PERSPECTIVES April 29, 2009 ● Mount Holyoke News 8 Amongst several post-college opportunities out there, Otema Stephanie Adu ’09 decided to pursue a Master’s Program in chemical engineering at Aalborg University in Esberg, Denmark. The MH News interviewed this bud- ding chemical engineer on life, work and future aspira- tions. Q: What was your experience like at Mount Holyoke? A: My time at Mount Holyoke was inspiring and certainly a learning experience and a stepping stone to where I am today. I truly evolved at Mount Holyoke and was able to “find myself.” There are so many qualities and skills I picked up being at Mount Holyoke, all the way from public speaking skills to learning how to be a good co-chair/so- cial chair for MHACASA. My experience would not have been as great without the support and encouragement of my amazing professors and African sisters. To say that they were a source of joy and encouragement is an under- statement. I certainly thrived because of this. Q: How did that prepare you to study abroad? A: At Mount Holyoke, I really improved my communica- tion skills. Not only when it came to speaking up in class, but also interacting with people in general. Denmark is not a chiefly English speaking country, though my classes are taught in English. The diversity at Mount Holyoke helped me a great deal in this aspect. Since most of the projects here are done in groups, I came loaded with lead- ership and teamwork qualities that have taken me a long way. Q: If you could return to Mount Holyoke, what is one thing you would like to do? A: I feel one of the things that really helped me whilst I was a student at Mount Holyoke was when alums would come back and speak to us on things they were doing and how their lives had turned out. It was really a source of encouragement and helped fuel my interests and desire to succeed. So, I would love to come back and talk to stu- dents so as to inject in them the same drive and passion that I got from my fellow alums. Of course, I would also like to catch up with the awesome professors who played such a big role in shaping my forthcoming career. Q:What is a typical day in your life as a masters student/professional worker abroad? A:Work, work and more work! :) There are morning and afternoon sessions here at Aalborg University. Each ses- sion is about three and a half hours long. So, typically, for a day when I have both morning and afternoon classes, I would wake up and head out for my 8:15 a.m. class. If it's a nice day, I would ride my bike, a 15-minute ride to the university. If not, I would take the six-minute bus ride. Then there is class till lunch time after which my after- noon session runs till 4 p.m. At Aalborg, the classes are only on a pass-fail basis. The most important part of the semester and your grade is the lab/project research work. At the end of each semester, the group must come up with a project report that will be defended (much like a thesis defense). The rest of my day is usually spent in the lab or with the group and/or supervisor deciding how to go about writing the report or how to handle the next exper- iment. After that, there is little time for anything else ex- cept eating and sleeping. Q: What is your favorite thing about your city? A: Very hard question. Esberg is an extremely small town. I would say, I do like the fact that we are so close to the beach. There are these monuments called Man Meets The Sea, relatively close to where I live, right by the beach. These huge, white concrete, 27-feet-tall sculptures were designed by Svend Wiig Hansen and installed in 1995. It is pretty much the tourist site here: many people visit it and take pictures. When the weather is good, the beach is a really nice place to go and relax. Q: What is the next step for you? A: This summer, I will be going home and, God-willing, working at a petroleum company, so that would give me great work experience and help me zone in on what I re- ally want to do. My immediate plan after graduation in 2011 would be to go back home and work. I may, however, also take a year or two to work in the U.S. or England to gain more experience. But certainly, doing my PhD before I am 30 is the plan! PREPARED BY TEMITOPE OJO ’10 PERSPECTIVES CO-EDITOR M ore and more college graduates have begun to look for employ- ment opportunities abroad. At an institution like Mount Holyoke, students are constantly exposed to countless occasions to engage in global conversation through study abroad programs, international intern- ships and direct interactions with our diverse student body. It is thus, without a doubt, that in each graduating class from Mount Holyoke, there are often a handful of students who decide to work or pursue ad- vanced degrees overseas. French major Carolyn Strobel ’09 is one of them. Dur- ing her junior year, Strobel had the chance to study and work in three countries—she spent her fall semester in India, went to France during the spring semester and interned at a publishing house in Ireland dur- ing the summer. By the time Strobel returned to Mount Holyoke to complete her senior year, she knew exactly where she wanted to work after graduation: Ireland. Strobel took advantage of the resources that the CDC offers, including mock interviews and workshops for students interested in work- ing abroad. She found her job search group par- ticularly useful, which consisted of seniors looking for jobs. The group met regularly to dis- cuss and present the progress on their individual job searches. “These meetings kept me on top of things because I always had to have something to report back to my group members in regard to the progress I