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.

Coming from a small town of 3,500 people in Oregon, Susan Smith Kuczmarski was thrilled to experience a life rich with different languages, people, cultures, and traditions in Vienna. In addition to living with a local family, Susan did everything she could to become an “insider” in Vienna. This fascination with culture has permeated her career and inspired her training as a cultural anthropologist. Today, Susan focuses her research and writing on values-based leadership and family bonding and has authored five (soon to be six) books on these subjects. In addition to consulting and public speaking, Susan teaches an executive leadership course at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Read on to find out how the lessons and values learned abroad continue to impact Susan’s work today.

IES Abroad: As a student at Colorado College, why did you choose to study abroad in Vienna?

Susan Smith Kuczmarski: I was attracted to the field of international relations when I arrived at Colorado College in 1969. My advisor at Colorado College was Fred Sondermann. He had a huge personal and academic impact on me. As a 13-year-old, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1939. Fred was a scholar as well as a great teacher. He co-authored a well-known textbook, Theory and Practice of International Relations. He was legendary for being a great raconteur. He possessed a seemingly inexhaustible supply of funny and interesting stories, and he loved telling jokes. I had taken a foreign policy class from Fred as well as German 101. The IES Abroad Vienna program let students approach language study via their own fluency point, and this ideally met my needs. I could read but not speak German well, and the Vienna program challenged and changed all this. I was also interested in traveling in Western Europe, Eastern European Soviet bloc countries, and Russia. Vienna had an ideal central European geographic location for these travel adventures. It seemed like a perfect fit. It spoke to me on all these levels.

IES Abroad: What are one or two influential memories from your year in Vienna?

SSK: I stayed with an older couple, Frau and Herr Strachwitz, who had fled Hungary in the mid-1950s before the Soviet occupation of Budapest. Most students in the Vienna program had this type of living arrangement (with a hausfrau and hausherr), but mine was an exacting personal connection. Dina von Strachwitz, who frequently gave me blank journals as a gift, foreshadowing my writing interest, wrote the travel articles for a Vienna newspaper—and Mr. Strachwitz had a day job but spent evenings clipping news about art and artists, his true love, in their library. In the morning, after zwei semmel mit aprikosenmarmelad (two rolls with apricot jam), I spoke several hours with Frau Strachwitz in German, which improved my speaking abilities immeasurably. And to this day, I love art, love reading about artists and their work, and have invested in it when possible.

Vienna was a completely different and rich learning experience, filled with new occurrences, palaces, people, cultures, music, theater, geographies, galleries, and languages. I had grown up in a small town (Stayton, aka, the Green Bean capital of the world!) of 3,500 people in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Vienna offered an unending cultural panorama, and I soaked it up every day.

IES Abroad: How did studying in Vienna influence your decision to train as a cultural anthropologist and your career today?

SSK: Looking back, the year in Vienna had a huge impact on my professional passion, career path, creativity, and global perspective. The theme of understanding “culture” permeates my professional career. I currently teach “How Values and Norms Impact Culture and Leadership” in the executive course, “Creating and Leading a Culture of Innovation," at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, I have done extensive research on how leadership skills are learned. I teach seminars to corporate, non-profit, and education groups on the characteristics of successful leadership. My leadership training courses champion six leadership qualities: humility, transparency, compassion, inclusiveness, collaboration, and values-based decisiveness. I encourage students to nurture a leader’s skill set, which to me includes serving others, knowing self, finding common ground, letting creativity reign, and rooting for others.  

There are many links to Vienna. My year abroad was marked by travel and exploration, including trips to the Balkan countries, Turkey, and most every Western and Eastern European country, with the exception of Albania, where no visas were allowed because of the U.S. aggression in Vietnam, (so we were told). Sponsored by IES Abroad, and led by the knowledgeable Dr. Balakian, I took side trips to Russia, Poland, East Berlin, and Finland – all affording first-hand cultural observation and interaction with their respective people, cultural patterns, and differences. In my current teaching at Kellogg, I encourage students to define culture as “how we do things in a particular place.” Culture is a human product. It is in our heads and our hearts. It arises from shared knowledge. It is self-reinforcing and difficult to change. It is a powerful, invisible force.

IES Abroad: You have authored five award-winning books on values-based leadership and family bonding. What inspired your interest in these two seemingly different areas of expertise?

