When Fred Zollo studied abroad in IES Abroad’s first London class in Spring 1974, he didn’t expect the experience would help lay the foundation for a future career in theater and film. From going to the theater three to four times a week, including seeing Laurance Olivier’s final performance, to producing a one-man show for a class – Fred lived and breathed theater in London. Coming from a family of Italian anarchists, Fred was brought up in the tradition of social justice. But witnessing the coal miners’ strike first-hand while studying abroad brought the issues of social justice to life – themes he has continued to focus on as a producer. Winner of six Tony Awards and 18-time nominee, Fred is best known for his work on Best Picture Oscar Nominees Mississippi Burning and Quiz Show. Read on to see how studying abroad impacted his career and why he believes every American student should study abroad.

IES Abroad: What led you to study abroad and why did you chose to go to London?

Fred Zollo: I had always planned to go to the London School of Economics (LSE) for undergrad but didn’t. The IES Abroad program was a perfect way for me to attend LSE (one of IES Abroad’s foreign partner universities at the time), so that is why I chose it. I eventually went to graduate school there. What was so wonderful about IES Abroad was that I ended up making lifelong friendships with members of the faculty that I had met during the spring of 1974. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time in London? 

FZ: It was a very tumultuous time in the United Kingdom. There was a coal miners’ strike and elections, which brought back Harold Wilson. We witnessed that first hand. Many of us were even active in the campaign. I spent some time in Wales where I observed the strike first-hand and went down in the mines with the striking miners. It was a remarkable period. We also went to Germany, traveling in the Black Forest, and to the University of Freiburg in Germany. It was a very tumultuous time not only in the U.K. but across Europe. The Vietnam War was finally coming to an end. It would take another year. In retrospect, it seemed like any other year, but it wasn’t. It was a profound time to be in Europe. I look back on it as one of the most important six months of my life.

IES Abroad: How did your experiences, classes, and the people you met while you were studying in London impact your interest in theater?

FZ: I did a little bit of theater while I was there. I worked on a project that was actually involved with Philip Windsor’s class at the LSE about George Bernard Shaw. I did a one-man show related to this called, Conversations with Myself. It was some random thoughts of Shaw shuffled together in a 25 minute presentation. When I think of it now, it is rather embarrassing. The great thing about IES Abroad and the LSE is that they welcomed us and embraced us. It was a very special and rare experience. Everyone got to do stuff that was unique to them. They encouraged things that we were interested in. I don’t know what it was like for those who followed us, but remembering back, we couldn’t have been more excited.

As far as an educational, cultural, and social experience, study abroad was extraordinary. I think we went to the theater at least three times a week, sometimes four. In those days, the West End was extraordinarily inexpensive. For two and a half pounds you could go to any of the West End theaters, and I was able to see some legendary performances. They were building the new National Theater, and it was Laurence Olivier’s last season. During this period – my spring 1974 term – Laurence Olivier performed in his last three plays. I saw all three. In fact, I saw the last performance of his final performance. It was a watershed time. It was a remarkable place for the theater. I was young, of course, and had an interest in the theater, and little did I know that I would go into it professionally.

IES Abroad: After graduating, how did you get your start in theater? Were there skills learned abroad that helped you in the early days?

FZ: My start in the theater is, of course, based on nepotism. My father was involved in theater and film production. We did some things together before he died. He passed away in 1977. The first thing I worked on on Broadway was a play by David Rabe, with Al Pacino, about the Vietnam War, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, which my father did just before he died. I had the good fortune to work on that with him. I have done a number of plays with Mr. Rabe since. I thought that it would be an experience in my modest life, but it turned out to be a career.

IES Abroad: A recurring theme in the plays and films that you have produced is equality and justice. Did your experiences while you were in London help shape your attitudes and ethics? If so, how?

FZ: I come from a family of anarchists, very much of the tradition of the early twentieth century and the immigration of Italians to the United States, many of whom were abused, mistreated, and, eventually, deported. The whole social justice movement, the anarchist movement, is highlighted, of course, by the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in 1927. This was the tradition that I come from: of looking at the world a little bit differently. Being in London, in England, and on the Continent in 1974, in particular, was very important because it is not often you are in a country that basically shuts down for a couple of months because of a miners’ strike. It brought to the fore all of the issues of social justice. I don’t remember the exact average pay of a miner in 1974 (40 or so pounds), but the notion that somebody would think someone else would do that incredibly dangerous job for a pittance in the 70s—we are not talking about the 1870s—put the world in a clear light.

Again, the Vietnam War was still going on, and those of us who were of age had to deal with the possibility of having to go there and the injustice of the war. Theater and film were a platform for social justice. To quote H.L. Mencken, the purpose of what we should do is “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” That is the intention, with some exceptions, for most of the work I’ve done – whether it is Angels in America or Pavlo Hummel, or all of the August Wilson plays that I have had the honor to be involved in, or films like Mississippi Burning, Quiz Show, Ghosts in Mississippi, and others – all attempt to do that, some with more success than others.

IES Abroad: You have won six Tony Awards, have been nominated for a Tony 18 times, and won many other awards for your work. What are you most proud of?

FZ: That I’m still here. I’ve been doing this for forty years. I am just happy that I’m still doing it and that we are able to continue to do films and plays about things that matter. When I started making movies, we had a company called Movies That Matter. We hoped that the movies we made would matter. So, when a movie like Mississippi Burning was on the cover of Time magazine in those days, it was very rare. It wasn’t an article about a movie star; it was an article about a film. The second Mississippi film was about the murder of Medgar Evers and the thirty-year hunt for and prosecution of his murderer, Byron De La Beckwith. Rick Bragg of the The New York Times described it as telling our history through celluloid. For better or worse, and some more successfully than others, the idea was to try to earn conscience with celluloid. That is what the greatest filmmakers have done, and that was always our hope. In terms of theater, I have been very blessed to do plays by people like David Rabe, August Wilson, David Mamet, Marsha Norman, Wendy Wasserstein, Tony Kushner, Christopher Hampton, Eric Bogosian, among others.

IES Abroad: Without revealing a ‘spoiler’, what projects are you engaged in or considering?

FZ: We have a whole list of things coming up. In terms of the theater, I’m redoing a play that I did with Mike Nichols 20-25 years ago about social justice in Chile called Death of a Maiden by the great Ariel Dorfman. We are also in the process of making a film about the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, which galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life?

FZ: I think that study abroad is the best thing for Americans. Again, I’m a pacifist. My parents were Italian, so I had been out of the United States several times. The most important thing we Americans can learn is that it is a big world out there. It is very important to see how we are perceived and how what we do in the world is perceived by others. You learn a lot about how we are perceived when you are in Britain, France, Germany, the former Soviet Union, or Asia. You begin to see that the world does not rotate around us. Just because we say it, doesn’t mean that it is true. It is a great learning lesson for Americans to understand different cultures, languages, literature, music, and history. All of it is very, very important. All of us were very fortunate to be taught the lesson that our place in the world may not be what we thought before we studied abroad. Plus, LSE would not be described as a conservative place. I was inspired by Bernard Shaw and others. The lesson that we all learned there tilted us a bit, and should have. I also remember Edward Mowatt (Founder of IES Abroad London and Center Director). We played cricket in his backyard in Kent. He was lovely, talented, giving, thoughtful, and supportive. He was an extraordinary influence on me and all of us. He welcomed us in a terrific way, and he ran interference for us with the very impressive people at the LSE, like Philip Windsor and Frederick Northedge. We couldn’t have been more fortunate.

IES Abroad: What advice would you give to a student who is considering studying abroad today?

FZ: Study abroad should be a requirement for American students. And if they can’t afford it, there should be scholarship funds. I’m talking about a national scholarship fund where the government helps them, and not a government loan that some bank is going to hound them for the next 20 years. It is an essential part of every American’s education, regardless of class, creed, or economic standing. You will have a much different discourse in this country if people actually spent six months or a year abroad in an important institution studying and thinking and looking at the world. Americans are more insular than they have ever been. If more young Americans were able to avail themselves of a program like IES Abroad, it is a life-changing thing, not just for them but for the country.

Growing up with a strong sense of her Haitian identity and deep belief in the value of education, Nedgine Paul seized as many opportunities as she could to learn languages, develop intercultural competencies, and understand different systems of education and associated socio-political, economic, and historical pressures. Studying on summer programs in Arles and Salamanca, she refined her French and Spanish language skills while solidifying for her the importance of community and context, lessons which would open doors and prove immensely useful as she launched her career in global education development. Coming full circle back to Haiti, Nedgine co-founded Anseye Pou Ayiti, a local non-governmental organization (NGO) that leverages collective action to train educational leaders in existing schools and bring about education equity throughout Haiti.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad in Arles and then again the following summer in Salamanca?

