Unknown Speaker 0:00

Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Chris Erickson. I'm the director of the UCLA International Institute. And I'd like to welcome you to the institute's 2020 alumni career panel life after the degree. The International Institute consists of 27 area based and thematic research centers, as well as a degree programs undergraduate programs in Global Studies, International Development Studies, international and area studies, minors in global health and international migration studies, and master's programs in African Studies, East Asian Studies, and Latin American Studies. And today, we're going to hear from graduates from a number of these programs.

Unknown Speaker 0:37

Before we start, I'd like to thank our organizing partners, UCLA study abroad, the National Center for International students and scholars, UCLA residential life, and the UCLA library, as well as our internal Organizing Committee, Student Affairs advising team Sandy Valdivieso, Magda Yamamoto, Gabby Solomon, Karen kidzania, Olivia Gonzales, and Executive Director of Development in the International Institute, Aaron Cervantes. We also want to, we want to provide our thanks for technical support from our IT team, including alakazoo Oliver chin and Kai amante sobu.

Unknown Speaker 1:14

I will not provide brief introductions of our four panelists and our moderator, which will be followed by our moderated panel discussion, and then we will create virtual breakout rooms to allow smaller group discussions with each of our panelists. So first, our our panelists today, Staci bernoff was a Global Studies major graduate in 2009. She's the director of global operations and sourcing at uncommon cacau focused on sourcing high quality, fully transparent cacau from supply partners, and insert ensuring social and economic impact in our supply chain. Before uncommon, Staci was the program director for sustainable harvest coffee coffee importers NGO and Rwanda, helping to build women's coffee cooperatives, processing centers, and an international market for high quality women produced Rwandan coffee. In addition to her BA in global studies from UCLA. She holds an MA in international development from King's College in London, and has been working overseas in international development for the better part of the past 10 years in micro finance, women's economic opportunities, coffee and cacao. Welcome sassy.

Unknown Speaker 2:21

Our second panelist will be Rachel Gunn gandon Mark, who was the International Development Studies major in the year 2000. Rachel is director of International Programs at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she oversees to US State Department grant programs. She's the program director of the American Film showcase, the largest art arts exchange program of the American government, and the CO principal investigator of the Middle East media initiative, and innovative diplomacy program trading TV writers and producers from across the Arab world. Previously, Rachel was the sole producer of Disney's first Arabic language feature the United release internationally in 2013. served for many years as creative consultant for the Sundance Institute, screenwriters lab in Jordan, and founded the Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles. Rachel regularly speaks on film and TV diplomacy, including at the Paley Center for Media, the USC center on public diplomacy, the Writers Guild of America, the International documentary Association and Comic Con. In addition to her BA in ideas, she received an MA in Arabic from Georgetown School of Foreign Service. She lived in Cairo Egypt for many years and is a Truman national security fellow. Welcome, Rachel.

Unknown Speaker 3:35

Our third speaker will be Brenda Herrera, who was the Latin American study major in the year 2001. Brenda is president ceo of the Herrera agency. She began her entertainment industry career with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, where she assisted with the production of the 2000 Grammy Awards, coordinated talent for the inaugural Latin Grammy Awards, and was instrumental in developing the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. As Latin heat entertainments marketing director she produced a variety of special events including film screenings, workshops and panels, with leading Latino entertainment figures and popular music festivals, and experienced film publicist.

Unknown Speaker 4:15

Brenda has successfully executed campaigns resulting in increased opening weekend box office attendance. Her most notable campaigns include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, men and black three, pushing boots, Madagascar three Europe's Most Wanted Wally, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of crystal skull, monsters vs. Aliens and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. In 2016, the Los Angeles Times named Brenda as a top 100 diversity candidate for membership into the Academy of Motion Pictures arts and sciences. Her influence is one of Hollywood's leading publicist and strong cultural connection were cited as reasons for making this one of a kind list. Herrera is a voting member of the television Academy, a board member of the Hispanic public relations and social

Unknown Speaker 5:00

And the Latino Heritage Foundation and an advisory board member of farmworker justice. Welcome Brenda.

Unknown Speaker 5:08

And our fourth panelists who will be joining us a little bit later is Sophia Sophia Van Cleave was an international development Development Studies major and a global health minor in the year 2017. Sophia is senior analyst at Blue garden at growing up internationally, Sophia developed a passion for cross cultural learning and social change early on this letter to study International Development Studies in global health. at UCLA, she was actively involved in teach public health mentoring to underserved kids in West LA crew, and bridges International. She also did internships in Washington DC at the corporate Council in Africa, and in rural Ecuador, helping a farmers Co Op develop business plans for sustainable coffee growth. Since graduating in December 2017, Sophia has been working in a blue garden at a social impact consulting firm based in LA Lugo net partners with social change organizations to help them define, measure and tell their impact story. They work along the intersection of strategy and evaluation, partnering with organizations ranging from local nonprofits to family foundations to global automobile companies. She has now been with the company for almost three years currently as a senior analyst. And again, Sophia will be joining us shortly. Finally, it's my honor to introduce our moderator precious Robinson, who's the UCLA career Center's program director for graduate and professional school planning, where her role is on the Career Education engagement team. In addition to career counseling and higher education, her professional interests include positive psychology, diversity and inclusion and coaching for optimal life design. She began her UCLA tenure as a general career counselor working with undergraduate and graduate students, before becoming counseling manager of graduate student services, and eventually taking on the role of manager of undergraduate North Campus Career Services prior to serving in her current role.