SSK: There is a French word, portmanteau. It is a large trunk or suitcase, typically made of stiff leather and opening into two equal parts. It means that two separable aspects or qualities exist, best pictured side-by-side by opening the suitcase. Applied to my two different areas of expertise, I have a professional portmanteau composed of values-based leadership and family bonding. Unexpectedly, they fit together! There are a number of similarities. First, my research uncovered someone called the “caretaker” or champion of the soul of the family. The family soul is the “sticky glue” or that feeling of energy that bonds a group. A caretaker connects members, brings everyone closer, steps in during change and conflict, manages traditions and holiday events, and serves as a role model. Companies too have senior leaders, who serve as caretakers in remarkably similar ways. Second, I define the contemporary family more broadly. It is an all-inclusive group of evolving, loving connections, not just family members, but in-laws, special friends, co-workers, mentors, maybe a soul friend, and let’s not forget our beloved pets; similarly, companies have broadened their focus to include connections to the community, planet, and less-fortunate. And third, both families and companies require strengtheners or vitamins to fortify their group or organization. My research discovered six secrets to strengthen groups—humor, emotion, acceptance, renewal, togetherness, and struggle.

I have written five books, two on leadership and three on families. (I am currently working on a sixth book, “Praise: The Power of Recognition.”) Writing has always been a way for me to translate observations into learning, and my year abroad started this intellectual “habit”! As to what inspired these two professional themes, I had the good fortune of living with a close, complex family in Vienna. Also, when I traveled in Eastern Europe, I often stayed with a family instead of at a hostel or hotel. There was a two-way (i.e. host and visitor) excitement and celebratory tone to this arrangement. And while each family served a meal and simple accommodations, the value was in seeing how they lived and being included in their daily family life for a short while. As to leadership, I have always observed groups and how they are led – and Vienna and my travel during the year offered a constant data source. Finally, my interest in comparative and international education was most certainly nurtured in Vienna.

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

SSK: If you look at the topics covered below in my leadership courses, you can see how my study abroad year in Vienna influenced my teaching, both content and style. The same core values of the IES Abroad program—awareness, self-discovery, community, culture, and service—are constant in my life, then and now, and include:

• Awareness—Who am I? What are my needs, strengths and weaknesses, and professional passions?
• Self-discovery—What are my personal values? How do I build a set of group values? What is my unique leadership style?

• Community—As leader, how do I build an effective team and create a sense of community?
• Culture—How do I facilitate cultural fit, retention and loyalty at work?
• Serving Others—How do I inspire others to bring out their core strengths and talents?

I believe that everyone has an "inner leader" if they want to discover and develop it. In my teaching, I hope to empower individuals and their teams to do great work and build leadership styles that build a sense of trust and community.

IES Abroad: You interact with many of today’s college students on a regular basis. What advice do you have for students considering studying abroad?

SSK: When I teach college students I spend time on how we get our values and what shapes them. There are four sources: family and childhood experiences, relationships with significant individuals, major life changes and learning experiences, and conflict and self-discovery. The IES Abroad experience feeds into each of these factors or sources—and experiences abroad have the potential to be life changing.

Sign-up for a study adventure in another country! Don’t hesitate. It will broaden your horizons. It will expose you to diversity. It will give you a global perspective. It will teach you many lessons about life, struggle, service, time, and deep listening. You will grow to be a more observant, transparent, inclusive, and giving person. Vienna spoke to me profoundly and at every level! Oh, I haven’t mentioned that I fell in love with four things that I find appealing today—its coffee houses, pastry shops, cafés, and wine cellars. “Prosit” (Cheers)!

David Narrow became a biomedical engineer because he wanted to put his creativity and technical skills toward making a difference in people’s lives. Studying abroad in Sydney forced him to meet new people, made him more perceptive, and taught him empathy – all essential management skills he applies every day as CEO of Sonavex and MonoMano Cycling. After graduating from University of Rochester, earning his Masters from Johns Hopkins University, and honing his business skills as a healthcare consultant, he launched not one but two medical device companies that are on their way to improving millions of lives. Looking back on his time in Sydney, David admits that engineers aren’t always naturally-inclined to put themselves out there and connect with other people. That’s why he feels studying abroad is so important for STEM students who might have technical prowess but need to develop their interpersonal skills in order to connect to collaborators to help realize and maximize the impact of their work.

IES Abroad: As a student majoring in biomedical engineering, why did you choose to study abroad and why Sydney?

DN: One of the things I really want to commend IES Abroad for is making study abroad a possibility for me – something that was not feasible via many other programs. Older students had described how great and rewarding their experiences were, but as a biomedical engineering student, it was more challenging for me to satisfy my academic requirements for my major to stay on track. By pursuing the opportunity of study abroad earlier – I participated sophomore year with a couple of friends – we were able to get internal approvals at the University of Rochester, and IES Abroad was incredibly helpful in ensuring that we could meet the course requirements in Australia. Sydney was always particularly attractive to me because I’m a surfer, and I had always dreamt of surfing in Sydney. So, that was a big draw, and IES Abroad made this dream reality. This is something I am really grateful for and was unique to IES Abroad. The three friends that I went with were the only other engineering students in the entire cohort.

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in Sydney?