NP: The main factor was refining my language skills. My family instilled a sense that one cannot be close minded, and that means interacting with other cultures. I appreciate that IES Abroad gave me the opportunity to do a summer program. Spanish and French were two languages that I had wanted to keep up. I was looking high and low for a program that had substantial time in-country. Through IES Abroad, I had time on my own, with our groups, in classes and cultural immersion activities, and in a homestay. The programs were an all-inclusive, integrated experience that I appreciated.

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in both Arles and Salamanca?

NP: In Arles, I was excited to be living in a community that had an immigrant population. Actually, one of the courses was about the cultural migrations of France and the immigrant populations, and it was just so powerful to actually come into contact with families and individuals who had had that experience and could add the cultural lens to my linguistic learning. To be truly immersed in a language includes taking in so much of what makes the context unique and authentic, and so that was a highlight, for sure. In Salamanca, I loved the fact that we were really integrated into what it was like to be part of the university atmosphere. But more than that, IES Abroad did such a great job at integrating cultural exposure, just like in Arles. So, whether it was seeing a bullfight for the first time face-to-face, meeting with local students and families, visiting some really amazing cultural sites – that for sure was a highlight.

IES Abroad: After graduating from Yale, you worked for organizations committed to increasing access to education. Were there lessons learned from studying abroad that you were able to apply as you launched your career?

NP: Knowing languages opens doors. I can’t say that enough, and it is one of those lessons that my parents instilled in me. I am just so grateful that I had a window into that reality early on in my career. That was important because a lot of the work that I did was pulling at global education trends and being able to dig deep into materials that were not necessarily written in English all of the time – either French or Spanish. A lot of the cases I worked on were in the Americas region, so, knowing the language was such a benefit.

The other thing I would say was the power of context and community. I love that it wasn’t just sitting in a class learning a language for either IES Abroad experience but really exploring – how did Spanish evolve, and why is it a little different if you are in Salamanca as opposed to in Madrid as opposed to in Barcelona, for instance. And I loved that a lot of the courses integrated a social, cultural, and political lens on our discussions. One of the things these experiences have encouraged me to do as an educator is start first with context and communities. So often in education, we think we know the solution when actually we are so much closer to getting at real education equity if we are doing it alongside community members and hearing from people whose voices are often unheard.

IES Abroad: Already on an exciting path having worked for Achievement First, the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, and WorldTeach, why did you decide to pursue your graduate degree in International Education Policy from Harvard?

NP: One of the things that I was introduced to at Achievement First was that there was a whole group of people around the world who believed that someone’s zip code or place of birth did not have to determine their destiny as related to their capacity and academic success. That was thrilling for me because you have this incredibly difficult challenge in Haiti about how where you are born, in many cases, determines access to quality schooling and your pathway to professional careers. I sought to receive my Master’s degree because I wanted to understand what it would look like to take work of equal educational opportunity internationally, specifically back home. I enrolled in a Master’s program that was geared towards helping me understand the global trends across countries that looked very different from the U.S. and some very different from Haiti, so that I could really understand who is out there talking about not a silver bullet but the really difficult and messy job of fixing a broken school system. That is what the Master’s degree equipped me to do and think about, though the real life experience really helps you put the study into practice, which is what happened as I planned for and launched Anseye Pou Ayiti.

IES Abroad: What inspired you to focus your efforts on Haitian education and development?

NP: I am driven a lot by my faith and my belief in equity and social justice, so I don’t think it is by coincidence that my past led me to where it did including the IES Abroad experiences. It has set me up in ways that I couldn’t have charted myself. When I was quite young, I traveled back and forth to Haiti with my family and visited with peers who were just struggling to get access to quality schools because they knew education was powerful. And yet they didn’t have access to high schools in their communities, within rural communities in particular. That lit a fire in my belly from early on, during my teenage years, spurring me to study the history of education in Haiti as an undergraduate, and then the fact that I was able to be exposed to the world of global development as an adult further reinforced for me that social transformation is possible.

IES Abroad: When did you found Anseye Pou Ayiti and how did it materialize?

NP: I love that our co-founder is brought up in a lot of conversations, because he was there from day one. His name is Ivanley Noisette. He is Haitian American, has a human rights background by training, and he is currently in law school. He has been an integral part of our development. In terms of how we started, I use the phrase “slow and steady” because we took a very deliberate, inclusive approach to developing the organizational model several years before launching. I never would have thought that I would be a social entrepreneur. Yet I am forever grateful to be part of this movement for change, because I am surrounded and working alongside allies every day.

About five or six years ago, we came together – myself and Ivan and a few other people that we called a “brain trust” – because we wanted to sit and understand what exists in Haiti, what has existed in Haiti, and what is Haiti at its best. If we are really looking to redefine quality education via collective action and make it truly accessible at all, we asked: what has worked, what hasn’t, and where can we go with this. We took a few years to really think this through, going back and forth to Haiti, having a ton of conversations with community members, students, parents, and families. All of that culminated into a business plan, and subsequently a theory of the problem, theory of change documents, and all of the different nuts and bolts that go into making an organization tick. We were officially an organization as of late 2014. Our board was in place at that point for a few months, and then we officially launched all of our activities for Anseye Pou Ayiti’s first fellowship cohort in January 2015.

IES Abroad: What is your vision for Anseye Pou Ayiti?

NP: Anseye Pou Ayiti is a movement rooted in the belief that Haiti can be a global leader again through education equity. We believe that we can equip a powerful network of education leaders and allies who are redefining effective leadership based on collective action, who are proving that education equity is the foundation for real freedom and social justice. We know it is through collective action and education equity that we are going to show a Haiti that is for Haitians and by Haitians, and that is truly celebrating our culture, customs, and community. That is our big vision 10 to 20 years out. That is the “what.” And then there is the “how”: every year we recruit a cohort of teacher leaders locally. We are placing them in existing schools to fill gaps, or to have them continue as teachers if they are already there. We have sustained training over a two-year fellowship program that focuses actively on pedagogy and leadership. Last but not least, we are building a network of leaders who are operating in multiple sectors yet always as active advocates of education equity, whether they are psychologists or policymakers or long-term career teachers. That “how” is based on this big “what” vision that says we can redefine effective leadership here in Haiti by truly changing the game of education.

IES Abroad: What has been one of your/Anseye Pou Ayiti’s most satisfying accomplishments to date?

NP: I would say it was matriculating our first cohort and seeing them through what was an intensive summer program of training, because, to be honest, this is a big leap of faith for so many of us. Yes, there are allies in Haiti and abroad. Yes, there are partners. Yes, there are people saying, “Go! Go! Go! You can do this!” But until you have people who can sign up and say, “This is risky. This is the first cohort – but I am signing up, and I will be one of the strongest advocates Anseye Pou Ayiti has ever seen,” that inspires me to keep pushing forward, every time I see this group of 30 teacher leaders together, because they took a chance, and they are incredible trailblazers for this mission.

IES Abroad: Considering the difference in level of access to education that Anseye Pou Ayiti is striving for versus the access to international education that IES Abroad is striving for, do you feel that studying abroad is an important component of one’s education?

NP: Study abroad is a privilege. I can’t tell you how many people I meet who are very eager for a chance to study abroad only to come back stronger for their country. With that lens, it is critical and transformative, and I am excited for how study abroad can become more accessible and closer within reach, whether it’s through shorter term trips or mutual exchanges. It goes back to what my parents instilled in me – and they are correct, in my opinion – regarding the importance of being exposed to different peoples, cultures, and histories so we can become truly critical thinkers. While technology can and must play a role in modernizing education, I hope we never overlook the power of sitting face-to-face or in relationship with someone who is pushing on your frameworks or your existing mindsets, so that critical thinking and global citizenship can truly evolve. So yes to study abroad!

An architecture major at the University of Virginia, Diana Hage embarked on a semester in Vienna to view some of the most stunning architecture Europe had to offer. What she discovered was what she really wanted was a global career. She returned to the U.S., changed her major, and upon graduation, studied for and passed the Foreign Service Exam. Waiting to be posted, she took a job with IBM, which led to a 20+ year career there. Now CEO of RFID Global Solution, Diana is leading a fast-growing and dynamic enterprise software company that has designed and led some of the world’s largest radio frequency identification deployments for global aerospace, airline, and electronics manufacturers. In our interview, Diana shares how studying abroad helped her develop language and intercultural skills that she drew upon throughout her global career.