Unknown Speaker 6:59

Previously, her employment included serving as a career counselor at the University of Wisconsin Madison as the diversity coordinator for UW Madison's Residential Life department as a hall director at Central Michigan University, and as a program Program Coordinator at Cal State University Long Beach, and hammered with higher education and all things University, precious earned her MBAs from her MBA from Claremont Graduate University's Drucker School of Management, while also studying industrial organizational psychology, or original alma mater is the University of Georgia, where she received a BA in sociology. She studied journalism and sociology as a graduate Fellow at UW Madison, and completed her master's education and clinical psychology and marriage family therapy at Cal State University Dominguez Hills. Earlier, early in her career, she received regional and national awards for innovative service, and multicultural outreach efforts for returning adult students engaging in career transitions. Precious is also pressed past president of the UCLA black Faculty and Staff Association, for which she is the current vice president of finance professional development. She is also current historian and past president for the Pacific Coast association of pre law advisors. So I will now turn it over to precious for our moderated panel discussion, to be followed by our our,

Unknown Speaker 8:19

our movement into virtual breakout rooms for smaller group discussions. Please, questions. Thank you so much, Chris. I also like to say I started as a child prodigy So, but I appreciate those great introductions for myself and the panelists. And I want to thank you and my colleagues at the International Institute for including me with this amazing on panel, such a diverse background of alumni. And so I'd like to start by having the panelists describe briefly a day in the life or a week in the life of your career and what you consider one of the most rewarding aspects of your career in your current role. So I'd like to start with stassi.

Unknown Speaker 9:03

Wow, um, first, I want to say thank you for including me here. This is a stellar panel. I'm so curious to learn more from everyone. It's, I'm humbled to be amongst you.

Unknown Speaker 9:16

All right. So I guess the question would be, is it a week in the life of my current role, like, considering COVID or pre COVID? Because for me, it looks very different. Just mostly due to normal travel schedules that I have. So I'd be curious what feels most valuable? Oh, wow, that is a great question. So let's go with pre COVID. And then maybe if you can briefly touch on maybe a couple of changes that have um, you know, let's just go with pre COVID. And then afterwards, we'll have the panel talk about trends post COVID. That sounds great. Yes. Thanks.

Unknown Speaker 9:54

Yeah, so I guess for me, normally, I recently did some time, math.

Unknown Speaker 10:00

I discovered that I spend about 30% of my time to 40% of my time traveling. So in a typical week, what that normally means is that I would be traveling to one of the countries that we sourced cocoa beans from

Unknown Speaker 10:13

I, we sourced from 10 different countries. Normally, it's either Billy's or Guatemala, because my company has two subsidiary companies, one in Belize and Guatemala. And so I manage the Managing Directors there, and I oversee a lot of operations there.

Unknown Speaker 10:30

In terms of what I do when I'm there, and what sort of brings me the most joy and value in my work, I think, is I spend a lot of time on farms, I don't have any sort of agricultural background at all. But for the past seven years, working with coffee, and with cacau, I've learned quite a bit about agriculture. And also given that our company is very focused on farmer livelihoods, I do a lot of sort of auditing and traceability and ensuring that when I meet farmers in our supply chains, that they are the ones actually producing the product that they're getting paid. And just to start, like discussing with them what types of changes they might want to see. And that's, that's largely part of my impact work. So that's a very high level view of what my days might look like.

Unknown Speaker 11:12

And I would say,

Unknown Speaker 11:15

maybe we'll get to this question later, I didn't necessarily actively think that this is where my degree would take me. And so it's been, really, for me, an incredible lesson and sort of saying yes, and following a path. And I have to say where I've ended up is, while not exactly what I pictured, just being able to interact with people from from different walks of life. And really understanding people from a human to human level has been incredibly impactful for me as an individual sort of moving through the world. And so so I guess,

Unknown Speaker 11:51

we have five values as a company, but one value that we sort of kicked out was this concept of one humanity, which I feel like is very relevant, especially now in the COVID era, when you think about a supply chain, oftentimes, in a NEO colonial world, or sort of extracting these very valuable resources from these places that grow them inherently and natively, and we try to turn that upside down. And to say, rather than farmers being dependent on this market, we actually want the market dependent on farmers to change and shift the power dynamic. And so I work to do that, with my day, or my weeks. And now my years.

Unknown Speaker 12:29

I've had done all the questions. Yes. Thank you so much, Jesse. I mean, we definitely are looking forward to coming back to the regular normal, and this not being the new normal. And having that travel once again. I think that you know, sometimes students who are looking at a global or international related career, that that's one of the common passions that they often have in mind is on that sort of idea of of traveling, actually being in that environment. Okay, so let's go with um, Brenda. So Brenda, yes, tell us about either a day in the life or a week in the life pro coded, cuz we hope to get back to that, as well as what you find most rewarding in your career. Sure, what is the most rewarding, I'm sure there's many things. Sure. So thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm so pre COVID I was very busy being out. And about everywhere. I'm an entertainment publicist. So most of my work was out in the field, taking clients to interviews in studio interviews, at the you know, TV stations, radio,

Unknown Speaker 13:33

print and online publications, and, or in the evenings going to red carpet events, taking clients on the red carpet, film premieres, music, concerts, panels,

Unknown Speaker 13:49

entertainment, industry events, and just promoting my client and whatever the project is, that we had, you know, working on. So the most rewarding, I would have to say is seeing talent develop from

Unknown Speaker 14:06

being an unknown, to seeing them grow and become a celebrity, if you will, you know, by our, our efforts of getting them media attention is what allows the public to get to know them and who they are and what they have to bring to the world of entertainment just to our daily lives, you know, providing entertainment, providing film, providing events, providing entertainment to, you know, on a on a much larger level, at a national level, when we're working with some clients, some talent that have a larger scope. So I think that that's probably the most rewarding is just being able to work with talent and seeing them develop and especially Latino talent that has for so long been

Unknown Speaker 14:56

overlooked. I think that we're now stepping into

Unknown Speaker 15:00

To a time where we're seeing more Latino talent, especially with the whole, you know,

Unknown Speaker 15:07

the Oscars so why, you know, that really was

Unknown Speaker 15:12

something that helped us bring our voices forward because

Unknown Speaker 15:19

people started to realize that there is a lack of Latino presence, and people of color, and not only people of color, but also other diverse communities like, you know, the disabled, or the

Unknown Speaker 15:35

LGBTQ communities. So I just represent one small group, but diversity is there's so many, you know, different types of diversity that we're able to, to lend our voices to, to be able to speak on these topics when we're involved in panels and events where we have that platform. So I think that that, for me would be the most rewarding is just having our voices heard.