DN: It really helped give a very worldly perspective on not only cultural perspectives but things like politics and career. For people who, at first glance, seemed to be just like any of my friends back home – who spoke the same language, enjoyed the same extracurricular activities (surfing) – there were a lot of subtle differences. Becoming close with a few of my Australian friends really changed my outlook on the world and made me more perceptive. I was really impressed with the outgoing culture and how welcoming everyone was that I met in such a short period of time and how lasting those friendships were. That is one of the things I look back on, just how quickly I was able to establish incredible friendships with Australians. We started playing touch “footie,” which is the slang for rugby, and it was me and my two friends from Rochester and everyone else was Australian. One of my Australian friends, who I am still in great touch with, said, “Listen, you guys are big. You should come play in my real rugby league.” I had never played real rugby before. We were welcomed in immediately, even though we were definitely slowing the game down. I was surprised at how willingly these folks accepted us. It was in a matter of weeks I could integrate into the local culture and not feel like I was an outsider or seen as just another American coming to Australia to party.

IES Abroad: You speak Spanish, and you also did a fellowship in Berlin. How has your foreign language and international education background informed your work as an engineer, consultant, and now as a CEO? 

DN: These international experiences have helped enormously, especially now in my current role where I have had to manage and recruit people. Everyone that we have brought in has been someone we’ve had to bring in on a visa. Understanding both what it feels like to be in a country that’s not home – for empathy and for making sure the transition is smooth is incredibly important – but also my curiosity for learning about other people’s backgrounds really stems from my travel. That has made what would have been a pretty tough transition for a lot of these folks, I think, much easier and much more enjoyable on a personal level, and it deepens the relationships, which helps the work itself.

IES Abroad: How did you get involved with Sonavex?

DN: Sort of serendipitously, to be honest. I met a surgeon while I was in graduate school for biomedical engineering. Together, we came up with a device concept to meet one of the major needs that he would experience on a regular basis in his field of surgery. While we were at Johns Hopkins, we came up with an early prototype, which was by no means sufficient for getting the data we ultimately needed, but enough to show that this could work. A long story short, we had to keep the project going as a virtual company where we would get a little bit of grant money here and there and hire post-docs as needed to do some algorithm development before we really knew this was going to be a viable technology and company. Then, ultimately, we got to a point of technical de-risking, while I was in Boston doing consulting work. It was time to pursue this opportunity properly. The surgeon wasn’t excited about the prospect of quitting his job, so I stepped up to do it. I took a leap of faith and went several months without any pay, which admittedly was a bit stressful. Ultimately, we got to a point where we had more financial stability and were able to run the company properly.

IES Abroad: What was your path to becoming CEO, particularly at such a young age?

DN: We originally thought, “Yeah, I’m only 25. No one is going to trust me as a CEO,” because medical device companies typically require several millions of dollars to get off the ground. Objectively, I would see that a lot of investors would want to trust somebody who has done this a handful of times and probably has gray hair/no hair and has been around the block. Then, we realized nobody was knocking at our door to run our company, so by default, I stepped up. Fortunately, after successes like Facebook, investors are warming up to the idea of putting their faith into young entrepreneurs – so, it didn’t end up being as big of a barrier as I thought. It’s pretty astonishing to think back to just a year and a half ago to when I left my job in consulting. There was no office space, no money in the company. It was a half-baked prototype that we weren’t really sure was going to work, and we have been able to put the pieces together so far. There is still a long ways to go. Medical technologies typically have a long development cycle, regulatory cycle, and then ultimately, adoption cycle. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done, but we have put in the pieces to establish that base and the infrastructure so that we will succeed.

IES Abroad: In addition to leading Sonavex, you also co-founded and are the CEO of MonoMano Cycling. Tell us about your work on this project and your vision for the company?

DN: My first exposure to entrepreneurship was through a project at University of Rochester as an undergrad with some other engineering students. We worked on this project with the goal of enabling stroke survivors to return to the sport of cycling. The project was not particularly high-tech, but we realized that the impact was much more enormous than we would have ever assumed on the surface. Beyond just getting you exercise and improving the quality of life for patients, we found that rehab specialists saw this as a tool for significantly improving patients’ time to recovery after a stroke. Then, we saw its applicability for amputees and people with traumatic brain injury or multiple sclerosis. We saw that there was so much potential and wanted to ensure that people who wanted to get their hands on a trike could. We were originally thinking about putting a recipe of how to design and manufacture one online but then realized that most customers who would want the trike wouldn’t have the ability or the resources to do the handy work themselves. So, we said, “Alright, we’re going to get a little bit of money and build some initial product and see if it starts selling.”

Back when I had a little more bandwidth, I was doing online sales and marketing, and that was very effective in finding customers. Now, people find us. If they are interested in the trike, we ship it off to them and ensure there is somebody nearby who can assemble it for them. This is more of an altruistic venture. The reason I do it is not because I see large financial returns but rather the impact that most of our riders see and communicate in their incredible testimonials. Eventually, I want to build it into a greater operation and expand its reach to more people who could benefit. It has not yet received the same amount of support and resources as Sonavex; hopefully, that will change in the coming years.

