future plans. Dean Jares wanted Suzuki to use his social media skills to share with the world everything the College of Business and Technology has to offer students. These efforts by Suzuki led to significant growth for the CBT, causing Dean Jares to approach him once again. Even though he had been offered jobs by private businesses, he realized that working on a college campus was where he wanted to be. He chose to stay because he now knew that UNK is “his home.” Another reason he accepted his new position is because he is grateful to work with people he believes in. He recognizes how much the way everyone at UNK believes in him and has his best interests at heart, something that means more to him than a larger paycheck. 

Back in 2012 when Suzuki first left Japan and strolled across the campus of UNK, he never could have imagined that he would one day use his marketing skills to increase student enrollment, teach “Loper 1” to incoming freshmen, and work with all 93 counties in Nebraska to increase public safety. As he describes these past twelve years, he shares how every job he had over those years “prepared (him) to do this job.”

As the Senior Director of Marketing and External Relations for the College of Business and Technology and the Nebraska Safety Center, Suzuki is able to use his expertise with data to make the motto “Keeping Nebraskans Safe One Day at a Time” a reality. He plans to work with the professors at UNK’s CBT who conduct research which he then can use at the Nebraska Safety Center to help him use statistics to make decisions that will result in an increase in public safety.

After all, for Suzuki, who serves “at the pleasure of the state,” people are the reason he stayed in Kearney. As a first-generation college student, who decided to pursue an education instead of working in his family’s business, he sees himself as a “public servant.”

Even though an unfortunate injury forced him to trade his MLB dreams for his MBA, his baseball roots are never far from his mind. He describes how “if you work hard, do it right, and swing for the fences, anything is possible.” For everyone at the University of Nebraska and now, thanks to his new position, the entire state of Nebraska, Suzuki has earned the title of Most Valuable Player. 

Related Pages: Nebraska Safety Center

Related Pages: College of Business and Technology