{"id":2154,"date":"2020-01-20T07:55:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T12:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/?p=2154"},"modified":"2020-01-14T10:56:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T15:56:13","slug":"my-experience-as-an-international-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/2020\/01\/20\/my-experience-as-an-international-student\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience as an International Student"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was written by Melissa Chima ’20<\/em>. Connect with her on LinkedIn.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where should I start? The university? The classmates? The program? The weather? The town? As an international student, the things I have experienced at the University of Vermont Sustainable Innovation MBA have been completely new. A couple of years ago, while working at a machine dealer for the mining and construction industry in Colombia I felt my life needed a change and a new purpose. I needed to have a positive impact in this world in crisis. Therefore, my search for a better future began and an instant match with The Sustainable Innovation MBA core values happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the decision was made, I had to start a lot of paperwork and countless errands to be here: first, preparing for the TOEFL (The Test of English as a Foreign Language), taking it; approving it; preparing for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), taking it, approving it; applying for the University; getting the visa, packing my life into two suitcases; and getting the right state of mind to adapt to this new birth. This last part, the \u201cnew birth,\u201d has been surprisingly \u201cnot abnormal\u201d. After all, it is easy to get used to new things when you are surrounded by an entire community of kind, accepting and lovable people. For me, a person with high score on the personality trait of introversion, speaking of how nice people are around here is quite a big challenge. But I must recognize that the value that I have found in my cohort and the faculty members is incommensurable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can I say about the town and consequently about the weather? Burlington, Vermont is…Burlington, Vermont. A quiet and calm environment for people seeking for a quiet and calm environment. The weather has been quite a subject for me. In my couple (or more) decades of life, I have been living in Barranquilla, a city located in the north coast of Colombia, where a word such as \u201cseasons\u201d does not exist. We only have hot, hot with wind, hot and rain, and \u201chot like hell\u201d weather. Hence, the introduction to this magical experience of having seasons has been kind of unique. About my first encounter with the snow and the \u201cextreme\u201d cold I have to say we are getting to know each other, and so far, I do not hate them. The key is, as someone said at the beginning of my experience, to wear layers. A couple or millions of layers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I must talk about the program and my experience. After my first two modules in the program, I am convinced that it is possible to implement business as a source for good. The goal then, is to use the power of business to make a positive impact on the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. With courses such as World Challenges, marketing, finance, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Leading for Sustainable Innovation, a-not-so-small-bag of tools have been added to my knowledge and development kit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the\nsecond half of the experience is waiting for me, but I am completely sure it is\ngoing to be as great and rewarding as the first one. So far, I just have to\nthank the wonderful people that have been part of this experience and my\npersonal journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Melissa Chima ’20. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Where should I start? The university? The classmates? The program? The weather? The town? As an international student, the things I have experienced at the University of Vermont Sustainable Innovation MBA have been completely new. A couple of years ago, while working … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “My Experience as an International Student”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[163314,26210,26,426992,427012,19463],"tags":[551],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-us","category-class","category-learning","category-life-in-btv","category-student-life","category-student-profiles","tag-vermont"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8b9n0-yK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2156,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions\/2156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}