IES Abroad: What has been one of your most satisfying accomplishments to date?

DN: I think my work with MonoMano Cycling was really the most satisfying. The reason why I went into biomedical engineering, and why I think a lot of people go into the field, is because the goal is to use your quantitative skills and creativity to improve the quality of life for people. It’s not so frequent that you see the impact of your work directly. Yeah, it was awesome to make a product. Yeah, it was awesome to have a first customer and test it out and see if people really liked it. But when you get those emails… I had this one guy send me an email. He is a veteran. He had his arm amputated, and he sent me this picture of him riding his trike in Florida after a 22-mile ride. He sent me a picture after his ride and he looked happy as can be. Those moments are really satisfying. I can’t even tell you the last time I’ve ridden a bike for 22 miles, let alone someone who has had to overcome such physical adversities. Those are really the accomplishments that I think are most impactful. What I look forward to is making a similar type of impact with Sonavex, but due to the nature of FDA-regulated technologies, we still have a little bit of time ahead before we will be able to realize that goal.

IES Abroad: Why is it particularly important for engineering students to study abroad?

DN: Engineers typically have the somewhat true stereotype of not being the most outgoing, social, and extroverted type. One of the things that I’ve realized is that you can be the best technical performer in the world, but you are severely limited by your ability to make a big impact if you are not able to connect with the right people. One of the things that study abroad forces you to do is to really get out of your shell and out of your comfort zone. It is good boot camp training for your career, but it is done in a more fun and less demanding and stressful manner. You end up building some of those skills that you may not pay much attention to on your own. Study abroad ensures that not only are you continuing your technical education, but you are really meeting new people and forcing yourself to really get out there and tell people what you do, what you’re good at, what you like to do, and potentially meet some people who you will ultimately work with. That just sets a good precedent for how, in my opinion, you end up having the most success in your career. You can be the best technical talent but if nobody knows about you, that match may not be made. The fact that study abroad sets that precedent is really helpful, especially for science and technical, engineering-focused individuals.

From a quaint upbringing in Alabama to becoming a U.S. Ambassador, Adrienne S. O’Neal left U.S. soil for the first time when she studied abroad in Madrid, aiming to develop her Spanish language skills. What she discovered was the start of a life-long wanderlust and commitment to study foreign languages that would lead her to spend 33 years as a career diplomat. From postings in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the United States, she has helped former communist and socialist nations transition to democracy, worked to curb drug trafficking in various regions, served as Counsel General in Rio de Janeiro and Deputy Chief of Mission in Lisbon, and much more – all leading up to her appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Cabo Verde in 2011. Having recently retired from the Foreign Service, Ambassador O’Neal shares her story and how her experience with IES Abroad “changed her life.”

IES Abroad: As a student at Spelman College, how did you hear about IES Abroad and what motivated you to study abroad in Madrid?

Ambassador O’Neal: In the 1970s, study abroad was much less pursued than it is today. But when I decided to major in Spanish Language and Literature, I knew I needed to have a study abroad experience. I went to the Spanish Department Chair and asked her how I might achieve this. She very nonchalantly opened her drawer and pulled out an IES Abroad brochure. Spelman must have already had a close relationship with IES Abroad. Madrid was the best option for me, since at that time I had been interested in and studied primarily Spanish Literature.   

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in Madrid?

AO: I discovered the relevance of European history. I traveled to ancient and historic places, and became aware of a context I could not have discovered from Atlanta, or from Alabama where I grew up. I remember imagining when I visited Avila what it must have been like to live inside walls for protection. Another place that made a deep impression on me was the Alhambra Palace in Granada. The influence of Islamic Culture in Europe was something that I previously had no knowledge about. So, this was something that compelled me to study more. Many things I learned about while in Madrid and throughout my travels in Spain and Europe when I was a student remained pertinent to my activities and attitudes throughout my career as a diplomat. My time in Madrid was a very poignant political moment in Spain. The imminent death of the dictator spawned a palpable political unrest. It was an experience I could not have imagined and it helped me understand my country’s relative political stability. There were a lot of youth who protested calling for changes. The situation was quite politically volatile. I was a wide-eyed observer.

IES Abroad: How did you change the most during your time in Madrid? Did the experience shape your thinking in a profound way?

AO: Studying abroad made me strikingly aware of how much I didn’t know. It sparked in me a realization that the context in which I had grown up and lived so far was a very small one. There was so much more to be discovered, so many new possibilities of how I would or could lead my life. It was an opening to the world. This wasn’t the time of globalization, not like it is today, but I was able to perceive that my mentality was very provincial. Going abroad made me realize how much more there was to experience. I became particularly intrigued with the idea of speaking other languages and to understand them – even if I couldn’t speak them. The importance of speaking and understanding a local language was very forcefully revealed to me during my time in Madrid.