Unknown Speaker 16:07

Awesome, thank you so much for sharing that Brenda touched on so many things close to my heart. I mean, definitely, as a career counselor, I like to see students develop. On the side, I actually do a little acting I'm in sag, so I missed all those panels if you want to help me develop your I Am. But you know, so many great things. We actually have an alum, UCLA alum, Christine Simmons, who's now at the Academy, but thank you for sharing that on the band, the life and all those many values. Awesome. So Rachel, yes, love to hear a Danna life or a week in the life pro COVID. And, again, you know, what are some of your joys are really that you find particularly rewarding in your career? fair? Well, first of all, thank you so much. It's really fun to do this. And I've been like in hiding at USC for last 10 years. So it's nice to be back with my family, my Bruins. So thank you. Um, I am. So I, I wear a lot of hats at USC, the film school. But my primary one is, as I run this program called the American Film showcase, which is it's the biggest arts exchange program of the US government. So I work with the State Department,

Unknown Speaker 17:16

or it's funded by the State Department department. But I work in our team works with all of the cultural offices at at us embassies and consulates around the world.

Unknown Speaker 17:26

And so, for example, this year, we're working with 60, with 60, embassies around the globe to do film and TV related programming. And so that kind of means two things. One is it's film, we send American films, primarily documentaries as kind of a traveling Film Festival around the world. We send American filmmakers and editors and cinematographers to do in person workshops, for about a week in many countries, but we also bring international filmmakers here to do a lot of training, we do a ton of different kinds of storytelling trainings, which is really satisfying. And I would say for me, so that's sort of background on what I do. I would say that, for me, sort of intellectually, what's most rewarding is, is working with

Unknown Speaker 18:15

foreign service officers to kind of

Unknown Speaker 18:19

to use their, like policy brains to think about how to engage media for policy purposes. So it's like, how can we train TV writers to to think in a different way that actually helps supporting, you know, economic development, and

Unknown Speaker 18:35

women's empowerment, things like that. And then on an emotional, like, emotionally rewarding, I think probably just, we now have a network of global filmmakers that have been touched by American films showcase. And as we support them, and see them sort of emerge as storytellers within markets, all over the world that are becoming more and more relevant, because of places like Netflix, you know, filmmakers in Nigeria and Peru, and Mexico and Thailand. But suddenly, they're getting deals, and it feels like, Oh, this is happening, because we were there on the ground eight years ago, training them on screenwriting, or things like that. So that's extremely satisfying.

Unknown Speaker 19:13

Yes, that is exciting. I mean, definitely, that storytelling, the sharing of culture with different stories and empowering different people is, you know, huge impact to be able to share in our, in our global society. So now let's switch over to talking about any changes or trends that you've seen now that COVID is here. So how has that impacted your current work? And what is, you know, one or two things that you might recommend to students, like if they're looking for an internship in your field that they might do to prepare for some things that are happening now. So like, in my field, definitely, you know, an obvious thing is, you know, even with my own interns, when I interviewed them, it was like, you know, what, do you know digitally or use with zoom so trends or changes in your current position, and maybe one or two things that you read?

Unknown Speaker 20:00

And then students really kind of think about or, or consider in terms of pairing for an internship or job in this current environment. So this time if we can start with Rachel.

Unknown Speaker 20:13

Oh, man, I don't have a quick answer. I'm, like, know how to use zoom.

Unknown Speaker 20:18

No, but seriously, I, I mean, I think that

Unknown Speaker 20:22

it's what's been really interesting for my work is, how quickly we are and sort of everyone we work with adopting new platforms to do things. And I and I think there is like, the kind of willingness

Unknown Speaker 20:37

of people who might be kind of old school who wouldn't have been open to like adopting new platforms are suddenly excited to, to feel like, Oh, this, we have to do this now. So I feel like, what's really important is, you know, I'll give an example like for us,

Unknown Speaker 20:53

it was really important to find a virtual cinema platform that was like, how can we show films around the world if we don't have a platform to do that. And it was, it took about four months to like, for both the industry to catch up, I mean, the cinema industry to catch up, and also for people to adopt it. And I think that the people who were kind of winning at the beginning, were those who were really quick to adopt. And so like that willingness to say, like, yes, I'm gonna, like, try this out, we'll try this out, try this out. I think those people were the ones who are like, sort of most successful in this environment. Does that make sense? Does that answer your question? It does. Thank you very much for that, yes. And not not everyone can go out and go to a drive thru as a platform to see some of those movies or narratives. But thank you for sharing that Rachel, Brenda changes for you, post COVID, aside from not all those great panels with great food. Sure, yeah. There's always, you know, events with food and drinks. And so that's always nice. But to be honest, I don't miss it that much, it's kind of nice to like, slow down, because when you're on a roll, it's go, go go, like, I would be out maybe four or five days a week, just going to these events, and it gets tiring, you know, thank God, I don't have you know, kids or, or, or a husband that expects you home because I was just never home. So it's it's a nice change. But things have changed a lot, especially even before COVID. I started in in entertainment, you know, 20 years ago, and then in PR about 12 years ago. And things have changed even since I started PR because that was like, social media wasn't what it is today. And so we've had to adapt. And that's one thing that, you know, that I've learned that I want to share with with the students is that in my industry, you have to be able to adapt, and you have to be quick thinking, you have to think on your feet, you have to just be a problem solver, and be able to really run with what what's next because you don't know. But you have to always think ahead because things are constantly changing. And I've seen a lot of change in the last, you know, decade, but also specifically due to COVID. At first I had like a full plate, and then all my clients canceled on me, because they were all live events. They were all television productions afters. And when COVID happened in March,

Unknown Speaker 23:32

the world stood still. And everything stopped. And I lost all my clients. But I mean, not lost them. But everybody was on pause. I was in the middle of the campaign, we had to stop because everybody was trying to figure out what, what to do next. So luckily, you know, I'm resourceful. And I have some contacts. And we were able to, you know, still do some interviews via zoom. And that's really the direction that we headed. So we started doing online interviews instead of in studio interviews. And so, you know, some of the other events, they decided to also do their events online. And so, we did a concert online, we did a film premiere online, and so everybody's starting to get creative and working in this industry, you're working with creative people, but you just have to learn to adapt to the new technology. Right. And so, um, you know, it was a challenge, but nothing that we couldn't solve and we couldn't overcome.

