Whether
for work or leisure, during my past travels to 23 countries, I gained extensive
experience in international travel and cross-cultural situations. After my first flight on an airplane was to
Beijing, China to participate on a high school traveling sports team, I found
my passion for traveling and learning about cultures. While in college, I studied and learned
British culture during one semester abroad in Nottingham, England. When I volunteered in Les Cayes, Haiti, I saw
a level of poverty and despair in which people spend their whole lives. Currently, I am serving as a United States
Peace Corps Volunteer in Macedonia teaching business development. I enjoy it so much, that I applied and was
approved for a third year of service. From all of these experiences, I learned the
value of three things: building relationships before doing business, embracing
unexpected diversity in seemingly similar people, and that team is important
when execution is critical.
I
will add value to the Thunderbird experience with my classmates from around the
world because I know that the characteristics which
favor cross-cultural aptitude include openness to others and to new
information, tolerance for ambiguity, a flexible nature, and curiosity. During training to be a Peace Corps Volunteer
(PCV), I lived with a Macedonian host-family where I learned to be assertive
for my own needs, while I adapted to a new and challenging environment. After being sworn in as a PCV, I worked with
the Local Economic Sector in the Municipality of Kavadarci. Every day, I was flexible to many different
criteria: sharing a computer, working late to finish a project, staying busy
during periods of slow work, or creating my own business workshops. In the PCV community, I immediately emerged as
a leader and was elected by the volunteers to the Volunteer Advisory Council where
I served as President. They grew to know
me as someone who is concerned about my peers, and advocates for change. Above
all, having an inquisitive nature and an insatiable curiosity, I find meeting
new people fascinating because they add to the intricacies of life. I have enough life-experience and formal
training to get along with people from all backgrounds.
Immediately following graduation, I will secure a career in
an organization such as The Foreign Service, USAID, United Nations, UNICEF, Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, or Operation for Securities and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE). Within five years, I will
gain enough experience in one of these organizations to become a head of the
sector, or Chief-of-Mission to a developing country. The idea of business development and
entrepreneur education continues to be at the forefront of my overall plans. The most
effective means to help developing countries are the programs centered on
educating people to empower themselves to make a difference in their own
communities. Furthermore, I will build on the lessons learned with
an MBA-GM from Thunderbird and in the courses I took from the International
Institute for Peace in “Introduction to Conflict Analysis” and “Introduction to
Negotiation and Conflict Management” to become a better negotiator and orator. Continuing
to challenge myself by accepting roles which develop new skills will ultimately
strengthen my leadership abilities.
Over the next ten years, I will take these lessons-learned
from working in the international arena and use them to urge the governments of
developed countries to set up programs that exchange with less developed
countries. One program that the United
States already has in place is the House
Democracy Partnership (HDP) that works directly with countries around the world to support the
development of effective, independent, and responsive legislative institutions
by providing a forum to exchange ideas and provide training for developing
governments. I will be part of the global community who
works together to create change.
My past experience, combined with an MBA-GM from Thunderbird,
will bring my skills to the next level and prepare me with a global mind-set in
business by strengthening my ability to focus on real-world solutions. I already have direct international experience
in promoting formation of micro-enterprises through an informal small business
training program I developed. Along with
my direct personal experience as an entrepreneur in running a developing micro-business,
the classes in “Accelerated Global Finance” and “Accelerated Global Accounting”
from Thunderbird will improve my quantitative skills to be able to work on
multi-million dollar programs. While the
training I received from Peace Corps taught me real-world experience working
with businesses, Thunderbird’s Winterims/Summerims will prepare me to work with
house-hold-name-branded companies. Moreover,
Thunderbird’s TEM Labs, to which I will apply, remind me of my entire
three-year Peace Corps service. In the
TEM Labs, I will put my PCV experience to use with a team of qualified students
to meet the needs of one organization in a foreign country. The lessons-learned from this experience will
stay with me as I work further in the global arena.
Finally, I am excited to connect with an exclusive network from
the number-one ranked school in international business. Traveling extensively
taught me about the importance of connecting with people. Tapping into the network of more than 40,000
Thunderbird alumni will keep me connected throughout the globe. In my international experience, I have been
inspired by the alumni from Thunderbird whom I have met. As a future T-Bird, I hope to inspire other
potential global leaders.