IES Abroad: You were enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Spanish and Portuguese Literature when you decided to change course and pursue a career in the U.S. Foreign Service. What led you to that decision?

AO: In my Ph.D. program, I was introduced to Portuguese. It was a requirement of the program that encompassed the literature of both languages, the Diaspora communities, and so forth. I was finding myself in the carrels of the library a lot. I was always doing something that was quiet and isolated. I felt very strongly that I wanted to use what I was doing to do something more than teach and conduct research. I had a strong urge to explore more. So, when the opportunity came to join the Foreign Service, I was compelled to pursue it.  I was close to finishing my Ph.D., and my parents and friends urged me to hold off and finish first. They were probably right. My only regret is that I had not been further along by then, but I have no regrets whatsoever for taking the leap when I did.    

IES Abroad: Were there lessons learned as a student in Madrid that helped you in the early days of your career as a diplomat?

AO: To sum it up, it was the discovery of active listening. It was the way that taking an interest in another’s point of view helps you to understand what is going on around you, and also helps you understand yourself. The value of perceiving the underlying motive, the reasons why people do what they do – this was something I took with me into my diplomatic career. Not all of my colleagues had learned that lesson, and I think they were less effective because of it. I learned that it is critically important to value another’s point of view and how that can lead to agreement and/or consensus.

IES Abroad: Leading up to your ambassadorial appointment, what was the most fulfilling assignment, project, or issue you worked on?

AO: All of my assignments were overwhelmingly fulfilling, but there are two that stand out. The first is my experience working with NGOs in Brazil. (1998-2001) Anthropologists say that NGOs came into being in Brazil. The U.S. Consulate worked with many of them, and one of the projects entailed bringing computers to the favelas, or slums. This opened a whole new world to impoverished children. Of course, the younger they were, the more adept they were. We were providing technology they would have otherwise have experienced much later. We believed this enhancement to their education directly addressed the culture of poverty in a positive way. My time in Mozambique (1996-98), a nation in Southern Africa, was another standout. We did a lot of work to promote women’s issues and women’s rights there. This was very well received by local women who, despite cultural and political repression demonstrated amazing intellect, entrepreneurial savvy and creativity. We took every opportunity to stand up on their behalf when they were not comfortable doing so on their own. For example, we selected women to undertake professional exchanges in the U.S. We organized visits allowing them to make professional contacts and gather expertise in their areas of interest. We understood that U.S. interlocutors could also learn from them—something that gave them an added source of pride. When they returned and shared their experiences with others, it elevated their social and professional status. We also provided grants to women’s organizations to allow them to participate more strongly in the political and economic landscape of the country.

IES Abroad: Just prior to your ambassadorial appointment, you were a Diplomat-in-Residence at the University of Michigan. What were your responsibilities – did you teach?

AO: At the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy of the University of Michigan, a former U.S. Ambassador, my own Ambassador from my time in Brazil, was already there lecturing.  So, in addition to informal lecturing opportunities at Ohio State and University of Ohio, I focused instead on visiting as many colleges and universities I could to talk to students about pursuing careers in Foreign Affairs. I focused primarily on Foreign and Civil Service opportunities. A lot of students believed the selection process was too daunting to even try. I encouraged them to take the free exam, the first step in the process, to get a sense of what it entailed. They were surprised to learn that they could take the exam once a year at no cost while they made up their minds. Many students and local professionals who passed the test attended preparatory sessions with me to orient them to the remaining stages of the process. I will admit that selection into the Foreign Service is a lengthy and often slow process, but if one really wants to serve their country in this way, it is well worth the effort. Nearly half are not successful on the first try, so persistence can be rewarding. For a recent college graduate, the experience of the process is valuable in itself. The Department of State would like to have more good recruits, especially from the Midwest – the majority comes from East and West Coasts. I hoped that my efforts helped to awaken the idea of a career in Foreign Affairs to those who might not have considered it otherwise.

IES Abroad: What did it mean to you to become the U.S. Ambassador to Cabo Verde?

AO: I was very well positioned at that time for the opportunity. I had fluent Portuguese and a lot of experience in Lusophone countries. Even so, I was extremely honored and I recognized the privilege imparted to me with the position. In many other countries it is almost a given that diplomats who perform well become Ambassadors. But with 30% of U.S. Ambassadorships allotted to political appointments, this is not so for American diplomats. As the primary representative of my country in Cabo Verde, I took the responsibility seriously and I was pleased to represent American women and African Americans in the ranks of the diplomatic corps.

IES Abroad: What do you want to convey to Americans about Cabo Verdeans and vice versa?