IES Abroad: As a student at the University of Virginia studying International Relations, how did you get interested in this area of study and why did you decide to study abroad in Vienna?

DH: When I enrolled at the University of Virginia, I was in the architecture program and was very interested in European art, design, and architecture. Because of this interest, I decided to spend time overseas and visit major European capitals – Rome, Paris, and others. Vienna was definitely on the list. Part of my family history is German. My grandparents were of German heritage and spoke German, and my dad’s native language was German. So, I had a family affinity for Germanic regions in Europe, and I was interested in architecture. The German-speaking programs that were available at the time were in Freiburg and Vienna. I opted for Vienna because of its deep history, music traditions, and architectural prominence.

IES Abroad: What were some of the most influential memories from your time in Vienna?

DH: Growing up, my parents traveled frequently. My father worked for IBM and often travelled to Europe. On occasion, I would go on trips with them, but this was my first time being abroad alone and for that length of a period. I truly took advantage of being in Europe. I studied and took an interest in my courses, but I also took advantage of the culture and events that were continuously being promoted by the Center, which most certainly included the Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera). I went and saw Leonard Bernstein for 10 cents! I also remember the beautiful Christmas markets. Throughout the semester, I lived in a dorm with other international students from all over the world – Japan, Turkey, and other parts of Europe – but I wasn’t meeting as many Austrians as I had wanted. I opted to stay over Christmas break because the Center staff had arranged for us to stay with local families in a mountain village, Kitzbühel, for the holidays. The family I stayed with made smoked trout for our Christmas meal, and I remember the incredible torch-light marches and all the townspeople parading through the snow-covered village streets. It was magical and gave me a profound interest in the Austrian alpine culture.

IES Abroad: What type of personal and professional impact did the experience have on you?

DH: Studying abroad made me even more aware of the very rich cultural heritage that precedes American society. It made me profoundly aware of the art and design that dates back thousands of years, and I had a heighted interest in history as a result. Additionally, I decided I wanted to go into a global career. When I returned, I changed my major to International Relations. While I was at IES Abroad, I studied international law, and took several foreign languages – German and Russian. I still liked architecture and design, but I decided I wanted to go into international business as it would give me the opportunity to travel and meet people from other cultures and interact with them.

IES Abroad: How did you find your way from being an International Relations major to the technology sector?

DH: I was interested in joining the State Department, so I took the Foreign Service exam in December before I graduated and I passed. I was waiting for an appointment to be posted to an embassy from the list of candidates. In the meantime, my father, who worked for IBM, suggested that I interview with IBM and get experience working for a company that has large global reach. I was hired and worked for IBM for four years before going back to business school. Then, I returned for a 15-year career, working in a variety of areas including corporate strategy for emerging businesses. I worked on market strategies for several new business units, including one focused on RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. It was the potential of the sector that was so exciting. It was viewed as the “next big thing” after the internet. The internet was viewed as technology for people; RFID as technology for assets and machinery to interact through a global interactive web. I was leading IBM’s global business unit for wireless sales and services for several years.

IES Abroad: What led you to your current position at RFID Global Solution?

DH: I was recruited out of IBM by a business partner, and I joined ODIN Technologies. The company had a very compelling vision for how this industry and technology could evolve. Shortly after I joined, we won a contract with Airbus. I was the only member of the management team who spoke German, and most of Airbus’ manufacturing took place in Germany. So, I was traveling back and forth to Europe, launching and establishing the relationship with our European customer. I supervised 4-5 engineers from the Budapest Technical Institute, and we conducted all our business in German. All of my prior background came into use in this small start-up company. I had built very successful relationships that I have maintained for years since then. I was then recruited as CEO to lead RFID Global Solution. The firm was looking for someone with both large company and small start-up experience, who also understood the airline industry. I happened to have those three skill sets. It was a very seamless fit.

IES Abroad: What are some of the most exciting and innovative projects RFID Global Solution is working on today?

DH: Our company offers an asset management solution to companies using wireless technologies. We primarily track assets in the technology industry (automated inventory management for data centers), healthcare industry (tracking hospitals’ mobile equipment), and the aerospace and oil & gas industries (tracking parts in the assembly line and work orders). Most of our clients are large Fortune 1000 companies who have a global, complex supply chain and are looking for ways to keep track of their global assets for compliance, productivity, and inventory management purposes. We are working on really innovative, global supply chain projects for the electronics and airline industries. We have grown very quickly, and have been on the Inc. 5000 list the last three years.

IES Abroad: What skills have been most important to successfully navigating your global career?

DH: Being in Vienna was the first time I was by myself for 4-5 months, and I had to learn how to navigate my surroundings and interactions with people from all over world. Everyone in my dorm was from a different country; it was incredibly interesting. In my career, I have been able to fit in easily in a variety of international settings. I appreciate and respect the value of different cultures, and I have a desire to learn enough about the culture so I can operate effectively socially and in business. Being reasonably fluent in a European language has certainly helped my career, as well as knowing how to incorporate culture into different business settings. For example, I led a number of large global teams while I was at IBM. Being conscious of how to interact and build personal rapport and being open to cultural differences has been essential in building relationships.

IES Abroad: You sit on the Board of RFID Professional Institute, an international education and certification group providing certifications for the RFID Industry. Tell us about your role as co-founder and why it was important to establish this non-profit organization.

DH: In the wireless industry, there are a number of certifications, for example, Cisco offers certifications in networking technology. Nothing comparable existed in the RFID industry, and there was a need to formalize the professionalization and certification process. We are setting the global standard and raising the visibility of the industry. We have brought together training organizations, marketing and PR firms, hardware companies, etc. I joined the board to network with individuals throughout the industry and help establish standards. It is a global board, and we have contributors from every geography. The first exams were launched in 2014 and are now offered several times a year in U.S. and Europe. They are also available in Latin America and South America.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for STEM students, or any student interested in technology, who is on the fence about studying abroad during undergrad? 

DH: STEM students should find opportunities over winter break or summer session for travel overseas. It is incredibly important. They should work on collaborative research teams with participants from all over the world. U.S. colleges are intentionally bringing students to the U.S. for these types of programs. It is important to create opportunities for shorter overseas stints so that all people have the opportunity to see the world from other perspectives.

As an undergraduate at Morehouse College, Dr. Donald Hopkins received one of four Charles E. Merrill Jr Scholarships to study abroad in 1960-61, and was the only recipient who went to Vienna. Since before the age of six, Donald knew he wanted to be a doctor, but it was on a visit to Egypt during that year abroad – when he saw flies around people’s eyes as they suffered from an infection causing blindness – that he knew he wanted to focus on tropical diseases. After graduating from University of Chicago Medical School, Dr. Hopkins went on to serve at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then joined The Carter Center in 1987 to lead their efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease. Under his leadership, the number of cases worldwide has been reduced from 3.5 million in 1986 to just 22 in 2015, and it is slated to become only the second human disease in history to be eradicated, after smallpox. Now semi-retired, Dr. Hopkins takes a look back at how studying abroad inspired his desire to serve underserved populations and impacted his career in international public health.

IES Abroad: As a student at Morehouse College, what led you to study abroad in Vienna?

Dr. Hopkins: Charles E. Merrill Jr was on the board of trustees at Morehouse College at the time, and he was awarding four scholarships to Morehouse students and two to Spelman students each year. I was selected for one of them. I elected to go to Vienna because I was pre-med and my biology professor said German would be most helpful to me in medical school. Another Merrill Scholar attended Vienna the year before me and had a really good experience. My family would never have been able to afford a trip like that. I am deeply grateful to Charles E. Merrill Jr because there is no way that I could buy back that experience in my life later on. It was a great, great year.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from studying abroad?

DR: Because of my interest in Africa, I attended a Friends (Quaker) House lecture, and I met a young Austrian graduate student who was studying African music and who had recently come back from hitchhiking all over Africa for over a year. He had a jazz band in Vienna, and I hung out with him and his friends. We both played the clarinet, and so we became lifelong friends. Gerhard Kubik is now a distinguished music ethnologist at the University of Vienna. Another lifelong German friend I met during the boat going over to Europe. He had been in Canada visiting his grandmother and was on his way back to Germany. After my year in Vienna, I visited him near Hannover. From Hannover, I went to Berlin with him on a moped in August 1961. While we were in Berlin, I stayed with him and his grandmother, and we watched the nightly news together. I noticed that the lead story was always about how many refugees had crossed over into West Berlin that day. I left Berlin and headed to Copenhagen, and it was there that I read a newspaper and realized that just after I left Berlin the East Germans had begun building the Berlin Wall. My parents were worried because I told them I was going to Berlin, but a week later, they did get my postcard from Copenhagen and knew I was alright.