was making in finding a job,” said Strobel. All of the research and hard work eventually paid off. Thanks to the connections she had developed while intern- ing in Ireland the previous summer, Strobel secured a volunteer position as a communications and membership services intern at a volunteering organization in Dublin. Strobel emphasized the importance of gaining international work experi- ence because it shows that the candidate can adapt to foreign work environ- ments and work with a diverse group of people. She also learned that unlike in the U.S., where one is advised to market or flaunt one’s ex- ceptional qualities and skills during an interview, European employers look for candidates who are qualified but humble. Though as an English speaker in Ireland Strobel does not have to deal with language barriers, she faced other challenges. Living and working abroad, she had to deal with issues such as se- curing visas and work permits. “The process can be stressful, especially when you plan to move abroad before you find a job,” said Stro- bel. Strobel has three pieces of advice for stu- dents hoping to work overseas after gradua- tion. First, she said, know where you want to work and what industry you are interested in. Yet make sure you keep your options open. Second, decide whether you want to find a job through a program or independ- ently. And lastly, build up a strong network by connecting with other Mount Holyoke alums who might currently be residing in the country to which you plan to move. Although Strobel has enjoyed her time in Dublin, she intends to return to the U.S. later this year to pursue a career in higher education. But no matter where life takes her, she will always value the experience and skills she has gained from her internship in Ireland. CRYSTAL BOATENG ’10 STAFF WRITER Photo credit: Carolyn Strobel Photo credit: Otema Stephanie Adu Otema Stephanie Adu ’09 pursues a Master’s in Denmark C LOSING THE BOOKS BY 30: Study abroad leads to a position in Ireland Perspectives 4.29.10:Layout 1 4/29/10 7:45 PM Page 1
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PERSPECTIVES April 29, 2009 � Mount Holyoke News8
Amongst several post-college opportunities out there,Otema Stephanie Adu ’09 decided to pursue a Master’sProgram in chemical engineering at Aalborg Universityin Esberg, Denmark. The MH News interviewed this bud-ding chemical engineer on life, work and future aspira-tions.
AA:: My time at Mount Holyoke was inspiring and certainlya learning experience and a stepping stone to where I amtoday. I truly evolved at Mount Holyoke and was able to“find myself.” There are so many qualities and skills Ipicked up being at Mount Holyoke, all the way from publicspeaking skills to learning how to be a good co-chair/so-cial chair for MHACASA. My experience would not havebeen as great without the support and encouragement ofmy amazing professors and African sisters. To say thatthey were a source of joy and encouragement is an under-statement. I certainly thrived because of this.
AA:: At Mount Holyoke, I really improved my communica-tion skills. Not only when it came to speaking up in class,but also interacting with people in general. Denmark isnot a chiefly English speaking country, though my classesare taught in English. The diversity at Mount Holyokehelped me a great deal in this aspect. Since most of theprojects here are done in groups, I came loaded with lead-ership and teamwork qualities that have taken me a longway.
A: I feel one of the things that really helped me whilst Iwas a student at Mount Holyoke was when alums wouldcome back and speak to us on things they were doing andhow their lives had turned out. It was really a source of
encouragement and helped fuel my interests and desireto succeed. So, I would love to come back and talk to stu-dents so as to inject in them the same drive and passionthat I got from my fellow alums. Of course, I would alsolike to catch up with the awesome professors who playedsuch a big role in shaping my forthcoming career.
QQ::WWhhaatt iiss aa ttyyppiiccaall ddaayy iinn yyoouurr lliiffee aass aa mmaasstteerrssssttuuddeenntt//pprrooffeessssiioonnaall wwoorrkkeerr aabbrrooaadd??
A:Work, work and more work! :) There are morning andafternoon sessions here at Aalborg University. Each ses-sion is about three and a half hours long. So, typically, fora day when I have both morning and afternoon classes, Iwould wake up and head out for my 8:15 a.m. class. If it'sa nice day, I would ride my bike, a 15-minute ride to theuniversity. If not, I would take the six-minute bus ride.Then there is class till lunch time after which my after-noon session runs till 4 p.m. At Aalborg, the classes areonly on a pass-fail basis. The most important part of thesemester and your grade is the lab/project research work.At the end of each semester, the group must come up witha project report that will be defended (much like a thesisdefense). The rest of my day is usually spent in the lab orwith the group and/or supervisor deciding how to goabout writing the report or how to handle the next exper-iment. After that, there is little time for anything else ex-cept eating and sleeping.
A: Very hard question. Esberg is an extremely small town.I would say, I do like the fact that we are so close to thebeach. There are these monuments called Man Meets TheSea, relatively close to where I live, right by the beach.These huge, white concrete, 27-feet-tall sculptures weredesigned by Svend Wiig Hansen and installed in 1995. It ispretty much the tourist site here: many people visit it andtake pictures. When the weather is good, the beach is areally nice place to go and relax.
