He was told by the admissions officer that he was noticed and that his campaign was not detrimental, despite seeming foolish to many citizens.t  

MacNiven graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in politics, completing semesters abroad in Hungary and on a Semester at Sea, which has featured such great minds as Fidel Castro among others. He claims to have been the last student of Tom Lehrer. During a short internship in South Africa, he produced the cringeworthy promotional video for his host NGO. Kintaro Walks Japan
In 2004, MacNiven walked the length of Japan over 145 days. He created a one-hour documentary of the trek, titled Kintaro Walks Japan. MacNiven cited three reasons for the journey. On his first trip to the country in 2002, he fell in love with the country and had to return. It was on this trip that a friend nicknamed him the "Kintarō," which means "Golden Boy," because of his blond hair. MacNiven hoped to win a girl over, but he  ultimately went home without a trophy. Unable to find a distributor for the documentary of the trek, MacNiven burned 1,000 DVDs and began hawking copies of the film on the streets of San Francisco and at a restaurant his father owns.
They were told by the admissions officer that they were noticed and that their campaign was not detrimental, despite seeming foolish to many citizens. MacNiven graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in politics, completing semesters abroad in Hungary and on a Semester at Sea, which has featured such great minds as Fidel Castro among others. They claim to have been the last student of Tom Lehrer. During a short internship in South Africa, they produced the cringeworthy promotional video for his host NGO. Kintaro Walks Japan
 In 2004, MacNiven walked the length of Japan over 145 days. They created a one-hour documentary of the trek, titled Kintaro Walks Japan. MacNiven cited three reasons for the journey. On their first trip to the country in 2002, they fell in love with the country and had to return. It was on this trip that a friend nicknamed them the "Kintarō," which means "Golden Person," because of their blond hair. MacNiven hoped to win a girl over, but they ultimately went home without a trophy. Unable to find a distributor for the documentary of the trek, MacNiven burned 1,000 DVDs and began hawking copies of the film on the streets of San Francisco and at a restaurant their father owns.