IES Abroad: What any significant challenges you faced during study abroad?

DR: For me, there really weren’t any daunting challenges. Learning German was difficult, but the benefit of studying German was that I learned a lot about the English language that I didn’t know previously. You should also know that I came to Morehouse on an early admission scholarship that was also courtesy of Charles E. Merrill Jr. I arrived at Morehouse after my 10^th grade year, still 15 years old at the time and all of 87 ½ pounds. I had not studied English a lot by that time. So, in studying German, I learned a lot about precision in the English language, and that became very important to me in my professional career. Even now, I’m a fanatic about the usage of pronouns because if you aren’t careful, people won’t know which proper noun to which you are referring. In German, you have three cases, so you could be very specific that way. And that is just one example. I also studied Russian a little bit while I was there.

IES Abroad: Did you have an 'ah ha' moment during study abroad that changed the way you think?

DR: During that study abroad year, four of us got together and went during the break by train to Istanbul and through Greece and then by ship to Egypt. When we were in Egypt, I began noticing all the flies around people’s eyes. I didn’t know what it was, but I noticed they had pathology in their eyes – a disease called trachoma. I was struck by that, and that experience made me decide there in Egypt in February of 1961 that I wanted to study tropical diseases. I was fortunate in that when I got to the University of Chicago Medical School, I got to work with Dr. Lewert who was researching tropical diseases. We had elective time for research, which was unique in medical schools at that time. He helped me write and present my first scientific paper. I knew from before the age of six that I wanted to be a doctor, but that experience in Egypt really set me on my way and helped me focus on my specialty.

IES Abroad: Can you point to any specific things you learned or experienced in Vienna that contributed to the skills you have drawn upon throughout your career in public health?

DR: The main thing that Vienna gave me was a burning desire to serve underserved people. I was one of 10 children in my family. My mother was a seamstress and cleaned other people’s houses. My father was a carpenter. We didn’t have a lot of money. We didn’t consider ourselves poor, but money was a constraint. I felt so much empathy for the people I saw in Egypt. At Morehouse, before and after Vienna, I was buried in science and math classes, so I didn’t have time to study the humanities and I had no time to study history. In Vienna, I could revel in all of that. I remember walking past the Habsburg crypts in Vienna. That experience helped me when I later on wrote about the history of smallpox. It gave me the context that those archdukes and duchesses and Emperor Joseph I all died of smallpox. I did research at the Austrian National Library, and I found out in a daily gazette that two weeks prior to his illness Emperor Joseph I had visited a hospital. That was a classic way that people contracted the disease. Smallpox devastated the Habsburg household under Maria Theresa.

IES Abroad: After you first started leading the efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease in 1980, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in 21 countries in 1986. Now, it is down to 22 cases worldwide in 2015. What are the next steps, and are you optimistic the disease will be eradicated in your lifetime?

DR: I started working on it at the CDC in 1980, and then in 1986, we were able to get President Carter and The Carter Center interested. I came over to The Carter Center in 1987. I definitely expect that Guinea worm disease will be eradicated soon. In 2014, we had 126 cases remaining. In 2015, there were 22 cases. In December 2015 and January 2016, we had no cases worldwide. We may have a few cases this year, or we may have no cases. When I started there were cases in Africa, Pakistan, Yemen, and India. The few recent cases have all been in Africa. 

IES Abroad: You have improved the lives of millions of people through your work to eradicate Guinea worm disease, smallpox, and river blindness. When you reflect back on your career, what are you most proud of?

DR: Number one is the reduction of the needless suffering of human beings and people who, through no fault of their own, are born into circumstances where they face challenges that are preventable. Secondly, my work with students and encouraging and inspiring them to take up public health as a career, including international public health. I am gratified although my parents and teachers are gone. I want to recognize their faith, devotion, and help they all provided to me over the course of my career to be able to accomplish what I have done.

IES Abroad: You recently retired as Vice President for Health Programs at The Carter Center, but have remained active as their Special Advisor for Guinea Worm Eradication. What other activities are you pursuing in retirement?

DR: I’m going to finish the Guinea Worm Eradication Campaign. And then I will write a book about the story that talks about the lessons we learned from this life work so that students in the future can have the benefit of this experience even though they didn’t live it.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for pre-med students today who are considering study abroad but worried about fitting it into their busy academic curriculum?

DR: Students should leap at the opportunity to study abroad. As a physician, most people can learn the technical side of medicine. Your ability to understand other people as human beings will be greatly enhanced by spending a year abroad at that point in your life and career. I also advise them to read as much as they can before they go, relevant to what they are studying abroad. If you are going to Vienna, be sure to see the movie, Woman in Gold, which tells an important historical story. I would caution students today not to be distracted by their devices, social media, or email that might keep one engaged in American culture. The great part of study abroad is being able to immerse yourself in another culture, and you should take every advantage to do that while you are abroad.

As an international relations major at Claremont McKenna College, Shaw Wagener studied abroad as a sophomore in Freiburg in 1979. Traveling throughout East and West Europe, the experience instilled in him a sense of flexibility and a sensitivity to other cultures that he has continued to use in his career as an international investor at Capital Group, where he now serves as Portfolio Manager and Chairman of Capital Group International, Inc. In our interview, Shaw reflects on his study abroad experience and why he supports study abroad scholarships for students today.

IES Abroad: As a student at Claremont McKenna College, what led you to study abroad in Freiburg?

Shaw Wagener: CMC had just started an international relations major, which had a language requirement and a study abroad requirement. The German program at CMC was small and intimate, so I chose German beginning my freshman year. I also did a summer course at University of Colorado, as I’m originally from Boulder. I studied abroad my second year of college. Today, I don’t get to use my German. I wish I did!

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time in Freiburg?

SW: Two immediately come to mind. One is all of the traveling around we did. During those days, the Berlin Wall still existed, so we had the division between East and West Europe. The easiest and cheapest way to travel was by bus, which we did quite frequently. My friends and I went to places like Prague and Budapest. Before traveling, we’d exchange money on the black market, and then we’d be like kings and queens. We’d eat wonderfully because it was so inexpensive. I remember one time being in Budapest and eating at the best restaurant there. Here we were, basically backpackers – we had exchanged our money at a really attractive rate, and we’re eating Chateaubriand.

On the academic side, we took a course on political party development in Germany. For the last seminar, we went to an inn in the Black Forest. It was owned by Freiburg University, I believe, so it was more like a dormitory. For that period, we each had to represent a political party. Mine was the Communist Party. I had to describe how the Party had developed and evolved and what their platform was. We are doing this in German, of course. I was totally panicked. At that time, the Green Party, Die Grünen, had literally just begun in Germany, and the Communist Party reflected more of what Die Grünen wanted for social policy. The Green Party then took on the environmental aspect, which the Communist Party didn’t do. The Communist Party had representation in the Parliament at that time because they had enough votes on their platform.

Die Grünen would organize protests in various cities, primarily in Bonn against nuclear power. They would have trains that would collect people. It would start in Basel, and then make its way to Freiburg, up the Rhine, and then to Bonn. Other trains would come in from different directions. The train would stop in the outskirts of Bonn, and you’d have to get off and march into town. In the middle of Bonn, there would be a rally. Again, my friends and I would use this at a great way to travel. We’d get a free ride up to Bonn. It was a lot of fun because everyone on the train was there to celebrate this protest. It was just like you’d think…people playing guitar. It was crazy!

IES Abroad: What were the most formative classes you took while studying abroad? 

SW: My father was an architect, so I’d grown up around building. I took an art history class, which was mostly about architectural design in Germany. We spent a lot of time in Freiburg at the münster looking at how the church was designed and built. It was a beautiful building. Freiburg was relatively unscathed by the bombing in WWII. “Relatively” is a factual statement because they did have some bombing. The Allies were careful about not bombing old parts of German cities because they wanted to retain the history, with some obvious exceptions, like Dresden. Because of that, there was some interesting architecture that existed over three or four hundred years in Freiburg. Our teacher was a young guy, probably a post graduate student from the University. He was really passionate about it, so it was a “good deal” to go around with him. It was formative since it pulled together much of what I had learned growing up with a much more traditional view of architecture that they have in Germany.

IES Abroad: What inspired you to become an international investor? Did your experience in Freiburg influence your career path?