Unknown Speaker 24:37

All right, thank you for that Brenda stasis sounds like a lot of maybe not I saw in the news where somebody was still traveling, and they came up with their own safety routines. But I can imagine you might not be racking up all those frequent flyer miles right now. So tell us about trends or changes for your position and things that you've done to adopt. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think

Unknown Speaker 24:59

I suppose I clicked

Unknown Speaker 25:00

Travel, you know, there would be ways, but I, we made a decision very early on as a company to restrict that because, you know, we're part of a global community. And also earlier on, we didn't really know what would happen if COVID reached any of the rural farming communities that we work in. So the worst case scenario is you travel to a rural community, you bring COVID with you there isn't the health care facility available to take care of someone who contracts COVID in a rural area, maybe they're four hours from a hospital, that hospital is probably already overloaded. So it was out of the question for us to continue travel just because the risk of that felt too great. And now with our sort of second wave in the US, it's like, you know, even more out of the question.

Unknown Speaker 25:46

And I have to say, you know, I guess similar to what both Rachel and Brenda have shared, we're all learning to adopt. We are all learning to use zoom and other sort of virtual platforms to be able to connect with one another. Because I think as humans, we all want to be connecting with one another. And that includes a farming family, it includes a supplier company, it includes a chocolate maker and includes a chocolate consumer, everyone wants to feel connected to the people and their supply chain into the people that are bringing these products together. And so we're certainly learning in that in that sense. And then similarly, with Brenda, like, it's been kind of nice for me not to travel for the first time in a decade, like, I have been in my home pretty much every weekend for, you know, nine months, or however long it's been what is time. And that has really shifted my ability and my focus. And we're a really small company. So you know, there's three of us based in Berkeley, we're 15 people globally, there are just so many different things that need to get done all the time. And so it has really enabled me to kind of distill the most important features of my work, the reasons why I travel, and then try to make it a little bit more cost effective. Because at the end of the day, we're a for profit company. And so if I can cut costs by not traveling as much, maybe I can do this work in other ways. And so that's been really helpful, I think, for me to just reframe my relationship to travel, and how I can connect with people without it having to be necessarily in person, I don't know that there will ever be a replacement. But you know, there are certainly things that I'm trying, as far as a, you know, potential skill set that I might suggest somebody learn or focus on, I think,

Unknown Speaker 27:24

I don't know, I mean, I kind of am listening to you both. And thinking that this is maybe a lesson and attachment, and like not being attached to certain outcomes necessarily, or not graduating and thinking, I need to have a career where I travel, and I go to all these different places and see all these different things, because we never know what the world is gonna throw at us. And so being able to move through that feeling quickly, and being willing to step up to the plate and say, you know, I don't have to travel. But this is the way that I can still get those things that I want. Because chances are it might not be getting on an airplane and getting off the airplane in Ecuador, and might be understanding the history of a specific, I don't know, community in an Ecuadorian Amazon. So

Unknown Speaker 28:10

yeah, I would say it's sort of I'm really reiterating what what Rachel and Brenda have both said, which is like be adaptable, let go of attachment, because you don't know what that opens up for you instead.

Unknown Speaker 28:27

I say one more thing about the intern thing, I was sure I forgot.

Unknown Speaker 28:32

This is like a little bit less lofty and more kind of real. When we get interns.

Unknown Speaker 28:38

My feeling is always like, they tend to those who stand out, are those who can bring sort of like new technology and know how to navigate them. So I you know, it's just like the nature of like, whatever social media platform it is, or just like a lot of comfort with something that I feel like, as I get older, as my colleagues get older, we could kind of like, unmotivated to learn new things. And it just things get like handed off to people who are young, and like, kind of know what's going on. And so it's like, those are the people that can say like, Oh, I know how to do that. Those are often the people that I remember them, you know, like, I'm like, oh, they're super competent. Let's just keep that person on. So I feel like I'm willingness to sort of say, I mean, I don't I'm not whatever platform it is, it's just like, Oh, yeah, I can make like a whatever Tick tock, like, ideally great, great, I don't have to do that. Awesome. You can do that. So I feel like those kinds of things and a willingness to communicate your like, your skills with those kinds of things in probably in most workplaces. At this point. It was really helpful. Absolutely. I totally agree that something I definitely tell our students as well like when they're applying to these interns that they can say in their cover letter, bring it to them that they have this skill set, or they have these ideas for adapting certain positions or services, and that on the employer may or may not have thought of that. So earlier Chris gave

Unknown Speaker 30:00

Wonderful introductions for all of our panelists. And he already let our audience know that Sophia would be joining us. One of our colleagues can also maybe place a link in the chat. If students want to go see the BIOS online as well. I know that we have those online. In the meantime, I will backtrack to one of the questions to get to know Sophia a little better. So the question is Sophia, what is a day in the life pro coded in your career? And what are one or two of the things that you found most rewarding in your current role?

Unknown Speaker 30:33

Hey, so Hi, everyone, my name is Sophia Van Cleave, I am a senior analyst at the social impact consulting firm called Blue Garnet. We're a small team here in LA working with nonprofits, foundations and companies to help them define, measure and tell their impact story. So I was just on a four hour zoom session right now that I was facilitating with the team, I'm sorry that I'm late, and but a day in life pre COVID, when things were not just facilitated on zoom, and we work with organizations and helping their teams work better together to deliver on their impact more effectively. So oftentimes, that's going to in person meetings with clients and having kind of strategy sessions, we call them where it's tons of like posts and brainstorming and lots of ideation to help them think strategic and strategically and longer term of what change they want to make in the world. And then we go back to our offices, and we do all this, like number crunching, and all these interviews with people and all these surveys to get input from all these different stakeholders, so that the teams can make better decisions on how they work. So it's a great organization, great team. And one of the most rewarding parts of this experience is getting to really narrow down on social change in Los Angeles, studying International Development Studies at UCLA, I got to look at social change all over the world. And I had certain regions that I was most interested in and did internships and several different countries. But then now getting to take whatever those theories that I've learned and really applied it in the setting of the city that I love, that means a lot to me, and has been one of the most rewarding parts and getting to know all the different sub communities and cultures within LA. And it's just just really interesting to get apply in this context.