AO: The Embassy offices and myself always tried to make Americans more aware of Cabo Verde. There are more Cabo Verdeans in the U.S. from the Diaspora than there are in the islands. Cabo Verde is a marvelous tourist destination. So, we actively supported American tourism. The Embassy strongly promoted U.S. investment in Cabo Verde and vice-versa. We recognized that big export companies looking for high revenues would have little interest in a place so small. But we envisioned opportunities for small businesses and experimental technology more likely. Of course, the language barrier could be a tremendous obstacle. We encouraged Cabo Verdeans to learn English and looked for ways to take advantage of Portuguese language teaching in the U.S. Higher education posed another opportunity for cross-cultural experiences. One of the best ways to be introduced to American culture and values is the experience of higher education in the U.S. The Embassy conducted educational advising with the goal of getting more Cabo Verdeans to apply to U.S. colleges and universities. We believed this would incite more and better political and economic partnerships.

IES Abroad: When you think back over your 30+ year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, what are you most proud of?

AO: I am very proud to have engaged in a profession that I believe truly matters. It is rewarding to have had the opportunity to learn from others and to give of myself personally and professionally. For me, it was the best career choice I could have made.

IES Abroad: Is there anything further you would like to tell us about any lasting impact of your time as a student in Madrid?

AO: I can honestly say that my year with IES Abroad changed the course of my life. From there, I was stricken with wanderlust, committed to study foreign languages, and I became far more comfortable with who I am in the world.

Growing up on a farm in downstate Illinois, Richard O. Ryan always had a passion for music. When the opportunity to study abroad arose, Rich chose Vienna due to its rich musical heritage. He was not disappointed. In addition to enjoying operas and symphonies, Rich made life-long friends and developed a self-confidence in his ability to deal with ambiguity – a skill that contributed to his success in the agribusiness industry working with both international and domestic business partners. Now retired as President and COO of DEKALB Genetics, Rich remains active in the world of music and opera at home and abroad. Thanks to Rich’s generosity, IES Abroad Vienna was able to finalize its state-of the-art-recording studio for students in our Music Program.

IES Abroad: Growing up on a farm and attending Quincy College, a small private college in downstate Illinois, what was your motivation to study abroad and how did you choose Vienna? 

Rich Ryan: I learned of the possibility during the first semester of my junior year from a classmate. Even going to college was unusual for a farm boy in those days, but studying abroad was rare, indeed. But I liked the idea and was encouraged by friends and family. Vienna was only one of three IES Abroad locations overseas at the time, and it was an obvious choice because of its musical heritage, already known to me. The classmate who originally made me aware of IES was also accepted in the program and we both came to Vienna.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time as a student in Vienna? 

RR: There are so many memories! An important one was meeting my new IES classmates in New York City that February, 1963 and bonding together during our Atlantic crossing. Traveling through England, Belgium, France, Germany and finally to Vienna opened my eyes to a whole new world! On my arrival the first evening, and after meeting my assigned hausfrau and apartment, I enjoyed my first taste of the “new wine” at the famous Zwölf Apostelkeller. There were many other experiences I will never forget including classes with most engaging professors, walking from classroom to library to cafeteria spread about Vienna’s central district, and enjoying fun evenings with classmates in suburban Grinzing for “heuriger” wine tasting.

And then there were the weekend trips to such places as Budapest, Berlin, Graz, the Bodensee with classmates and of course, our exceptional Easter break tour in Italy. High on my “memory list” was seeing my first operas and symphony performances in Vienna. Because of my limited budget, it was almost always standing room (Stehplätze) but I saw and heard renowned performers and conductors (like Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Herbert von Karajan). This first taste of operatic and symphonic music has carried on in my life to the fullest. But perhaps the best remaining memories involve my IES classmates as we explored a new life together in a new world. Many of us traveled back to Vienna for our 50^th class reunion there in 2013. Yes, we have become lifelong friends.

IES Abroad: After graduating, you earned your MBA from the University of Chicago and then were appointed as an Officer in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam. How did your time in Vienna impact your ability to navigate and manage your early career?

RR: My time in Vienna literally changed my life by opening my eyes to the world and providing me enhanced self-confidence in my ability to successfully deal with unknowns and manage in new environments. Learning that I could “compete” both in the classroom and socially with many talented IES classmates from large, well-known universities encouraged me to apply to the University of Chicago for a post-graduate degree and that led me to receiving a “direct commission” into the U.S. Army. My MBA from the University of Chicago was a great post-army “ticket” for career entry and career success.

IES Abroad: You also worked for meatpacking company, Armour & Co., as well as the Chicago Board of Trade before joining DEKALB Genetics, and you earned an additional graduate degree from Stanford University’s Food Research Institute as you were joining DEKALB. What inspired you to work in the agribusiness industry that ultimately led to your business success? 

RR: Growing up on a farm, I felt comfortable in agribusiness with customers and business associates, both domestic and international. Now retired, I remain active on a non-profit organization involved with leadership training of promising younger agribusiness professionals.

IES Abroad: As you look back on your career in international agribusiness, what are you most proud of?

RR: Successful outcomes, due in part to good relationships with international associates, a result of understanding their culture. This was an added benefit from my early time in Austria and Europe. With that background, I am better able to mentor other young folks who are starting their careers in agribusiness or in other aspects of international work.

