Marcus Alan Carpenter, was born in Lewiston Idaho in 1976. Greatly influenced by his father, an attorney and judge, Marcus was interested in law and politics from a young age. At 15, he was selected by the Rotary Club to go to Japan for one year as a high school exchange student. From this experience, Marcus decided to seek a career in diplomacy. After maintaining a 4.0 GPA for 2 years in the US college system he was awarded the US Government’s National Security Education Program Scholarship to go to Japan for Japanese language studies. Through one year of perfect performance in his Japanese language studies at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan; Marcus was admitted into the International Business program. After mastering the Japanese language and looking for further language and culture challenges, he came to Beijing for one year of Chinese language studies in 2000 as a study abroad student from his university in Japan. He has recently finished his graduate studies in Chinese Diplomacy at Peking University. Through this international experience he has gained a deep understanding of East Asian culture.