NAME: Vanessa Gonzalez
OCCUPATION: Marketing and Admissions Director
If you had asked me who “I” am and what groups I belong to at the beginning of my college career, I could have answered you without a second thought: I’m Latina, I’m an American, I’m a first-
My current job is with a college-
One of the most exciting parts of my job is the opportunity to travel internationally. Recently I visited schools in South Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand, where I participated in recruiting fairs and met with students and their families. As you might guess, I encountered several cultural variations. One that stood out to me was the different ways that students interact with their parents. In South Korea, students are expected to have a strong sense of independence at a relatively young age (compared to U.S. students). By their early teens, students often have their own flat or a private area of the family home. In this living situation, they are expected to take responsibility for their studies with little parental oversight. In Vietnam, on the other hand, students are more closely watched over by their parents, who are concerned with guiding not only their academic success but also their overall happiness. When meeting students of both these cultures, I kept this information in mind so that I knew whether to bring the parents fully into the recruitment discussions or if I should interact more directly with the student.
Other international experiences have shown me how to navigate cultural variations that I may not expect. For example, while studying abroad in India in college, I found myself at a hotel where the hot water for the showers wasn’t working. When I called down to the front desk, the hotel manager assured me that he would address the issue. Still, several trips down to the front desk later, the water remained cold! It finally dawned on me that his quiet gestures indicating “yes” actually meant “no”: “No, there will not be any hot water today.” It was up to me—
At the International Academy, I similarly need to be sensitive and help students from high-