SW: I’ve been with Capital Group for 35 years. I came here directly from CMC. At that time, investment houses were recruiting from all the same top-ranked MBA programs. Our management in the 1970s looked around and said, “Why are we recruiting from these programs?” Like nearly all senior investment people at that time, they all had undergraduate, mostly liberal arts degrees, and they were successful. “We’d have more variety if we didn’t recruit from the same business programs as our competitors,” they said. So, they started a program in 1981 to recruit from undergraduate programs, when I graduated from CMC. I was in the first class of a program, which we still do today. It was brilliantly designed. Instead of immediately locking someone into a role, they rotated new hires to six different locations in two years. In fact, we’ve added a seventh: a rotation at a non-profit. We continue to pay the new hire, but they work for a non-profit organization. This gives a young person a broad sense of what we do and what the world offers. At the end of two and a half, or three years, the individual has a better sense of what they want to do and whether they fit with us. It is a very robust career starter. So, I did that. The reason that I came here with my international relations degree is that we had just opened up a London office, a Geneva office, and were about to open a Tokyo office. This was pretty unique for an investment management firm. And I have been interested in the stock market since I was about ten years old.  Capital Group was a natural fit for me.

IES Abroad: The investment team at Capital Group represents thirty nationalities with accompanying language abilities. How has this spectrum of cultures influenced the work environment and success of Capital Group?

SW: We recruit internationally now. We look at people who have studied abroad or are looking to move to another country, and we appreciate that they are willing to take a calculated chance…that they are well prepared to take a chance AND they do it! Sensitivity to different cultures is really important. We feel that we have one culture at Capital that is independent of geographical region. In our culture, we like initiative; we like collaboration; we like integrity. These qualities are omnipresent regardless of where you come from. Below that, obviously, how you execute can be different in Singapore or Hong Kong vs Indianapolis or San Antonio. You want to be consistent with the overriding cultural characteristics. How you execute them in a particular location can be very different. It is a challenge, particularly in a service industry, to have enduring characteristics of culture that are important to your organization, yet at the same time, be flexible and sensitive to what is happening in a local culture. We are true to our associates. We are true to our clients. It is a complex thing to really do it! It is an interesting challenge, and study abroad helps because you then automatically see that they are just people. You can identify integrity when you see it, even if it is expressed differently than the way you’d see it in the United States.   

IES Abroad: What skills have been most important to successfully navigating your global career?

SW: Curiosity is the most important skill set. It is amazing to me how many people are just not that curious about how others are organized or how others go about doing things. In the investment business, you have to be really curious because it is all about trying to understand why people do things in a particular way, and is it durable and will it lead to a numerical thing, which is profits, generally. There is a heavy dose of willingness to be curious, taking calculated risks, and being flexible enough to change if things move in the wrong way.

IES Abroad: You and your wife have established the Wagener Family Global Scholars Fund at Claremont McKenna College for students at your alma mater to study abroad, with a preference for students enrolling in an IES Abroad program. What led you to direct your philanthropy to establish this scholarship fund?

SW: CMC is a bit of a microcosm of U.S. higher education today. When I was in school, there was definitely a European focus. This is natural when you consider that American political history has such a basis in European thought and philosophy. People are naturally inclined to look at what is going on in Europe, in particular the U.K. When I became re-engaged with CMC after living for a long time in Singapore, my passion was to say we have to break this Anglo-Saxon bridge. It is a very safe and natural bridge between English-speaking countries and ourselves. I felt pretty strongly that for CMC, I wanted them to turn more towards Asia. They have done this, not just because of me but also because of the direction CMC leadership wanted to take. When it came time then to think about helping the school, and given the experience I had had with IES Abroad and how important I think study abroad is, we started to design a program. Going back to the issue of curiosity and risk taking, we thought, let’s find these kids who are willing to step outside of their comfort zone to speak another language, and let’s support that. We’ll see how this develops. It is brand new. The concept behind it, considering the breadth of program offerings and that the expansion of IES Abroad has been so significant, it is much easier to say, “This is going to work!” We are excited about it!

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life today?

SW: It is scary when you get on that plane to study abroad. You learn that laughing together with your classmates and doing crazy things, like eating Chateaubriand and going to a protest in Bonn, and as hard as it was to take classes in German, laughing about it is important. This whole idea of having fun is an important factor. Not getting overwhelmed by circumstances and being able to laugh at yourself comes home in spades when you study abroad. You have to have fun in everything you do. Even if it is difficult, you have to find some element of fun.  

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students who are considering studying or interning abroad?

SW: Do it! I can’t imagine any downside. If the hurdle is getting course credit, take classes in the summer or an extra heavy load during a semester. If the hurdle is cost, look for support like what is provided by IES Abroad alumni to current students. There are all sorts of reasons to say “no.” Just do it. The payoff will be huge!

With deep passions for both music and spirituality, Rabbi Laurie Matzkin took a step toward her vision of becoming a classical flutist while she studied abroad in Vienna. Music history and chamber music filled her weeks, and historic works of art framed her experience. Above all, she found herself on a path of self-discovery, exploring the dichotomies of what it means to be a contemporary Jew in Europe with German roots. Emerging as a confident traveler, with high regard for planning and purpose, Laurie underwent a deeply personal, ideological journey that ultimately led her to join the rabbinate. Today, Rabbi Matzkin works with all ages and stages of the Jewish community across California, harnessing her creativity through educational programming centered on music, the arts, and the Jewish tradition. In our interview, Rabbi Matzkin discusses her time in Vienna and gives us insight into her own personal journey as a religious leader.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad and what drew you to IES Abroad’s program in Vienna?

Laurie Matzkin: Many of my friends in the Jewish Studies program were planning to study abroad in Israel. But the general consensus in the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University was that the faculty – the studio teachers, conductors, etc. – are irreplaceable, even for a semester, and studying abroad would not be possible for a music major. That was true until Indiana University started its partnership with IES Abroad. I can picture where I was standing in the music school practice building. It must have been January or February of ’99. There was a yellow flyer posted near a pay phone: “Study in Vienna! Study music in a castle! Be there for yourself!” I noticed the flyer, walked past it, came back to look again, and immediately called my parents. “Looks interesting, sounds great, sign up!” they said. I have always been very travel oriented. Many of my family members have traveled throughout the generations; my grandparents spent extensive time in Europe and China. And I remember, at age seven, I flew by myself for two weeks to visit my parents’ friends in Chicago. The idea of traveling abroad felt really exciting, especially in Classical Vienna. I share my birthday with Mozart, I regularly visited Beethoven’s house, stopped by Mahler’s summer cottage on a Eurorail train trip.

IES Abroad: Had you ever traveled abroad or been to Europe before studying in Vienna?

LM: Studying abroad was the first time I had been to Europe. My mom’s side of the family were German Jews and my dad’s side were Russian and Lithuanian Jews. My father’s family had come to the U.S. well before World War II, but my mom’s side shortly before the Holocaust. My maternal grandparents, the exotic travelers, would never go to a German-speaking country. They would meet our remaining German relatives in a French resort town near the border. I thought a lot about the implications when I decided to live in Vienna for a semester. My family has German roots, on the one hand, but I had just taken a course on the Holocaust and was painfully connected to the atrocities throughout Europe. My mind (and ears) focused on 1830-1910, but I was very aware of the 1910-1950 period of Jewish European history. This theme of experiencing Europe through the lenses both as a classical music student and as a contemporary Jew informed everything about my experience – where to travel, what to visit, how to connect with local Jewish communities, how to learn from different pieces of music or art.

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in Vienna as an undergraduate student?

LM: I was incredibly privileged to be assigned to study flute with Werner Tripp, the former principal flutist in the Vienna Philharmonic. Each week, I would take the bus or electric rail out to the suburb where he lived. I would walk past the Hundertwasserhaus (KunstHaus Wien) to get to his flat. I fell in love with Hundertwasser’s art and philosophy. What an amazing contrast: I would be going to this staunch, traditional Viennese musician to take flute lessons from him at his home, and on the way, I would be interacting with this very modern and creative philosopher through his artistic legacy. There also happened to be a personal family connection that we didn’t realize ahead of time. It turned out that family friends, a young Jewish couple studying on a Fulbright and their baby (now a teenager!), lived in that same neighborhood, and they would host me two or three times a month for dinner in their home. All these treasures gave me a real sense of independence and understanding of the cultural elements and the history of the city.

IES Abroad: Were there any courses that you found particularly influential?