A: This summer, I will be going home and, God-willing,working at a petroleum company, so that would give megreat work experience and help me zone in on what I re-ally want to do. My immediate plan after graduation in2011 would be to go back home and work. I may, however,also take a year or two to work in the U.S. or England togain more experience. But certainly, doing my PhD beforeI am 30 is the plan!
More and more college graduates have begun to look for employ-ment opportunities abroad. At an institution like Mount Holyoke,students are constantly exposed to countless occasions to engage
in global conversation through study abroad programs, international intern-ships and direct interactions with our diverse student body. It is thus, withouta doubt, that in each graduating class from Mount Holyoke, there areoften a handful of students who decide to work or pursue ad-vanced degrees overseas.
French major Carolyn Strobel ’09 is one of them. Dur-ing her junior year, Strobel had the chance to study andwork in three countries—she spent her fall semesterin India, went to France during the spring semesterand interned at a publishing house in Ireland dur-ing the summer. By the time Strobel returned toMount Holyoke to complete her senior year, sheknew exactly where she wanted to work aftergraduation: Ireland.
Strobel took advantage of the resourcesthat the CDC offers, including mock interviewsand workshops for students interested in work-ing abroad. She found her job search group par-ticularly useful, which consisted of seniorslooking for jobs. The group met regularly to dis-cuss and present the progress on their individualjob searches. “These meetings kept me on top ofthings because I always had to have something toreport back to my group members in regard to theprogress I was making in finding a job,” said Strobel.
All of the research and hard work eventually paid off.Thanks to the connections she had developed while intern-ing in Ireland the previous summer, Strobel secured a volunteerposition as a communications and membership services intern at avolunteering organization in Dublin.
Strobel emphasized the importance of gaining international work experi-ence because it shows that the candidate can adapt to foreign work environ-
ments and workwith a diverse group ofpeople. She also learnedthat unlike in the U.S., where oneis advised to market or flaunt one’s ex-
ceptional qualities and skills duringan interview, European employers look
for candidates who are qualified but humble. Though as an English speaker in Ireland Strobel
does not have to deal with language barriers, shefaced other challenges. Living and workingabroad, she had to deal with issues such as se-curing visas and work permits. “The processcan be stressful, especially when you plan tomove abroad before you find a job,” said Stro-bel.
Strobel has three pieces of advice for stu-dents hoping to work overseas after gradua-tion. First, she said, know where you want towork and what industry you are interestedin. Yet make sure you keep your optionsopen. Second, decide whether you want tofind a job through a program or independ-ently. And lastly, build up a strong network byconnecting with other Mount Holyoke alums
who might currently be residing in the countryto which you plan to move.Although Strobel has enjoyed her time in
Dublin, she intends to return to the U.S. later this yearto pursue a career in higher education. But no matter
where life takes her, she will always value the experience andskills she has gained from her internship in Ireland.
Matekwor Azu ’09 half-way around the world toSendai, Japan to teach English. A native of Ghana,West Africa, she has adjusted nicely to her newhome. How she got to Japan is all a blur—from thesleepless nights spent searching for a job, throughworking as teacher of special education in Natick,MA, to finally secure a teaching job in Sendai.
Azu currently works at one of the MeySenAcademy schools, a group of schools intended forteaching English in Japan and started by missionar-ies from the U.S. more than 40 years ago. Sheteaches third graders at the Immersion FriendsClub there. The program’s curriculum seeks to inte-grate children into a full English school day in amore natural way. Azu believes the program hasyielded amazing results.
“I see that in Japan, people take their workmore than seriously, and they are perfectionists,”said Azu about the cultural differences she ob-served there. “Things that may seem trivial like amisspelled word or neat handwriting is valued a lot here,especially in my job. I am expected to dress and act in anexemplary way, both on the job and out in the commu-nity,” she added. In the U.S., where she did not have to
“perform” a show of perfection, her dress code was mostlyfunctional.
Azu’s experience at Mount Holyoke opened her to op-portunities abroad. It spurred her curiosity, stimulating
her to learn about other cultures andcountries. From Mount Holyoke shealso learned that people can easilymisjudge based on preconceived no-tions about other countries. “Many atime, [being from Ghana], I have “sur-prised” people with my good English,or with my lack of experience livingin trees or eating bugs,” Azu said.“Hence, I learned that I shouldn’t ex-pect anything from people or places Iknow nothing about.”
Coming to Japan, she had no ex-pectations. “I got here before Ilearned and found out about the cul-ture, food and lifestyle! So far, nothaving preconceived notions hascushioned the blow of cultureshocks,” she said.
So how does one get to Sendai,Japan? Keep your options open, sheadvised. And travel light. “Do it now,
before you have six kids and a husband in tow, becauseyou can’t pack those light,” Azu joked. But most impor-tantly, “look hard, believe it and follow your heart!”
PERSPECTIVESApril 29, 2009 � Mount Holyoke News 9
Flossy Azu ’09: half-way around the world to teach in Japan
It would be hard, to say theleast, to condense the life ofalumna Chin Oy Sim after her
graduation from Mount Holyoke College in 1992. “It wasquite a hodge-podge!” she said. “Not unlike my self-de-signed major at Mount Holyoke, Third World Develop-ment Studies, comprising of courses in Women’s Studies,Anthropology, Geography, Politics and Economics.”
Her diverse interests and passions have certainlygiven Oy Sim the right to call herself a globetrotter, as herwork has brought her to five different countries in thespan of sixteen years. Upon graduation, as an interna-tional student from Malaysia, she returned home to workfor a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs),such as the Consumers Association and Friends of theEarth in Malaysia. She was also involved with Third WorldNetwork, a non-profit, independent network of individualsand organizations operating on a global level dealing withenvironmental, developmental and third-world issues. Shereturned to the U.S. a year and a half later to set up thenetwork’s bureau in New York City, covering news fromthe United Nations (UN). Oy Sim spent some time workingfor the UN’s Non-Governmental Liaison Service office be-fore she got inspired to attend New York University’sSchool of Law.
Oy Sim decided to venture down a different careerpath upon obtaining her Masters in Law, opting to work asa tax attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell (DPW), a presti-gious international law firm known for its corporate, liti-gation and tax practices. “My third year at DPW was spentin its London office, during which I realized that workinghard to help large, wealthy corporations reduce theirtaxes just did not go hand-in-hand with believing thatthose corporations should pay more in taxes to compen-sate for the damage they cause to communities, indige-nous cultures, and the environment,” Oy Sim added. “Myfriends heaved a collective sigh of relief as, in their words,‘I regained my senses.’”
“I then packed my bags, joined my partner in Geneva,Switzerland and landed a job with the UN CompensationCommission, utilizing my legal training to review claimsfor compensation for damages caused by Iraq’s invasionof Kuwait in 1990-1991,” she said. In 2005, Oy Sim relocated
to Kathmandu, Nepal, where she took a ten-month sabbatical to do volunteer work.
In 2006, Oy Sim returned to Malaysia towork for Women’s Aid Organization (WAO), anNGO advocating for women’s rights. “It wastime to give something back to society,” shesaid, “which I was fortunate to be able to do as aresult of my privileged background, my educa-tion and my professional training. And wherebetter to do so than in my home country, wheremy efforts would have the greatest impact.”
Currently, Oy Sim is the Deputy CEO at theMalaysian Bar Council, a statutory body thatwas established to manage the affairs and exe-cute the functions of the legal profession inMalaysia. She joined the Bar Council as the Ex-ecutive Officer for human rights matters onlytwo years ago, and has risen up the ranks eversince. “My days are mostly occupied with tack-ling the organization’s management and policyissues,” said Oy Sim. There, she is also draftingpress statements, briefing notes and speeches,often related to the rule of law and the judiciarysystem.
Despite her busy career, she remains actively involvedin the NGOs that she believes in. She is the Honorary Sec-retary of the WAO’s Executive Committee, a member ofthe Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance of Malaysia(RRAAM), a coalition that advocates for women’s accessto reproductive rights and services. She is also part of theAll Women’s Action Society, another Malaysian NGO forwomen’s rights. When she has the time, Oy Sim serves asa resource person for International Women’s Rights Ac-tion Watch Asia Pacific.
Oy Sim’s undergraduate years at Mount Holyoke havedefinitely impacted her career choices. Her alma matershaped her into who she is both personally and profes-sionally by giving her the opportunity to explore newideas and think critically. “It awakened me to the impor-tance of challenging mainstream beliefs and conventionalvalues and allowed me to begin discerning my ownideals,” Oy Sim said. “When choosing colleges, I did notunderstand the value of attending a women’s college, and
did not prioritize this attribute when making my selection.Now, however, I cherish the privilege I had in obtaining awomen-only education, and promote it fervently to youngwomen I meet,” she said.
She encourages students to keep an open mind, espe-cially when it comes to academic interests. “Do not limityourself to your major or minor courses of study, or the-classes where you know you will do well,” she advised. “Ifthat sculpture class is always oversubscribed, find outwhy—chances are, the professor is an incredible teacher,and you will learn and grow in that class, irrespective ofwhat subject is actually being taught and whether it is‘wise’ to spend a semester on it. You only have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—carpe diem.”
Oy Sim advised students to not get discouraged byfamily members or friends who are might judgmental ordisparaging regarding career choices.
“I have been very privileged to have had jobs that I en-joyed, and new opportunities to move on to when I wanteda change.” Oy Sim added. “I couldn’t have asked for any-thing better.”
