Nikkei Entrepreneur Spotlight: Artist Opens a Window on Life in Little Tokyo

As a teenager growing up in Maui, Edwin Ushiro was not your average high school student. Instead of preparing college applications, he was busy practicing comic book illustrations with the thought that he’d go on to become an artist in that medium.

It wasn’t until a college recruiter, David Correa from The ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, came to visit his school that his life took a different turn.

Correa, along with Ushiro’s art teacher, Janet Sato, pushed him to apply to the competitive program. Ushiro however, was so surprised by the suggestion that it took a second visit by Correa during his senior year to convince him to apply. “He showed me what ArtCenter students did,” recalled Ushiro. “I saw that there was more out there than comic books.”

published on November 25, 2019