IES Abroad: Nearly 55 years after studying abroad and living in Vienna you remain an avid traveler and opera enthusiast. Tell us about your pursuits of these interests today. 

RR: I remain active in the world of music and opera attending performances around the world, including the Salzburg Music Festival annually and performances in Vienna and Venice, in addition to the Lyric Opera in Chicago. I am also on the board of the Ryan Opera Center, the training ground for promising opera singers at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

IES Abroad: We are very grateful to you for your generous support that has enabled IES Abroad Vienna us to finalize our state-of-the-art recording studio in Vienna. What motivated you to make this  significant gift?  

RR: My desire to “give back” to IES Abroad following the exceptional benefit to my life from my Vienna experience in 1963—and my appreciation of the important role that the Music Program now plays in the program under the direction of Dr. Morten Solvik.

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

RR: I learned that the world is a much bigger place than where I grew up, and knowing and exploring this world offers greater and greater benefits.

Watch Rich play "Wien, Wien, nur du allein" on the piano that he and his fellow classmates donated to IES Abroad Vienna at the opening of the new Music Practice Facility on September 1, 2014.

Coming from a family with several generations rooted in the South, CC Conner was drawn in by the music and rich cultural life Vienna had to offer. He loved it so much, he stayed on as a student assistant for the following year. Upon his return, CC attended Columbia Law School and practiced law on Wall Street for several years before quitting to manage a small modern dance company. Throughout his career – from lawyer to overseeing the Joffrey Ballet’s move to Chicago to becoming Managing Director of the Houston Ballet – CC has expertly blended his passions for the arts and the law. Read on to learn how study abroad impacted CC’s career path and how the love of opera he developed in Vienna remains a constant in his life today.

IES Abroad: Why did you choose to go to Vienna?

CC: I was a serious musician and planned to become a professional musician growing up. I was accepted at the Eastman School of Music and was a flute player. My family said that was fine, but “Are you sure that you can make a living as a musician?” I wanted to be the first flute player in one of the top five orchestras in the country. But when I looked at the number of students who graduate in flute each year from just Eastman, Curtis, Julliard, and Peabody, there were four times as many flute players than you have in the top five orchestras put together, much less the first chair. Statistically, my parents were right. I decided not to do it and went to college and spent the spring of my junior year and all of my senior year in Vienna. Music was the prime motivator. Also, being in Vienna where I could start learning German from scratch worked wonderfully. I had met a student at the University of North Carolina who had studied with IES Abroad the year before in Vienna. She spoke very highly of the program. It was an easy choice!

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

CC: So many of the fabulous memories were traveling around Europe with my friends from IES Abroad: hitchhiking to Zurich for the weekend and taking the trains through Yugoslavia and Greece for the February break. During those days we had several organized trips, including Italy at Easter. During the spring of 1963, I went to Prague for May Day and watched the communist parades during the Cold War. At the lake on the Hungarian border, we’d play this game to see how close we could get to the guard towers before they would start screaming at us to back off. It was all of sudden realizing that we are in a Cold War and this was it! We went through Checkpoint Charlie. It woke us up to the geopolitical conflict and what was really going on, as opposed to simply seeing it on the news in the United States.

One of the most painful experiences was that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while we were in Vienna. We went to a coffee house because that was the only place where you could find a television set. A lot of sympathy came our way. Europeans loved Americans in those days. We were the people who had saved them in the Second World War. We could hitchhike anywhere. We would set down our suitcase emblazoned with an American flag at the side of the road, and we’d be picked up immediately. I remember an occasion when a couple from Hanover picked me up, took me to their house, fed me dinner, and had me stay the night. In the morning, they drove me to the Autobahn to the checkpoint to East Germany. We had not become the “ugly Americans” at that point. It was rewarding to see what we as a country had done and how it was appreciated.

IES Abroad: In what ways did study abroad impact or change the way you think?

CC: The biggest impact was in realizing that I had grown up in the very sheltered South. It took studying abroad in Vienna for me to realize that everyone I knew in the South virtually came from many generations of Southerners. Between the Civil War and the Second World War, no immigrant groups moved into the South. It wasn’t until after the Second World War with military bases around the country and then companies becoming more national in scope that people started moving around the country with newcomers to the South. In the boat going over to Vienna, half of the kids in my class were excited because they were going to see where their grandparents came from. They would all ask me where my grandparents came from. I could go back ten generations, and all of my family came from the South. It was an eye opener about how sheltered we were. Then, of course, living in Europe for a year-and-a-half with all of the cultural resources there, which was always my passion, I thought I couldn’t go back to the South. I realized that I had to live in a big city, so I applied to Columbia Law School. New York City from the 20^th Century on has been the main arts capital of the world in many respects.