LM: Dr. Ottersbruck, who taught Austrian Art and Architecture, put the values of experiential education into action. Our only (and ongoing) homework assignment was to create an art journal. Wherever we traveled, we had to create an entry noting something artistic that we encountered – a painting in a museum, a sculpture, church windows, public art, whatever. For each entry, we had to take a picture, buy a postcard, or make a sketch, then write our reaction and why it struck us. I have the most incredible, intimate, unique entries. I went to 11 countries. I traveled every weekend. I have pictures and notes of what I liked in Vienna, in Budapest, in Strasbourg, in Prague – literally from across the continent. This assignment helped me capture my travels in an aesthetic sense, forcing me to look more intimately at what I was seeing. Because our work still needed to be graded, all of our work would be shipped on a cargo carrier back to the U.S. after the term. We thought my art journal was lost in transit, but miraculously nine months later, the mailman knocked on my parents’ door, white in the face, and my mom immediately knew what it was and started crying! My art journal is like a locket. That is how I feel about the intimacy of it. The assignment was so brilliant.

IES Abroad: Did the experience shape the way you think in a profound way today?

LM: I really valued getting out of my comfort zone, and the encouragement to travel on weekends. These were times for students to really get out there. There was a trip with a longer break coinciding with Yom Kippur. A few friends went to Paris, where I got lost in the subway looking for a synagogue, and then a few days later carried on to hike the Swiss Alps with another group. Being a newbie at backpacking, I had my trendy city clothes with me. I didn’t really understand about carrying all of that stuff for two very different settings. These two gorgeous places, as well as learning how to plan ahead, was very valuable. I have been back to Switzerland, in fact, on a recent 3-day layover to Israel, and was thrilled to retrace my hiking footprints!

Also, there was experiencing Europe as a Jew. This was a very visceral feeling. There was construction on my street in Vienna toward the beginning of the trip, jackhammering very early in the mornings. I had visited a couple concentration camps – Dachau, where members of my family were killed, Mauthausen, and Terezin (Theresienstadt). I remember one dream where my mind interpreted the jackhammering on the street outside as a mass killing. The Holocaust gets further and further away, and can sometimes feel just like another statistic, but I had this feeling of being so connected. I felt I was defying the Jewish experience by being there. It’s emotional, but I feel committed to both sides of this experience.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to become a rabbi?

LM: I have always had these two sides – creativity and music, and spirituality and Judaism. While studying abroad, I was getting involved in the Jewish community in Vienna as much as possible. Even before Vienna, I had changed my degree so that I had a slightly smaller expectation on my practice hours as a flutist, and with that time I added a second Jewish studies course each semester. I didn’t want the isolation of 10-hour practice days. I wanted a more social life. Then, when I cut back, I realized I was not going to make it in the orchestra. My early dreams were to play flute in a Broadway pit orchestra or record on the Disney sound stage. But by the time I finished college, and after having conversations with leaders in the Jewish community, I knew that if I wanted to make a difference, I needed to go all the way and become a rabbi. By my second year working for Hillel in Philadelphia, I was ready to make that leap. I decided to come back to California and start rabbinical school, a 6-year graduate level education. My values have always been clear, and the skills of a rabbi match my natural strengths. I am using music toward a spiritual end, bringing generations together. As a synagogue education director for the past 7 years, I have been leading our school, mentoring teachers, giving sermons and classes, and bringing different innovative models through the arts, music, and more.

IES Abroad: What aspect of your work to-date are you most proud of?

LM: My proudest innovations in the Religious School is the Chugim program, which means “elective” in Hebrew, but is also connected to the word “celebrate.” The chugim are hands-on, experiential, arts-based projects led by artists and creative professionals from both within and beyond our local Jewish community. Kids get to choose what they are interested in – band, orchestra, yoga, art, drama, etc. There is a lot of art – comic book drawing, graphic style, watercolor, and more. The vision, going back to my art journal in Vienna, is to explore your own passion, choose what you want to do, and experience your own interests through a Jewish lens. We learn from and through real artists and real people, not just abstract ideas. I feel that IES shares this educational philosophy.

IES Abroad: What do you consider the most important aspect of your work today as a Rabbi and religious leader in the U.S.?

LM: I want to inspire Jewish identity exploration for children and adults, towards the goal of self-discovery and spiritual depth; to make a positive impact in the greater community and bring connections of justice and holiness to all of our relationships; and through those approaches bring healing, peace, and harmony to our world.

IES Abroad: What words of wisdom do you have for today’s getting ready to embark upon their international education?

LM: If you haven’t chosen where to study yet, really consider going to a non-English-speaking destination. If you have already chosen, push yourself to be in as different of a culture as you can where you feel there is personal meaning for you within that culture. There is a lot of complicated history around the world – repression, genocide, war, treatment of women and minorities. I think it is really the only way to be responsible – it is imperative that we take the chance to look honestly at our host culture and learn about people on the ground and their experience. For example, I went on a trip to El Salvador with rabbinical students. Helping build healthier farms and focusing on the repression of the campesinos exposed me to the harsh experiences and after-effects of civil war. To just look at the beautiful sites and not see the impact on the people is irresponsible. Study abroad helps us be better agents of responsible dialogue as we grow into adults.

For Allison Boersma, studying abroad at the start of the U.S. airstrikes in Libya in the spring of 1986 brought unexpected challenges. Despite being spit on in the Metro, Allison took her experiences abroad in stride, developing a global perspective, an appreciation for different viewpoints, and an ability to find joy in unexpected situations. After graduation, Allison started a career as a public accountant as a means to finance her love of travel, but she soon discovered a love for finance as well. Allison soon transitioned to Kraft Foods where she worked in finance for 18 years managing an international team. Today, Allison is CFO and COO at Riddell Inc., a prominent sports equipment company, where she oversees 1,200 people including many in the corporation’s facilities in Mexico. Read on to learn how Allison’s experience studying abroad in Paris not only fostered a love of travel but also helped her develop a strategic mindset she uses every day.

IES Abroad: Growing up, you had traveled abroad with your family several times. How was study abroad different than your previous international travels?

Allison Boersma: Learning how to manage on your own and how to do little things that you take for granted at home is very different when you are living abroad versus on vacation. Figuring out where to do your laundry, how to use public transportation, how to get your haircut, how to eat without breaking the bank are all things that you don’t necessarily need to do when you are visiting for a short period.  When you are living somewhere else, every day of survival is an accomplishment that you can be proud of. 

IES Abroad: How did your time in Paris shape the way you think in a profound way?

AB: Living in Paris spring of 1986, when the U.S. began airstrikes against Libya, drove home hard for me how much anti-American sentiment there was in the world at that time. I was spit on in the Metro, and I found myself having to defend myself and my country in a way I’d never done. When I called home, my parents were only remotely aware of the impact the bombing had had around the world. It really changed my perspective.

Also, my host mother was always talking about how much she disliked the British. She mentioned it so often that I finally just asked her why. She replied, “Because they killed Joan of Arc.” It was in that singular moment that I realized how much the events in European history – no matter how many hundreds of years ago they happened – still impacted people in their daily lives. I was fascinated by how much they discussed and argued politics around the dinner table and on the street. We all learned and grew so much from hearing different points of view. This skill was instrumental to me when I was managing an international team for Kraft Foods.

IES Abroad: How did you change the most during your time in Paris?

AB: Just getting simple activities accomplished on a daily basis took more time. Language, money, and cultural biases were all hurdles I had to learn to overcome in fairly short order. From getting from point A to point B on time using public transportation to learning how to be a part of a discussion with many varying points of view using a second language, my time in Paris taught me how to think on my feet and see the global perspective. I return to France at least once a year and share that sense of adventure and wanderlust with my friends and family!

IES Abroad: Were there skills learned abroad that have benefited you professionally?

AB: I think that the most important thing that I learned while studying abroad was to find joy in the unexpected…to quickly adapt to whatever unexpected situation arises and enjoy figuring out how to get through it and have fun while doing so. In my career, starting as an accountant, many things seemed black and white, but the real world is not. I have succeeded in my career by not only being comfortable in the “grey areas” but by actually finding joy in them – in trying to maneuver through difficult situations and finding the best outcome. I realize that it is not always about the end, but what is often more important is enjoying the journey. Life is a journey, not a destination.    

IES Abroad: How did you get started in your career and what led you to join Kraft Foods at the outset?

AB: I would love to say that being an accountant was a passion and a calling, but, honestly, it was not.  Getting a job was important as a means to an end. Finding a source of income that could support me and my love for travel was hugely important to me. One of the best parts of my first job in Public Accounting was that after KILLING yourself all winter during “busy season” you were able to take five weeks off at a time in the summer to travel! It was amazing. When I decided to move on from Public Accounting, I was looking for an international company that would pay for my MBA at Kellogg Graduate School of Business. Going to Kraft was a great decision that provided me with a great education and unbelievable career opportunities. 

