From Colombia to Kuwait to CUNY: Meet Zicklin Alum Seijun Hara (BBA, ’24)

Army veteran Seijun Hara (BBA, ’24) credits divine intervention with her military career.  

The daughter of a Venezuelan mother and a Japanese-Venezuelan father, Seijun arrived in New York as a teenager when her mother was granted political asylum. Seijun was given temporary residency (a.k.a. a two-year green card) but was unable to extend it because she’d been born in Colombia, not Venezuela.  

Seijun’s family had always encouraged education, so Seijun enrolled at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, but her mother, with no husband or family support, struggled to pay. Meanwhile, Seijun’s temporary residency was about to expire.  

“Our lawyer told us my chances of getting permanent status were slim to none,” Seijun recalls.  “I was praying to God for an opportunity to help my mom and stay in the States, because I really wanted to be here.”  

One morning, just after telling her mother she was going to find a job to help her, Seijun left her apartment and headed to class at BMCC. There happened to be a U.S. Army recruiting table set up outside the school that day.  

“I’d only ever seen the Army on TV and I was very impressed,” she says. “I approached them—I didn’t even know they were recruiters—and told the guy my story. He gave me his business card and said they could help me pay for college and become a U.S. citizen.”  

Thus began Seijun’s rapid rise through the ranks. At age 21, she became a sergeant; by age 22, she had transferred to Baruch and Zicklin and was in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program. Then COVID happened, and the unthinkable followed: Her mother’s brother, living in Colombia, got sick and died. Seijun was devastated.  

“I didn’t grow up with my dad, so my uncle was my father figure. He taught me to ride a bike and always motivated me to go to college. He told me it didn’t matter if I was poor—if I wanted to become someone, I’d find the resources.”  

Seijun had found the resources and had the resolve, but what happened next nearly broke her. She and her mother came down with COVID, and her mother died.  

Seijun tears up as she talks about her mom: “She was 40 years old, a non-smoker, into eating organic and clean. She had run a half-marathon just two weeks before she died. It was a big shock. I dropped out of ROTC, which made me eligible for deployment.”  

Sure enough, she soon received orders to report for duty in the Middle East as a non-commissioned officer. She considered refusing based on emotional hardship and even had her waiver request approved, but a conversation with her captain convinced her otherwise.  

“He told me, ‘Remember two to three years ago, when you first joined the Army? You have already become something greater than yourself. You have been asking God for answers, and he put you here. You think you aren’t ready, but this is meant to be.’” Seijun decided to accept the challenge the universe had offered her.  

At the time of her deployment, Seijun was an economics major at the Zicklin School. She credits three Zicklin faculty members with helping her succeed academically.  

 “I had to leave for deployment a few days before the end of the semester, so I asked my instructors if I could take finals before I left. My Financial Accounting class with Diana Weng was really tough and I was afraid I’d fail. She spent a couple of hours with me privately explaining the topics and breaking down the math. She made everything so easy it was insane. She changed the way I see accounting—it’s not scary anymore.”  

Seijun also loved Kenneth Abbott’s Regulation of Financial Markets class: “He’s like a walking encyclopedia, and he’s so passionate about his subject. He pushed us to develop critical thinking and analysis—it was hard in the moment, but he gave me the skills to get through interviews and analyze news articles.”  

Finally, Morris Didia’s Business Policy and Law class was “very fun, like a discussion panel. Everyone loved it because we’d debate topics. It was very useful from a marketing perspective because it taught me how to sell my ideas.”  

During her tour of duty based in Kuwait, Seijun oversaw a section for a cargo transportation company that moved food, water, and other essentials to Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Her on-the-ground experience in operations management, combined with the Zicklin classes she continued taking remotely, boosted her resume “200 percent.”  

Today, she’s a foreign exchange sales analyst working in the Americas division of Sumimoto Mitsui Banking Corporation, a Japanese multinational bank. She serves customers in Latin America, where her Spanish language skills come in handy. (She also speaks Japanese.)  

“I’m doing deals for a Japanese bank with Latin American customers—it’s the perfect blend,” she says. “My customers ask questions about the economy, so I do a lot of reading and critical thinking, and I like it a lot.” She’s also a staff sergeant in the Army Reserve and currently in the selection process for becoming an officer.  

Reflecting on her academic and professional success, Seijun admits she had long dreamt of becoming an investment banker but was afraid she couldn’t measure up. It was her mother who inspired her to go for it.  

“Coming from a poor country, I thought I’d never have a chance with people from the Ivy Leagues. But my mom told me Baruch had the best business school in New York. One day after work, she took me to see the campus and how great it was. So I looked into it, applied, and got in.”  

Once she got to Baruch, veterans’ benefits coordinator John Seto helped her decide on the Zicklin School: “He helped me figure out that the BBA degree was best for my goals. It was tough, but I’m so glad I committed to the Zicklin BBA.”  

This article is the third in a series of profiles of Zicklin students and alumni with military backgrounds.  

Categories: Alumni, Alumni News, Faculty, News