Unknown Speaker 32:25

Great, thank you so much. I want to backtrack to a concept that stassi us actually brought up a little bit earlier in terms of people maybe not doing what they originally thought about doing. So in the career counseling world, we have a theory that we call plan, happenstance. So there's a planning, but you know, we talked about adaptability, but you also adapt as things go along. And then I'm sure most people have heard the quote that, you know, there's really no luck. It's like, preparation meets that point of opportunity. So in terms of your own career, I want you to, you know, think about maybe one or two turning points where you may, you know, intentional our strategic decisions, but you went in a direction that you didn't necessarily expect. So if you can talk about, again, a little bit of your own pathway, a point or two where there was a change, and you had to make a really intentional or strategic decision, but there was a bit of planned happenstance. So I know that's a lot of kind of wrapped up in that does that. Does that make sense?

Unknown Speaker 33:24

Sure. jump right in and answering that for me. All right, good. Thank you, Sophia. Yeah. So I graduated from UCLA in 2017. So I'm by far the youngest on the panel, probably I'm so honored to be on this panel with everyone. And so before graduating, I done an internship in Ecuador living in the remote jungles, which was super fun and great, but there are a lot of bugs. And I got bitten by one that gave me a tropical parasite.

Unknown Speaker 33:54

Back to finish my fall quarter of senior year at UCLA and got something called freshman ISIS, which is a flesh eating parasite that attacks your skin.

Unknown Speaker 34:05

And I was super sick. And it took 13 doctors to figure out what I had. And I was basically a mobile and I had all these dreams of when I graduate, I'm going to go live in all these other countries do this great international development work, but got to the point of I can barely get off my couch, I need to find a job. I just graduated and I can't really move and I have this weird sickness that's attacking my skin and my organs. And what do I do? So that was a very extreme example of I had this plan of what I was going to do and then something was thrown in my life that took me in a completely different direction. And but I it forced me to look at jobs that were local that were in LA that were close enough that I could still receive the health care I needed at UCLA. And that's how I ultimately found this job at Blue granite that I would not have expected or look for but it has been the perfect first position for me and I know and when I do apply for jobs in other countries because that's still the path I do want to go down. I have built

Unknown Speaker 35:00

Such a skill set and these three years here in LA that I wasn't expecting, but I think I'll be a more valuable asset to teams going forward. So I don't know, for all the students that are on the this Call now to that COVID has totally thrown a wrench in things and, and it's really disappointing. And I want to validate that, and it's really tough, but there are new opportunities that arise because of that. And, and it might be better opportunities than you actually playing for.

Unknown Speaker 35:27

Thank you for sharing that. Sophie. I mean, you definitely were the epitome of adaptability, as well as resilience. Um, that sounds traumatic, but obviously, you're here and have a great career. Thank you so much for sharing your story with that. Um, who would like to tackle that question? Next?

Unknown Speaker 35:45

So about you Stasi.

Unknown Speaker 35:49

Sure. Um, I think there have been several for me to be totally candid. So when I saw I graduated in 2009, which was sort of the last large recession since the current one.

Unknown Speaker 36:05

And

Unknown Speaker 36:07

I thought I was going to immediately jump in working for like Human Rights Watch, or Amnesty International, I was like, convinced that these companies are going to hire me, I was like all gung ho for this particular field. I was gunning for law school afterwards, and I thought, I'm gonna work for a little while before law school, I don't want to go into so much debt immediately, you know, all of these things. And it was 2009. So I struggled a lot, I ended up finding a paid internship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I had had no intention of moving there. But I was like, this is a human rights based organization. They have an internship available, it's pretty inexpensive to live in VA. Sure, you know, and then throughout the course of that year, I actually decided that, rather than apply to law school, I was learning through my experience that I like, wasn't necessarily interested in the law. This organization had this huge book, a human rights law in Argentina that was supposed to be abided by. And it was specific to the prison system. And I saw in the prison system that none of those laws were being abided by. And I was like, Well, if all these laws are written, and people are fighting in court about them, like, what's actually the structural problem that's happening here that's not upholding this.

Unknown Speaker 37:25

So that's how I pivoted and ended up at King's College with an international development masters, it was a year it was much less expensive than law school. And I just felt like I needed to kind of go back to the drawing board a little bit and see, see what this actually was that I was interested in, because it seemed like, like law wasn't, wasn't quite the right fit. So long story short, that sort of catapulted me to being a fellow at Kiva. Then I met the CEO of this Coffee Company, I had a, you know, I went in for a meeting about Kiva with him three hours later, he was offering me a job I moved to Rwanda, it's like the rest of it kind of all fell into place in this really crazy way. But initially, it really was, you know, I was like, human rights law, like, that's where I'm going. And I'm really grateful, because, you know, all of these other things have have led to such a cool experience. And I've pivoted throughout, but that was sort of the biggest, the biggest one back in the beginning. Yeah, definitely sounds like you have some cool experiences and have lived in some diversity, exciting places. And then you did some soul searching to, you know, identify how your passion could lead you in a different way besides on law, and sometimes that just comes through experience.

Unknown Speaker 38:39

Admittedly, I have to say, I am so searched every like two or three years as well, it's like, you know, it's kind of a regular practice, I think, to ensure that I'm still following some sort of Northstar. But he has a definitely evolving process. So again, I definitely encourage all of our students, all of our participants to, you know, continue to, you know, circle search and to evaluate your passions and your career path. So how about you, Brenda, some attorney point, and some decisions you had to make along the way with your plan, happenstance?