IES Abroad: You have had an extraordinary career blending your passion for the arts with your acumen for business and law. How did this come about? 

CC Conner: While I was very immersed in the performing arts growing up, opera was not something that you had Greensboro, North Carolina. After my stay in Vienna, I decided that what I really wanted to do was to manage the Metropolitan Opera someday. However, I went to law school and practiced law. Pretty early in my career in New York, I became involved with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, which was one of the first of those type of organizations in the 1960s. I joined the board probably in ‘69 or ‘70 and become very involved with the arts scene in New York and got involved in dance.

There was so much dance going on in New York, and after a year and a half in Vienna, three years of law school in New York, and the beginning of my working career in New York, I thought, “Ok, I have seen every opera that there was to see several times.” I decided that maybe it was time for me to see what else there is. I took ballet and tap for one year as a six or seven year old, and as a twelve or thirteen year old, I was the Junior State Arthur Murry Dance Champion in North Carolina! So, I did have some dance training. In my age group in the South, when you were a young teenager, you went to ballroom dancing school to learn how to be proper ladies and gentlemen in the South. So, I did have some dancing talent. 

IES Abroad: You went on to become the Executive Director of the Joffrey Ballet and Managing Director of the Houston Ballet. What led you to transition from law to working full-time in the arts?

CC: After nine years working on Wall Street, I quit and ran a small modern dance company. I was the business manager, the associate artistic director, stage crew, booking agent, and fundraiser. I was everything! After about five years, I had to earn a living again and practiced law once more in New York. I practiced law in New York for about 25 years in total. In the early 1990s, The Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre were both in terrible financial condition, being effectively bankrupt. The Joffrey was looking for a new executive director. At that point, anybody who had a job outside the dance field would not leave their position to save a bankrupt company, and people in the dance field who didn’t have jobs were questioned about why they didn’t have jobs. As someone who had run a little dance company ten years earlier, I was hired by The Joffrey. I ran the strategic plan that basically saved The Joffrey, and moved it to Chicago in 1995.

While we were in the process of moving Joffrey, Houston Ballet was looking for a new director. I interviewed and got the job. While I loved the Joffrey and was thrilled that I had put together a plan to save it, after three stressful years of struggle to keep it alive, I felt that I needed a stable company instead of the struggle of establishing Joffrey in Chicago. So, I moved to Houston in 1995 and was the director here for 17 years, retiring in 2012. We had a million dollar deficit when I got here. In all my years, we had a surplus and built a $47 million office and rehearsal facility, which is the largest of any professional dance company in the United States. So, that is how I went from law to the arts, back and forth, frankly. A lot of the negotiating skills that I developed as a corporate securities and transactional lawyer are useful in running a large organization. Of course, in my generation, the courses and programs about arts management didn’t exist. So, none of us came with a college degree in arts administration. It was on-the-job training.

IES Abroad: How important has an international perspective been for you in your roles as the leader of the ballet or as a lawyer?

CC: It certainly did as a lawyer. After my time on Wall Street and then running the small dance company, the work of the firm that I then joined was for European family-owned or closely-owned companies that were doing business in the United States. Clients included the Italian National Petroleum Chemical Company, which had operations all over the Unites States; Ringier, which was the largest Swiss publishing company; Bahlsen, the German cookie maker; and Omega, the Swiss watchmaker. After I came back from Vienna, I wanted to go back and work in Europe, but I never actively pursued it, as life was busy simply going on. I traveled constantly, going back and forth to Europe to work with our European clients. Certainly, IES Abroad gave me the confidence to feel quite at home in Europe.  

IES Abroad: How has study abroad impacted you personally?

CC: Studying abroad was when I really grew. It was when I really matured. I saw the world in a whole different way. It broadened my appreciation for people and for people of different backgrounds. Of course, when I was in Vienna, it was during the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It helped me to simply open my eyes and realize that no one type or group of people is better than any other. In my family, we traveled. We went to New York every year or every other year; but we didn’t have personal relationships with people who weren’t like us. Vienna changed my view of people and the world and opened my eyes to so much culture! As IES Abroad students, we traveled all over Europe and were really exposed to history and culture and how it impacts everyday life.

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

CC: Opera! It was Vienna that really opened my eyes to opera. As a matter of fact, what stands out was standing all night in the State Opera standing room ticket line! One of my most vivid memories was being an Ethiopian slave in Aida in Vienna. I’ve lived in Houston for twenty years, and I still have my subscription to the Metropolitan Opera. Vienna moved me into a great lover of opera. Studying abroad in Vienna also gave me a huge amount of confidence. In Vienna, I fit in perfectly! In Europe, I became much more my inner self and comfortable in my own skin.

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

CC: My answer would be go, go, go, go, go!! Study abroad is one of the most broadening experiences a person can have. Everyone should do it! I cannot say enough positive things about it. It really was a life-changer. And I know that when I read all of the things from IES Abroad, that everyone says this. It really is!