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MELINDA YEE directs the Mayor's Office of International Trade in San Francisco.
In this capacity, she is the chief trade advisor to Mayor Willie Brown and serves as his liaison with the city's business community and foreign consulates on international commercial issues. Her work has taken her to a number of other countries -- for example, she has conducted trade missions in Japan, China, Korea, Latin America and South Africa. Melinda studied communications and public administration in college. She received her Masters in Public Administration at the University of Southern California in 1986 and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications at the University of California, San Diego in 1985.
Melinda's Advice: Have an open mind. Take risks. International work can help you understand yourself, as well as open up a whole range of new career choices. Identify programs that will help you do that. Growing up, my parents didn't have the money to allow me to travel and so I didn't have the opportunity to visit other countries and learn about other cultures until after I graduated from college. Students should take advantage of school programs that might make it possible for them to travel, such as student exchange programs. Learn a foreign language -- it makes you much more valuable as a potential employee. Real life experience is a major plus if you want to do the work I do. Volunteering your time to a local business is a way to get experience. Don't forget community-based work. A combination of both is the best way to go.
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RUTH MONARREZ is a Software Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she writes computer software programs. Growing up in a rough neighborhood only made Ruth more determined to make something of herself. In addition to studying hard, she participated in several extracurricular activities, including swimming, softball and baton twirling. Her many achievements won recognition and just before graduation, Ruth was recruited by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the Minority High School Summer Program. That part-time work opened doors to her current career. Ruth attended the University of California at Los Angeles, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics. She received a Master of Science degree, also in Applied Mathematics, from The Claremont Graduate School.
Ruth's Advice: If you work hard you can accomplish many things, even things you don't feel you might. I wasn't a natural at math and had to study hard to overcome my own doubts. But the perseverance paid off and made me more self-confident. In the past, the fields of math and science did not encourage women. In school, counselors even tried to steer them into other areas, such as education or journalism. So, young woman interested in the sciences need to be encouraged and supported. We lived in a pretty rough neighborhood. I was the middle of seven kids and my two older brothers were over-achievers. They were my role models. I thought if they could do it, so could I. Finally, don't underestimate your potential. Stay focused and use all your talents. I'm bilingual -- Spanish and English -- and it's helped me professionally. Don't give up!
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WILSON CHU is an international business lawyer at a firm in Dallas, Texas. He advises clients on 'mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures' -- meaning his specialty is buying and selling companies, particularly those in Asian countries. Chu studied finance, earning both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and his law degree from Southern Methodist University.
Wilson's Advice: If you're interested in becoming a business lawyer don't listen to career counselors who tell you to major in English or Political Science. If you are representing business people, you need to talk their talk. Get a business degree and minor in English or whatever. English will help with your communication skills.
When looking for a school investigate as many sources as possible, such as the Internet, college and career fairs, libraries and magazines. In some cases, going to a 'big name' school can be very helpful to you later on in your career. Employers are impressed by 'big name' schools. If you decide not to attend a Top Ten school, be the best in whatever school you attend. Aim for a top professional school. They are often looking for ethnic, geographic and background diversity. Speaking of diversity, people of color are particularly well-suited to careers with an international flavor -- for example, companies are looking for Hispanics to work for them in countries throughout Latin America. The same is true for African Americans and the growing markets in parts of Africa, especially South Africa. I find international law worth all the hard work because of the travel and excitement. It is very exciting working with different kinds of people and cultures, doing things that make a difference. When you acquire a company, you affect lives, you build jobs. Helping a business expand helps people. Lastly, learn how to interact with all people. As a minority student, you have to learn how to work with other people, not just your own. That's important.
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WINONA LADUKE, a Native American woman, has made it her life's work to improve the lives of the men, women and children in her community. Her major concern is developing ways to make Native American communities, economically self-supporting. Much of her work involves finding ways to recover reservation land from the government and other non-Indian landholders and then creating ways to make the land support the people economically. Employment opportunities, better schools and affordable, decent housing -- these are issues that Winona deals with daily. These same issues confront native people throughout the world and other poor communities right here in America. Winona travels around the world sharing her skills and experiences with both large groups and small grassroots organizations working on similar issues. She studied Native Economic Development at Harvard where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Winona also attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology enrolling in the Community Fellows Program's Department of Urban Studies. She later earned a Masters of Arts degree in Rural Development at Antioch University.
Winona's Advice: Basic skills -- good reading, writing, computer skills -- are really important. But beyond that is the skill of critical thinking -- being able to look at the problem and at the solutions, which is pretty much what you've got to be able to do when you're trying to make something change. One of the best ways to excercise this skill is by watching the news and figuring out what the story is really about -- what issues are emphasized, why those things are important and from whose point of view the story is being told. Critical thinking! Another important skill is language. Most of the world does not speak English so it's important to be able to speak another language, especially if you plan to do work out in the world.
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SUSAN RICE works for the National Security Council in Washington, DC advising the President on African Affairs and then explaining those issues to the public. Her family worked in government when she was growing up and so she was exposed to international issues at an early age. Susan was also able to travel a bit when she was younger which whetted her appetite for a career that would take her beyond the borders of the United States. Still she says she never considered working in the field of international affairs until she was in college and began studying world history. There were more opportunities to travel, to places like the former Soviet Union, Africa, Europe and China and before she knew it -- she was hooked! Susan earned her Masters degree and her doctorate in International Relations at Oxford University in London. She graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, with additional emphasis in political science, literature and Spanish.
Susan's Advice: It's a big world but the skills needed to do my job are not very different from the skills it takes to be good at most anything. You need to be able to think clearly and express your thoughts in a straightforward fashion -- both orally and in writing. You need to be able to reason and solve problems but that's true whether you go into business or engineering or anything else. And there is a tremendous opportunity for growth. There's always a new place to travel to. To learn about. And a new problem to tackle. So, it's never boring. You can take any variety of courses in college to prepare for this field of work -- you can do pre-law, you can and should do math, and other kinds of analytical subjects. It's helpful to study languages. The other thing I would say is if you ever have an opportunity to travel abroad, whether it's with a church group or as part of a summer program or some kind of scholarship or anything -- take it because there's nothing more eye opening than actually living and breathing another culture and another environment. When you get into the foreign service, they will then teach you the specific skills that are relevant to the kind of work you do. Finally, discover ways to build your self-confidence. Don't be afraid to fail. I think if you fall down a few times and realize that you can still get up, and just because you stumble in the middle of the race, it's not over -- then you're not so afraid to fall. And you try again and you learn what you're good at. If you're aware of your strengths and weaknesses, it makes it a little bit easier to step up to the plate and take the next challenge. None of us are perfect, none of us are good at everything.
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