Unknown Speaker 39:12

Well, um, I never really had a plan. And so I've always just kind of gone with the flow, and that's led me to where I am. And by accident or by virtue, it's, you know, I'm, I tend to be very, um, I get bored easily. So I'm always looking for a challenge or a change or something that's going to keep me motivated.

Unknown Speaker 39:39

And, and I find that when a new opportunity presents itself,

Unknown Speaker 39:45

I don't know what to expect. But I like to take risks, because I find that that's where I get the most pleasure is doing something new. And I think that's probably why I ended up in the entertainment industry because there's never a boring moment. There's something completely different

Unknown Speaker 40:00

from day to day, you're never doing the same job every day. It's a different clients, it's a, it's a different project, it's a different film, it's a different, you know, show, whatever it is, it's it's constantly changing. So I'm, I've been lucky to

Unknown Speaker 40:18

end up where I am. But it hasn't always been easy, because I've gone through, you know, situations where I've taken risks. And

Unknown Speaker 40:31

they didn't always, they weren't always in my favor. But in the end, I ended up launching my own agency. So one of the biggest risks that I took was partnering with somebody. And that was turned out to be not the best experience. But once I realized that this partner was only in it for herself, not really, for the partnership, but really wanted what I had to bring to the table, not what she wanted to contribute. That's when I decided to go my own way, and launch my own agency. And so even though, you know, that wasn't a good experience, but it led me to launch my own agency. And now I've been, you know, on my own for four years, where I had worked with other agencies before, and when you're in publicity, you work like a slave.

Unknown Speaker 41:29

And you don't, you don't see the rewards.

Unknown Speaker 41:33

You could work 1218 hour days, and you know, your pay ends up being minimal.

Unknown Speaker 41:40

So, when the partnership didn't work out, and I launched my own agency, I, that's when I realized, well, you know, what am I waiting for, like, I've been doing the work for everybody else. Why not do it for myself, and, and reap the rewards. So that's when I, I took that, that risk to go ahead and, and launch my agency, and I'm glad that I did. Because now, you know, I'm doing better than some of the other agencies that I used to work for. So you know, it's about taking risks. And I think that, you know, if you just follow your heart, and you trust and you have faith in the process, things will work out as they should.

Unknown Speaker 42:22

Yes, definitely taking risks, making audacious moves can be very important in terms of that career development. And entrepreneurship also is very important in this, you know, environment as well. Thank you for sharing that. Brenda, Rachel.

Unknown Speaker 42:38

Thanks. So, I mean, my path is pretty windy. And I feel like that the thing that I knew, you know, I permitted I was on my way to get an Arabic PhD. And that was cut short by a family death, and I wanted to move back to LA. And I had always been kind of really,

Unknown Speaker 42:56

you know, I studied abroad in Egypt, I was really connected to the Middle East. And I

Unknown Speaker 43:01

was always felt like, there's like a PR problem with the Middle East. And like, if only people in America could see like, Arabic movies, then. I mean, I, I felt like, Oh, that's it. And so I was like, Oh, I want to do something that connects, you know, Middle Eastern filmmakers with global audiences. And that was there. And that felt like, oh, people there need to tell their own stories. I was always kind of the driving force and everything that I was thinking, but there was no like job that existed with that thing. And so I feel like for a number of years, I was sort of winding my way through, you know, first sight I worked, I, you know, I left a master's degree in Arabic, and then became an assistant at a production company in Hollywood. I felt like totally overqualified. Yet completely under qualified, like, I was very much like, what am I doing? This is so stupid.

Unknown Speaker 43:52

And I spent a couple of years there and I actually learned a lot. I mean, I learned a lot about how the industry works. And I got antsy

Unknown Speaker 44:00

a couple of years later, but while I was working there, I started like doing on the side work for this film festival called the Arab Film Festival. Um, and there was like a turning point where I was asked if I wanted to expand to LA and I was like, okay, but it doesn't pay anything. And and I ultimately, after about two years working in a production company, I left to do this film festival and had like, a bunch of jobs on the side because it wasn't a real job. And I felt like that was like probably one of the scariest moments where I felt like, I don't want to just like work in a project. I don't want to be like a Hollywood executive. I, I have like a mission. There's something that I feel driven to do. And there was a risk financially to just be like, I'm hope I can figure this out. And during that time, I just was like, meeting so many people and I feel like especially in those years, like when I was in my 20s and felt like I could go

Unknown Speaker 45:00

out all the time, I can meet people I know COVID makes it hard, but it will go back, we will meet people again. Um, I felt like a lot of those random things like it would be in a place and it would meet someone. And then three weeks later, they would email me and say, Hey, this thing came up, do you want to do this thing? And it was that where I just I met a ton of filmmakers and I met this, the Sundance thing, Sundance at the time had launched screenwriters lab in Jordan, and they said, Hey, do you want to come on as a consultant? I was like, okay, and and it was like, I was sort of tracking every Arabic film, meeting all these Arab screenwriters. And I had a weird lunch where somebody said, Hey, Disney just started this. This with like, a friend, not like a, like a fancy lunch like, um, Disney just started like local language content. Are you interested in talking to them? And I was like, Yeah, I have a ton of information. I mean, that's how I went in. It's just like, I'm gonna download information for you not like, I want a job, because there's no job right in my mind. And I went in, and I was just like, these are the kind of movies you should make. This is what the market looks like, these are all the things and I felt like, they were like, oh, we're gonna hire you as a producer. And I was like, what, like, I'm not a producer. It was a crazy thing. But it wouldn't happen is that I had basically been collecting information for, I don't know, five years, 10 years that was like, Oh, that's like, it wasn't job related. It was mission related. And so it felt like if I just keep doing if I just keep thinking about what I care about, and keep meeting people and talking to people and feeling inspired, then like, weirdly, jobs kind of appear. And the same thing happened for my current job where it was like, I'm, you know, I have a master's degree from a school of foreign service, which was totally unrelated. But now suddenly, I work in diplomacy, and, and film. And it's like, I think I'm maybe I'm the only person who could have had that job because I had took all these like weird paths. So I think that Oh, being open, but always kind of doing doing the work, even if the work doesn't have like a clear end, I think is like, for me, what has sort of paid off?