IES Abroad: After 18 years in Finance at Kraft Foods, you joined Riddell and have since assumed the role of CFO and COO. What do you find most exciting about working for the sports equipment company?

AB: I love working for a smaller company and being able to have an impact on the people at the company on a daily basis. In my role, I am responsible for over 1,200 people including many in our plants in Mexico. I spend a lot of time managing performance at all levels, which involves a fair amount of travel (mostly in North America), and I still love problem solving. Working with colleagues to design, manufacture, and sell the best available protective equipment, to help players at all levels to play the sport that they love is very motivating to me. It is always fun to talk to people about football, as everyone has a favorite team and an opinion about the safety of the sport. I truly believe that my experiences studying abroad helped me to think more broadly about the world that I live in and helped me develop the problem solving skills that have guided me through my career. Too bad (American) football is not played in more countries! 

IES Abroad: What are some of your professional accomplishments you are most proud of?

AB: I feel so lucky, that after almost 30 (gasp) years in the workforce, I love my job. I can come in everyday and try to make a positive contribution. I am proud to be able to interact with wonderful, dedicated people who have a passion for making the sport they love safer. Clearly, I am proud to be the Finance and Operations leader for the company, but I am also proud of the opportunities I have had to take a broad perspective and contribute to the growth of whatever business I am focused on. I am also proud to be on the Board of a wonderful little not-for-profit in Oberlin, Ohio, called Common Ground that does amazing work in its community.

Having grown up around the world experiencing many different cultures, languages, and systems of education, Kathleen Kervin Diamond didn’t have any clear plans other than to master the French language when she studied abroad. But after a year in Nantes, what she emerged with was a profound experience that would lay the foundation for a fulfilling career as founder and owner of a full-service language company. Not only did she improve her French, but she found a mentor in IES Abroad’s first female Center Director Mme Suzanne Hugues. The authority, kindness, and quiet confidence of Mme Hugues would serve as a role model for Kathleen throughout her career—from the launch of her company Language Learning Enterprises, Inc. (LLE®) in 1979 to leading its growth over the next 30 years into a multimillion dollar corporation. In our interview, Kathleen reflects on the lasting impact of her relationship with Mme Hugues and why she created an endowed scholarship to support IES Abroad students studying foreign languages.

IES Abroad: You grew up around the world. Tell us a little about your background before studying abroad in Nantes.

Kathleen Kervin Diamond: I am the daughter of a commercial aviation pioneer. My father worked in management for Pan Am from 1946 until its collapse in December 1991. As a young child, I lived in seven different countries before I was seven and attended just about as many different schools: Early Years Foundation Stage in the British systems of Jamaica and Trinidad; Educación Primaria in the Spanish systems of Uruguay and Venezuela; Secondary Education in the British system of Barbados and in the U.S. system in Florida and the Panama Canal Zone; and finally, Higher Education in the U.S. system at the large and public University of Florida. By the time I arrived in Nantes for my junior year abroad, I had already experienced a multilingual, multicultural, rich, and interesting student life. I had been taught by straight-backed English school mistresses, gentle yet firm Catholic nuns from various Orders, and an array of American teachers, who were the most puzzling of all in their sometimes futile quest for discipline in the classroom.

IES Abroad: How was IES Abroad Nantes Center Director Mme Hugues different than other educators you had encountered?

KKD: Nothing had prepared me for the quiet, elegant, confident presence of Mme Suzanne Hugues. The first time I saw her, she was aboard the MS Aurelia, sailing with us IES Abroad students from New York to Le Havre. I was immediately calmed by her smile, even as I was suffering mal de mer. We spent seven days crossing the Atlantic, and upon arrival at port, she expertly led us through the disembarkation process, on through customs, and then off to a lunch of escargots et salade verte, accompanied by the best bread I’d ever had and a pichet of white wine. Unconsciously, I became her student, not of French history or grammar, but of leadership. She sat at her desk at L’Institut with authority, but also with kindness; the door to her office was open. I could only imagine the tasks that she was so smoothly executing every day: interacting with the IES Abroad Board, scheduling staff, negotiating housing for IES Abroad students, providing texts and materials for our study, planning for us to attend classes at the various Facultés (according to our many different majors), ensuring the warmth and comfort of our classrooms, and so much more. What I did know was that I was in the hands of a brilliant CEO.

IES Abroad: In what ways did Mme Hugues instill in you an entrepreneurial spirit?

KKD: As the year progressed, Mme Hugues surprised me by arranging a way for me to earn some pocket money by tutoring a colleague of hers in English once a week. While I certainly enjoyed the tutoring, I did not realize that although M. Bolloré was my first, he was not to be my last, student/client. Did either Mme Hugues or I understand the power of that gesture of hers? Could we have comprehended that she had pointed me toward an unforeseen future as educator and entrepreneur? I don’t know. I easily became the former once I earned my Masters in 16^th Century French Literature, but the latter was much more difficult to achieve. Women entrepreneurs were few and far between in 1979.

IES Abroad: What kind of a role model was Mme Hugues as the first female Center Director of an IES Abroad Center?

KKD: Mme Hugues was ahead of her time. When I was a student in Nantes, I did not know that she was the first female IES Abroad Center Director. Her directorship was fortunate for IES Abroad and very splendid for me. Several years after founding my company, I leased space in an office building in downtown Washington, D.C., and the first thing I wanted was to have a desk behind which I would sit and be in charge, just like Mme Hugues. It was then that I realized what a profound influence she had had upon me. She was the role model that took me through thirty years of business leadership from founding, growing, and ultimately selling my company, LLE. My deep regret is that my mentor did not live long enough for me to come back to her with my story and my gratefulness to her for what she gave me that year in Nantes 1966-67.

IES Abroad: In what ways did study abroad give you the confidence and skills to start your own company, Language Learning Enterprises, Inc. (LLE)?

KKD: Going to France to study abroad was not supposed to lead me to business ownership. I wanted to master this beautiful, challenging language called French. I suppose that I hoped to teach; but truthfully, at 20, I did not have a life plan that even included an advanced degree let alone starting a business. And yet, as I look back, I see that there were seeds so obviously planted: I grew comfortable in making decisions (good and bad), I became confident in my ability to think critically, to analyze a situation and design a solution (navigating the crazy Nantes network of bus routes, for example), and I learned that people are what make the world go round (French students are as curious, ambitious and daring as we Americans), and trust is what makes it all work each and every time.

IES Abroad: You grew LLE into a dynamic, multimillion dollar corporation serving a wide range of clients in both the private and public sectors and across the United States and worldwide. Looking back, what were some of your greatest accomplishments?

KKD: Where do I begin? Winning the first Federal contract from the U.S. Department of State and realizing this is for real. Attaining that first million dollar in revenue mark and hearing my beloved father say, “Well, Duchess, I guess you made a good decision majoring in French after all.” Celebrating with my employees as they bought their first homes had their first, second child and appreciating that what I had created supported so many others. Being a pioneer in over-the-telephone interpreting by figuring out that hospitals need immediate access to interpreters and that offering a conference call in real time is a very good thing to do; then hiring IT experts to design a solution in over 100 languages. Receiving the recognition of my peers on the world stage for the Femmes chefs d’entreprises mondiales (FCEM) Lifetime Achievement award. Raising two remarkable sons who are astonishing in their own ways and who chose to create lives of their own while encouraging me to build mine. I am also proud of having summited two 14ers (mountains over 14,000 ft. high) in the Rocky Mountains in my fifties.

IES Abroad: You haven't slowed down since you sold LLE in 2009. What are you doing today?

KKD: I am fortunate that my professional life has been devoted to the language services industry; first as a teacher, then as an entrepreneur, and now, as an advocate and consultant. I have just completed a six-year term as a Founding Commissioner of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI). Where there was no national certification program for interpreters in the medical field in the U.S. in 2009, now there are two programs and over 3500 certified interpreters across the country. I serve currently on the Board of Directors of the Association of Language Companies (ALC) and on the executive team of ASTM F43 for Language Services and Products. Standards for Translation, Interpreting, Language Instruction, and Testing are all published and available for the general public to use. I advocate tirelessly for language access for all, and I am heartened to see translators and interpreters working in our courts, hospitals, and schools in increasing numbers. Lastly, I am engaged as a consultant by companies who seek my expertise in integrating technology with human resources in order to deliver on-demand language services (translation, interpreting, instruction, testing) to their clients. 

IES Abroad: You established The Kathleen Kervin Diamond Endowed Scholarship fund that will provide future IES Abroad students with the opportunity to study foreign languages. Why is it important for students to study foreign languages?

KKD: My parents gave me the gift of bilingualism by their decision to send me to local schools as a child growing up in the Caribbean and South and Central America. I did not study a foreign language until I was presented with French at Codrington School for Girls in Barbados. I found the acquisition of this third language difficult, frustrating, and exasperating, but it was also intriguing to the point where I just wanted to learn more. Perhaps, it was the avenue it opened for me in my brain. By giving me yet another way of thinking, I had more intellectual resources at my disposal. I recognized and liked this, even as a twelve year old girl. Consequently, I pursued French as a major while enjoying my ability to speak Spanish “like a native,” in addition to English, of course. My life has been enriched by my multilingual ability, and I want to give the opportunity of foreign language study to students today so that they may experience the wonder and satisfaction of communicating in a language other than the one they speak at home.

IES Abroad: Having recently returned to Nantes for the 50th anniversary celebration, in what ways has the city of Nantes changed, and in what ways has it remained the same?

KKD: I like to say, “France never disappoints,” because as I have come and gone to France over the past several decades, I am always satisfied in body and soul by my experience. I left Nantes in the summer of 1967 and returned briefly in 1971 to find so much loss; both Mme Hugues and Mme Laporte (my French mère) were deceased. So, I was not sure what to expect in 2015. To my delight, the city greeted me with modernity and revitalized splendor, while still maintaining its secret corners where a young, American girl could still discover art, architecture, and crêperies.

IES Abroad Durham, 1985-86

One of the most impressive peacemaking practitioners of this generation, Paul Walker has worked throughout his career to eliminate nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and to promote peace worldwide through diplomacy, science, advocacy, and education. As Director of Environmental Security and Sustainability at Green Cross International (founded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1992), and in his role as head of its U.S. office in Washington, DC, Paul and his staff have helped facilitate the safe elimination of more than 65,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, dozens of nuclear submarines, and hundreds of nuclear warheads and launch systems over the past 20 years. In 2013, Paul was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, a prestigious international award often referred to as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize.’ Read on to learn how studying abroad in Vienna helped Paul develop a global perspective and hone skills he continues to draw upon in his work today.

IES Abroad: How did you decide to study abroad in Vienna?

Paul Walker: I was an American Field Service (AFS) exchange student in 1963 from Waltham High School in Massachusetts. I spent a summer in Germany with a lovely German family. When I went off to college in 1964, I was anxious to find a private college that had a junior year abroad program because I had gotten the bug to travel and go abroad. I got into Harvard and Holy Cross. I chose Holy Cross. My German was quite good. The options back in 1966-67 for a German-speaking program were either Vienna or Freiburg. I chose Vienna because it was a larger city, offered more opportunity, and allowed me to take courses at the IES Abroad Center and at the University of Vienna.

IES Abroad: In what ways did you change most during and as a result of study abroad in Vienna?

PW: Back in the 1960s, people didn’t know much about the rest of the world, or even much beyond their own city and state in the U.S. Spending a year in Vienna really woke me up to the fact that we live in a multicultural, multilingual world and that there exist other languages and cultures. I was a music student in grammar school and high school—a solo clarinetist and saxophone player—so I really loved Vienna because of the music and theater. I wound up going to the National Opera almost every single night Monday through Friday because you could get standing room for about 16 cents at the time. I also realized after coming back from Vienna that so many of the problems we were facing back then—the Cold War, civil rights, and other issues—needed not just national solutions but global solutions. It was the recognition that globalization was inevitable and that we were not alone in the U.S.

IES Abroad: What are some of the challenges you remember during study abroad?

PW: It is always a challenge for young students to adjust to a foreign language and a foreign culture, but remember that this was the mid-1960s and the post WWII period for those in Central Europe who had personally experienced the war… Being in Vienna, living in limited living circumstances with Viennese landladies, was a bit of a challenge—from carrying your five very heavy keys to get yourself in and out of your apartment to taking a bath in the kitchen to sharing the toilet in the hall. Adjusting to European university life was also a challenge. I took some of my courses at the University of Vienna. Finally, I was one of the few students who purchased a small VW Bug while I was there. That gave me the means to take off on weekends and drive everywhere in Europe. So, part of the challenge for me was to balance the desire to travel with being a good student and getting the grades I needed. I drove to Turkey, Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond.

IES Abroad: Did you have an ‘ah ha’ moment during study abroad that critically changed your thinking?

PW: In between semesters in January, three of us drove to Greece and Turkey, and it didn’t occur to us that we’d be driving through the mountains of Yugoslavia in the dead of winter. We wound up in the middle of a blizzard on a mountain road in pitch black conditions and subzero temperatures, and there we ran out of gas. It was a life-threatening situation. We had connected with another VW car driven by a Frenchman, and he was in the same situation. We turned the cars around by hand, and drove them off the mountain pass we were on that had not been plowed. We rolled them down the mountain, one behind the other, until we got to a small village. The family welcomed us in, warmed us up, gave us sausage and goat cheese, and put us to bed. In the morning, they arranged for the Yugoslav army to come and examine the cars and get them repaired, and they gave us explicit directions about how to get to Greece and Turkey because none of us could read the Serbo-Croatian signs. They really saved our lives. We could have died on the mountain pass in the blizzard, and they wouldn’t have found us until spring. As a result of this dangerous incident, I realized that we are all just human beings. We all have to understand each other’s cultures and be helpful to those in other cultures. We didn’t have any common language, and somehow we communicated via hand signals. It was a moving experience, and frightening at the time. It was a life lesson in risk management and a realization that we live in a global society, no matter if you speak the same language or not.

IES Abroad: What skills that you learned in Vienna do you still use in your career today?

PW: Today, I work with many international delegations from other countries, NGOs, and private interests on a variety of issues. Primarily, the cities I work in annually are Vienna, Geneva, and The Hague. What studying abroad in Vienna really taught me was how to work comfortably in an international, multilateral environment where you’ve got translation in at least six languages, a variety of cultures and styles, and assumptions about civil society, transparency, and involvement. Vienna gave me lots of practice at a young age to deal with a multilingual, multicultural environment. Vienna also taught me that we often have very different goals, educational systems, and cultures. To get to an end goal, such as the Iran Deal that we’ve just signed with the Iranians and five other countries, you really have to have a lot of dialogue, be a good listener, and be open to compromise in order to find a win-win solution and consensus. And that’s what we have to do all the time in our multilateral experience in nuclear and chemical weapons and in East-West relations. When you talk to diplomats, they always say that if you are trying to find someone who would make a good ambassador to one of these organizations, one of the top criteria is having a multilateral experience in which you are used to all the give and take.

IES Abroad: What professional achievements are you most proud of?

PW: From a global perspective, I’m very proud of the work we’ve done over the past 20 years in abolishing a whole class of weapons of mass destruction—chemical weapons, in particular. We are at 90% destruction, which means that about 65,000 metric tons have been destroyed in eight countries. We have another 7,000 metric tons to go. We have destroyed well over 10 million munitions in Russia, the U.S., Albania, Libya, Syria, Iraq, India, and North Korea, and we have cleaned up buried chemical weapons primarily in China (which were Japanese weapons) as well as in the U.S. and Russia. We have strengthened the Chemical Weapons Convention. Just recently, Angola announced that they would be the 192^nd country (out of 196) to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, making it the most comprehensive disarmament treaty in the world

I’m also proud of the work we’ve done over the past 40 years reducing nuclear weapons worldwide. We’re not anywhere close to the abolition of nuclear weapons, but from the 60,000 nuclear weapons we had at the height of the Cold War, we’re now down to about 16,000 weapons. It is largely due to the Americans and Russians recognizing that they had to cut back enormously on their programs, and then most of the world has had to join in the comprehensive efforts. Finally, based on the work of myself and many others across the globe, I’m proud of raising public awareness around global sustainability—the importance of preserving this fragile earth as well as implications on public health for everybody living on this planet.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for today’s college student about study abroad?

PW: Just do it! If you have the chance, take the risk and do it. You have to be a little brave, but maybe less so today than in the 1960s when we had no internet or other means of communication. Open yourself up to new experiences and new people. Travel as much as you can. Try to learn the language and culture as best you can in an act of assimilation. Don’t just act like an American studying abroad. Reflect from time to time on how globalized the world has become – that we’re all very interdependent and that, in fact, it is to everyone’s benefit to try to understand each other across linguistic, cultural, and economic barriers. You’ll realize how important this is not only to your studies but also to your long-term career.