Kaji had already earned a law degree from Chuo University in Japan and a biology degree from the University of Nevada, Reno before graduating with a master’s in accounting from UMSL this May. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

For Shiori Kaji, the rather remarkable journey of educational exploration and personal discovery that led to graduating with her master’s in accounting from the University of Missouri–St. Louis this May started with learning a simple English-language greeting in her hometown of Kamakura, Japan.

Kaji grew up in the historic oceanside town in the Kanagawa Prefecture about an hour south of Tokyo by train. Her father was a businessman who traveled internationally, and she has a distinct memory of one of the first times she interacted with his work associates who were visiting Japan.

“I remember my mom telling me they didn’t speak Japanese, so this is how I was supposed to greet them,” said Kaji, who was in elementary school at the time. “The first phrase that I remember saying was, ‘Hi, my name is Shiori. How do you do?’ I was repeating that over and over.”

She didn’t know it then, but that interaction would help form the foundation of a path that would take her to Reno, Nevada, and then Austin, Texas, and then to St. Louis. She enjoyed her experience at UMSL – she was active in Beta Alpha Psi, serving as the group’s treasurer in the final year of her program – and in the St. Louis region so much that she’s staying local after graduation.

“One of the things I love about St. Louis is that people here love to get involved in and give the value back to the community,” she said. “I believe that St. Louis has strong community values that people are proud of, which makes me want to be part of it.”

Kaji, who will start her new position as an audit associate at Anders CPA in downtown St. Louis in September, went through the naturalization process to become an American citizen last year.

“I felt like the UMSL faculty was always welcoming,” she said. “Dr. Thomas Kozloski was always there for me whenever I had questions or whenever I had individual needs. I could just go to his office and have a chat. And Dr. Pamela Stuerke, who is also in the accounting department and, of course, Johnna Murray; there’s so many good faculty members in accounting at UMSL.”

Likewise, she made an impression at UMSL that won’t soon be forgotten.

“Shiori impressed me with her dedication and ingenuity,” said Murray, the faculty advisor for Beta Alpha Psi. “I was really impressed with her ability to keep everything straight. She probably created more than a dozen different budgets for Beta Alpha Psi this past year. It was incredible! Shiori may be soft-spoken, but she possesses a wealth of grit and determination.”

Kaji’s parents, Tetsuya and Akiyo, flew in from Japan for her UMSL commencement ceremony. (Photo courtesy of Shiori Kaji)

Kaji’s parents, Tetsuya and Akiyo, flew in from Japan for her UMSL commencement ceremony. She gave them the full St. Louis experience, taking them to dinner on The Hill, to Urban Chestnut Brewery in The Grove and to see the animals at the Saint Louis Zoo. There was one unplanned Midwestern experience, too: the tornado that ripped through St. Louis on the afternoon of graduation on May 16.

“They were staying at the Chase Park Plaza in the Central West End, and I received a text from them saying, ‘The windows are broken at the hotel and trees are down. Are you okay?’” Kaji said. “We managed to pick them up at the hotel and get to commencement.”

Growing up, Kaji was always fascinated by foreign cultures and customs.

In Japan, middle school and high school students learn to read English, and she dreamed of one day studying in English in addition to learning in Japanese. During high school, Kaji took advantage of study abroad opportunities in Australia and Germany. After earning her law degree from Chuo University in Japan, she decided to pursue her longstanding goal of studying in English in the United States. A year at the NIC International College in Japan helped her prepare for the move.

The University of Nevada, Reno offered her scholarships – UNR has established connections with the NIC International College – and that helped Kaji decide where to land in the United States. The transition was a bit of a challenge; even with years of learning to read English, she had never been in an immersive English environment. Also, for someone who loves nature, moving from an oceanside community with lush, green vegetation to Nevada’s more arid climate was a bit of a shock to her system.

She adjusted, though, and thrived.

“I was trying out so many different studies, and I decided to go for a biology degree,” Kaji said. “After I graduated with my biology degree, I was working as a lab assistant in conservation laboratory and studying for herpetology, especially newts and garter snakes and animals like that. I was really interested in conservation biology, and that’s why I was working there. It hit me that I was trying to do conservation, but I was dealing with culled animals from the wild. And I know that’s to make sure there will be sustainable research in the future, but it felt like it contradicted my idea. I wanted to keep going on this path, but I wanted to search for different methods to pursue conservation.”

After eight years in Reno, Kaji decided to explore a different part of the United States, so she moved to Austin. As she was planning out her next step toward her conservation goals, she worked as a bookkeeper/HR representative for Fortunate Foundations, a construction company that creates sustainable, eco-friendly housing solutions. That’s when she started to see accounting as a viable path toward reaching those career goals.

She visited St. Louis to stay with a friend and immediately was intrigued by the region, which was bigger than either Reno or Austin, and also had the brightly colored vegetation that much more closely resembled where she grew up in Kamakura than either of her two previous stops. She had been taking accounting classes at a community college in Austin and started to research accounting options in the St. Louis area. She was struck by both the reputation of UMSL’s Accounting Department and the affordability of the education.

Kaji had two internships while at UMSL: a tax internship at Anders and an audit internship at KPMG. She enjoyed both but felt that pursuing an audit path – allowing her to get a better overall picture of a company, as opposed to working on strictly tax projects – would better serve what she sees as her ultimate career goal.

“I want to do environmental consulting,” Kaji said. “I think that’s my ideal job, and where I’m heading toward. Humans have devastated and deprived and destroyed nature in so many ways, and a lot of them are irrepressible, and we cannot undo those damages. But I do believe that corporations and firms have bigger power than individuals. And if corporations can help influence change to make society better environmentally, then we are able to slow down the process. I do want to get into that field to be part of that change. That’s my future goal.”

Kaji has a post-retirement goal that fits with the conservation theme, too: Owning an animal sanctuary and surrounding herself with her favorite animals.