Unknown Speaker 47:16

freshness you're muted.

Unknown Speaker 47:19

Yes, thank you. There you go. Yes, again, I think it's definitely that preparation, meeting opportunity as well, you followed your passion. And then I also want to highlight like the job didn't exist, there are literally thousands of job titles, and there are jobs actually being created all the time as well. So I do want to encourage, again, our students and participants, some job you have in mind might be created, or you might need to give that pitch in order for that employer to create that position. So now we're going to actually move into some speed round questions. And all of our panelists are great storytellers. But do know that you will have a chance to follow up with them in our breakout rooms. So we'll you know, hear a little taste of their answer a little bit more about who they are. And then you can follow up with them in the breakout rooms and hear even more about our great panelists. So of course, this is international week, International Education Week. So what you all have in common is definitely that thought of doing something international global cross cultural. So you would just share a little bit about, you know, why you chose your major, and what was appealing about something in the international, global cross cultural realm. And we'll start with Sophia, if that's okay.

Unknown Speaker 48:31

All right. Um, so I grew up internationally, I'm born in Sweden, but grew up in Albania in Eastern Europe, my parents were Christian missionaries, and so moved to the US. And I was 14, and went into college with this desire to eventually move abroad, because that's what people like me who had grown up abroad and were jaded with America wanted to do, but I thought the only way that I could help people was to be a doctor, because that's what they tell you when you're in high school is that if you want to help hurting people, you have to go to medical school. So I was actually a pre med major, I was like, human biology or something coming into my orientation I UCLA. And

Unknown Speaker 49:10

as luck would have it, divine intervention, I would say, my orientation counselor was an International Development Studies major. And she was like, I don't know if chemistries if this like chemistry class that you're supposed to take fall quarter is for you. And I was like, Well, I have to be a doctor to help people. And she's like, or you could do IDs. And I was like, Oh, I didn't know that. That was a possibility. So that's how I switched IDs and loved it the whole time. And I ended up doing a minor in global health that was created

Unknown Speaker 49:42

towards the latter half of my experience at UCLA so I can still have the global context of health and public health is still really interesting to me. But there are more ways to help people than being a doctor is my takeaway. Absolutely, amen. The most subscribed

Unknown Speaker 50:00

majors at UCLA are pre med and undecided, but yes, many more careers and many, many ways to help people about you, Rachel, what, what drew you to the international global scene?

Unknown Speaker 50:12

You know, I feel like there are people who like to look inward and there's people who like to look outward and I feel like just have always been more interested in simulated by worlds that are different than mine. And I knew that I wanted to study languages and in college and

Unknown Speaker 50:29

actually, I had done a program in Ecuador when I was in high school, like an exchange. And I think that that really, the way that it made me feel like self reflective and see myself in a new way meant a lot to me. And it was something that that was like a high that I wanted to continue to feel. And so it was really important to me to study abroad and learn new languages, and it just sort of became kind of who I am.

Unknown Speaker 50:55

Thank you so much. Yes, not what you do, but who you are, thank you Stasi.

Unknown Speaker 51:01

Um,

Unknown Speaker 51:04

I, I'm a daughter of immigrants. They're both technically from Russia, but like from Russia, by way of Japan and from Russia by way of South Korea. And I think as a child growing up in the Bay Area, I didn't ever quite feel like I fit in where I was. My parents spoke Russian at home, my grandparents didn't speak English, we traveled to Japan to visit my mom's parents. It was sort of this, like, I don't really know where I'm supposed to be and what's supposed to feel normal and good and where I'm supposed to fit. And so I think, in part, I maybe chose travel and International Studies and the attempts to say, well, then I will actively choose to never be supposed to be anywhere, you know.

Unknown Speaker 51:50

So I think I think that's the long and short of it. Frankly, it's a it's a discovery and sort of seeking what what feels right for me as an individual knowing these different pieces of my background.

Unknown Speaker 52:01

Yes, thank you, thank all of you for sharing those pieces, you know, in some way, some more intimate pieces of your background, as well as your professional background. Thank you, Brenda.

Unknown Speaker 52:12

Yes, so um, I grew up in West LA, my dad actually went to graduate school at UCLA. So I grew up in a predominantly Anglo neighborhood, and went to university High School uni high. And, and that's why I chose UCLA. So, but in school, I never learned about my culture, I never learned about,

Unknown Speaker 52:35

you know, just the Latin Hispanic culture. So that's why I decided to major in Latin American Studies. Because I wanted to prepare myself for for a future, I really didn't know what career choice I was going to make. But I did know that I wanted to educate myself. And I wanted to learn about my culture so that I can empower myself. And I was very proud of being a Latina and speaking Spanish growing up, you know, speaking Spanish at home. But, um, but it wasn't something that, you know, most of my friends in high school were Asian or Anglo or African American. I had some Latino friends, but not very many I, you know, we were very diverse. So, when I, when I was studying Latin American Studies, I would go to the bookstore at UCLA, and pick up this magazine called Latin heat entertainment. And I would just, you know, look through it. And this is before the whole Latin explosion ever happened, right? This is like,

Unknown Speaker 53:41

in the late 1990s.

Unknown Speaker 53:46

And when I started to see Latino faces on the cover of this magazine, and the whole magazine was dedicated to Latinos in entertainment, I was like, Wow, what a concept, because that didn't exist back then. And so I started looking into into jobs and Latino entertainment. And that's when I came across the the Grammys, this is before the Latin Grammys even existed. And I ended up you know, getting a job as a receptionist at the Grammys. And I was what Thank you, Brenda, for sharing that. Again. They're gonna hear more of that in your breakout room. That is so awesome. But it sounds like the cultural piece was really your Latina background. And I love that you got a shout out in the chat as well. So thanks for wrapping. So we're going to move on to the next question, because we have about three minutes before we get to the breakout rooms. But that is a really engaging story. And we look to hear more in the breakout session that we're going to move to a couple other quick speed round questions. So a favorite class and a transferable skill. So I know you know stassi said she didn't know anything about agriculture and farming, you know. So what is a favorite class you had at UCLA and was either a content knowledge

Unknown Speaker 55:00

transferable skill that has helped you in your career. So I'm going to start with stassi, just because she made that big leap. And there was Sophia says she's our most recent graduate.

