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Business
student's future plans set to take City Editor
When
the all-American boy goes to college with dreams of moving away and
making something of himself, watch out. Aaron
Baker, a junior international business major with a minor in Chinese, is
on a mission. His ultimate goal and dream is to work at a multi-national
corporation in China. Baker,
originally from Neosho, traveled to China for two months in the summer
of 2002. The Institute of International Studies helped fund the trip,
but the program was through the Georgia Institute of Technology. Through
the study, he earned six credit hours. "I
wanted a study-abroad program that wasn't language based, and this one
wasn't," he said. Baker
found the opportunity on the Internet, through which he also completed
the application process. In
China, he and a group of other students attended People's University, a
top-three school in China, and Fudan, which is the top school. "It's
like the Harvard of China," Baker said. At
the universities, he studied the Chinese economy and compared it with
the economic status in the United States. "I
was surprised about how Americanized it was," he said. "Backstreet
Boys and Britney Spears were everywhere. It was crazy; at times I felt
like I was in America. "I
would go off by myself, that way I'd force myself to practice the
language. I didn't limit myself to the tourist sites." To
reach the untouched Chinese population, Baker said he required himself
to travel alone into the "slummy" areas of Shanghai. Baker
said at one point he had a three-hour conversation with a Chinese
citizen. "I
was the only non-Chinese person that spoke Chinese [out of the students
on the trip]," he said. "I went to places that were extremely
foreign, where the people had never seen Americans before. "We
were like movie stars, and people just stared at us. It was
interesting." The
students attended classes in the morning. "The
educational part was fascinating," Baker said. "The
instructors were the best I've ever had." Although
it may seem he is on a fast track to success, Baker was not always so
sure of what he wanted to do. While in high school, he wanted to be an
archaeologist. "Then
I started reading about what archaeologists do on a daily basis and
decided that it wasn't for me," he said. "I guess I had more
of an Indiana Jones type of approach. "I
thought it was going to be really exciting at every moment, but it just
wasn't what I wanted to do." After
his freshman year at Missouri Southern, Baker concluded he desired to
study international business. "I've
always been interested in other cultures, and I have always liked
business, so I thought international business would be
appropriate," Baker said. He
plans to graduate in May 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts, and then go on to
pursue his Master of Arts degree. Being
immersed in his hometown church, Neosho Calvary Baptist, has given Baker
not only a church home, but also a mentor. Baker's pastor at the church
is an inspiration for him. "I
can't find anything I could criticize about him," he said. "He
is a good man. He's a good father to his children, and I think he's a
great person to look up to." Besides
church, Baker is involved in many organizations on campus. He attends
Koinonia events on a regular basis. Baker is past secretary of the
Student Senate and past president of the College of the Republicans. He s
a very bright student and he s going a long way, said Jim Gray,
dean of the school of business. Aaron Baker represents what Missouri
Southern is all about. |