Unknown Speaker 55:10

That is so hard to

Unknown Speaker 55:15

Oh, my gosh, a favorite class and a transferable skill from from undergrad, right? Or if not a skill, even, like knowledge that you gained from that, you know, I like to say, well, an easy go to me is like critical thinking skills. Right. So a lot of times students, you know, they undersell what they learned at UCLA, right. But even if it's like critical thinking, for you to be able to think quickly into, you know, grass would admit to them, you know, do supply chain or to work with on farming. So, or maybe just your favorite class, just because you were fun, and it was passionate. So we can just do that. Yeah, I have taken it really hard. I remember two different.

Unknown Speaker 55:54

Two different specific things. Unfortunately, one, I don't remember the exact name of the class, but it was a class basically, about civil societies like civilization and civil societies. And I remember, specifically, in that class, we, for example, learned about Hurricane Katrina, and not necessarily like about the science of Hurricane Katrina, but about why it was so devastating for some populations in the city versus others. And that I think, is, I remember that being very influential for me, because it was this like insight into a systemic inequality. And that I think, helps me to be able to view news stories, different sort of natural disasters that seem equal in that they happen the same way to everyone. But understanding to dig a little bit deeper to say, the impacts of this will be different for different types of people, different places, etc. So I think that's the I'll leave that short. All right, thank you. You are our most recent graduate, Sophia, it is a hard question to answer. There are so many good classes. And I really enjoyed the classes that Steve Commons taught. So he did like a public health, Global Health 100, and then another urban planning class that was through the master's degree, but some undergrads could take those called urbanization in the developing world. And I think those are just really interesting classes to look at Urban Planning specifically, and to have really practical examples and stories. So if you haven't taken a class and Steve, please do He's great. In terms of transferable skill, you do a lot of research at UCLA and write a lot of research papers. And I still do that. In my work as a consultant. Like those footnotes. You think they're a pain while you're writing a research papers, but it's good to know how to do footnotes and you you will use that skill.

Unknown Speaker 57:46

Alright, awesome. Thank you, Sophia. So unless Brenda, Rachel really want to answer that question, I want to wrap up with one last question. Since we are at five o'clock or a little after.

Unknown Speaker 57:57

Unless you want to quickly share class, do you want to talk about like two tiny things? One, is that just the IDS like I don't, it was like, I mean, this is a long time ago. So I don't remember what class it was called. But Joshua David, who I think is not there anymore, but, um, hit that class, like, shaped my worldview entirely. I mean, I think that everybody who went through IDs with him was like, change. And I will say, like, any conversation today in 2020, about like systemic racism, I was like, we were talking about that we were using that language in 1999. Like, this is not, there's nothing new here. I mean, it's it's important, but there's nothing new here. So that was, that's one thing. And two is just the value of a public education, for me was, you know, I went to Georgetown, I've been working at USC, the value of having people in my class who were not from the same economic background was infinitely more educational than a lot of other

Unknown Speaker 58:50

educational settings that I've been in for someone. And also there was like,

Unknown Speaker 58:55

age diversity, which I felt like was also another really important thing about a public university. This, this idea that there could be someone in my geography class who we were talking about sweatshops, and he was like, Oh, yeah, 20 years ago, I used to work in a sweatshop and he said, like, and it was like in the classroom with me. So it wasn't just the teachers or the curriculum, but the student body, which I think is like, probably the thing I took away most from being

Unknown Speaker 59:18

like an IDS and a UCLA grad. Thank you so much. And we're going to end with this last question on a speed round. I love this question. So what is one thing you know, now that you wish you knew when you were an undergraduate student so what do you know now that you wish you knew that then that you can share with our students?

Unknown Speaker 59:43

I wish I knew a little more about what the job options were after college. But coming out of IDs, I thought the only noble career was to work at a nonprofit but there's lots of different sectors you can work in the government sector in international development or corporation social enterprises.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:00

Philanthropy nonprofit. So there's got a lot of options. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:06

Stasi.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:09

And I think, you know, I had internships and stuff when I was an undergrad. But I think I undervalued actual, like office work experience. Because again, we did a lot of research papers, but being able to just crank out work for a professional setting that is useful to someone that is not yourself.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:27

I think I wish I had done more of that and focused a little bit more on those sort of tangible,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:33

actual work products. Brenda,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:38

um, that's a tough one. Um, I wish I would have interned and I wish I would have studied abroad. I didn't, but I, I managed. And I to be honest with you, I never really use my degree for anything.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:00

Because everything, every job that I that I got was just based on experience. So I would have to echo what stuff he said, maybe having more real hands on Office type skills that I didn't have, but I kind of just fake it till you make it. And that's what I did.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:22

Thank you, Brenda. Rachel.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:26

I think that relationship building is probably the most important things in terms of getting jobs and a written thank you notes go a long way.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:35

Thank you for that. I love that the number one way to find a job is still through networking, people like to minimize their risk. So yes, build those relationships, building with your colleagues. I like to add that as an undergrad, I did not study abroad, I didn't study abroad to my MBA degree. And I studied abroad at Oxford during that time. So I'm sure all of you in global and International Institute will have your time abroad if you haven't. So definitely great advice from all of our panelists. You know, let's give them a virtual round of applause, you can put your reactions of Thank you so very much. This is definitely an all star panel with an all star cast as well from the International Institute with Chris and Magda, and Gabby and Sandy, and Karen. But thank you, and thank you for including me. And thank all of you for coming because this event is for all of you. And so now I'll turn it over to Chris or someone else from the team to talk about the breakout rooms.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:37

Hey, great. Well, let me add the international Institute's sincere thanks to Brenda, Rachel, Sophia, and Staci, our panelists as well as precious our moderator for this deeply interesting and enriching event. And thank you to everybody for attending the 2020 International Institute alumni career panel.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai