Sam Miller got more than he bargained for when he embarked upon his semester-long study abroad in Beijing. Little did he know, his experience would plant the seed for a start-up, and jeans would become his life. Like many Americans, he loved wearing jeans, but they never fit quite right. At least, not until the idea for a made-to-measure, custom-fit jeans business sparked while in China. After interning in a sports equipment company and intensively studying Mandarin, Sam returned to the U.S., pitched the concept to his business partner, Leona, who he met on a subsequent study abroad semester in Shanghai, and together, they put the wheels in motion. After four years of product development and $47,000 raised through Kickstarter, Red Malt Denim is open for business. Read on to learn how Sam leveraged his experience in Beijing to launch his career as an entrepreneur.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad and what drew you to Beijing?

Sam Miller: I chose to study abroad in China because I had never visited a country that far away from the U.S. – much less live there. I wanted the study abroad experience to be something that would open my eyes to other concepts of daily life. Up until that point, my only exposure to Chinese culture was through local Chinese restaurants and my Mandarin language class. The city of Beijing naturally drew me because of its rich historical and cultural heritage. It was a place that I would be able to constantly practice Mandarin Chinese, as there were relatively few English-speaking people living there. 

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

SM: I’ll never forget my first taxi ride in Beijing at midnight. As we drove from the airport to the dormitory, I could see thousands of people roaming around small shops with giant neon Chinese letters across the tops. In hindsight, I realized that I had subconsciously built a picture of what I expected China would be like. That concept was shattered my first night in China. I was there to learn and experience something new, and I don’t think I could have picked a better country to start with. 

IES Abroad: You recently launched a start-up, Red Malt Denim, which was inspired by your study abroad in Beijing. Tell us more about how the idea came about and your journey from idea to launch.

SM: In China’s larger cities, it’s common to find clothing shops that will make you made-to-measure clothing. Back in the U.S., I had never heard of this before, beyond tailoring a suit. At the time, I thought this was a very intriguing idea, as I was in-between sizes and jeans never quite fit the way I’d liked them to. When I came back to the U.S., I relocated to Chicago and pitched the concept of a U.S.-based, made-to-measure jeans company to my friend, Leona. She was on board with the idea, and we started sketching out the groundwork for our company. We did not initially plan to manufacture ourselves; however, after several meetings with potential suppliers, we quickly decided that we wanted to keep production in-house. We spent the next four years building the technology and production systems that currently enable us to make our products.

IES Abroad: What are some of the biggest challenges you face in the business?

SM: One of our main challenges within this industry is that our target customer base expects to buy tailored suits and dress shirts, but not necessarily jeans. When you think about common clothing complaints, jeans are one of the more frequent garments that people have issues with. The industry is moving forward with a more customized wardrobe, but it’s still a fairly new idea to most. Another challenge has been finding qualified seamstresses that live in Chicago. Jeans are a very complicated garment to manufacture and require a high degree of skill. The sewn apparel labor market is mostly based in Los Angeles or New York. Regardless, we’re very proud to be making our products in Chicago – the city has become part of our identity.

IES Abroad: What is your vision for Red Malt?

SM: Our goal is to be a leader in casual, made-to-measure clothing. We use propriety technology to design and create the best fit for each individual customer. Our philosophy is that we want our customers to be 100% happy with their jeans and want to wear them all the time. We actively ask for feedback from our customers and offer a very robust “fit” guarantee.

IES Abroad: Were there lessons learned or skills acquired in Beijing that are valuable in your work today?

SM: Yes. In Beijing, I had the opportunity to intern at a U.S. sports equipment company, which manufactured all of their products in China. I learned about the complexity and challenges involved with importing and exporting goods across international borders. This knowledge played a large role in how we developed our e-commerce checkout system for Red Malt. We built it so that international customers can prepay taxes and duties during checkout. This allows the customer to know the fully delivered costs up front and also avoid an extra trip out to their local post office.  

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students today thinking about studying abroad?  

SM: Go for as long as you can. You may not get another opportunity to live life in another country. A study abroad program is a great way to experience another culture with minimal commitments. Plus, it’s one extra thing that will distinguish you from other candidates when pursuing a career after college.   

Born and raised in the Philippines, Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola III studied abroad thanks to his father who heard about the opportunity and enrolled him in IES Abroad’s programs in Paris and Nantes. While in France, Gigi expanded his worldview through exposure to people from around the world and became self-reliant through independent travel throughout Europe. These skills were instrumental as Gigi embarked on a career in international banking. In 2013, after 31 years at the Bank of the Philippine Islands, including serving the last eight as President and CEO, Gigi retired to pursue his passions for education and the environment. Today, Gigi is Chairman of Far Eastern University in the Philippines and Chair of the Board of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – Philippines. Read on to find out how his study abroad experience impacted his career and why he supports study abroad scholarships.

IES Abroad: As a student in the Philippines, how did you hear about IES Abroad and what motivated you to study in France?

Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola III: My father heard about IES’s Junior Year Abroad Programs from a friend, contacted IES Abroad, and then enrolled me in the Paris summer course of 1970, the Nantes fall course of 1970, and then the Spring course of 1971. My parents liked France, and this is why I was sent to Paris and Nantes in 1970-71; however, my brother Antonio was sent to Vienna the following year.

IES Abroad: What are some of your favorite memories from your time in Nantes and Paris?

GM: In Nantes, it was learning in a cinematography class in French (I didn’t know a thing about cinema) and perpetually falling down the Olympic Women’s Downhill course in Austria (I didn’t know how to ski) during Christmas vacation.

In Paris, it was riding one block in a taxi so we could properly arrive at Maxim’s for our only expensive meal of the semester and travelling around Eastern Europe in a Volkswagen Camper Van with five other classmates. I remember visiting a Romanian gymnast family one evening, and then the following day at the Romanian Yugoslav border, being asked together with my American friend Brian Wynne to shave our beards before crossing - coincidence or secret police? We didn’t want to find out.

IES Abroad: After studying abroad, you went on to attend Harvard Business School and then launched your career in banking. What inspired you to work in the banking industry?

GM: It was an accidental start – Citibank was the first institution to accept me as an International Staff Intern in 1977. I liked the international nature of the job, then discovered that I both liked and was good at banking, and so I stayed in banking for around 35 years.

IES Abroad: Were there lessons learned in Nantes and Paris that helped you in the early days of your career?

GM: Definitely. I was both an introvert and new to the international scene. In both Nantes and Paris, I learned to relate and deal with students from different countries and to travel around Europe with no one to help me except myself. This broadened my perspective of the world and taught me how to deal with people from different nationalities—two skills that were vital in the early days of my career.

IES Abroad: You have lived and worked abroad and traveled extensively. As you look back on your expansive career in banking, what are you most proud of?

GM: Making banking easier for our customers, working through people, and greatly expanding remittance services for the millions of overseas Filipino workers. Also, winning Best Bank Awards, heading the Bankers Association of the Philippines during the global financial crisis, and being awarded a Management Man of the Year award in 2012 were other memorable souvenirs. Receiving a Legion d’Honneur, Chevalier rank and travelling together with the Philippine President on several business trips were nice bonuses.

IES Abroad: Forty-five years after studying and living abroad in France, you remain an avid traveler and you are committed to your family’s vision for higher education opportunities in the Philippines. Please tell us about your pursuits of these interests today.

GM: Travel energizes me, and therefore I have been to so many places either alone or with family, and I have met so many international friends everywhere. Today, I have moved from banking to education, and now am chairman of a 40,000 student university. I am enjoying the gratifying role of asking the right questions while helping educate students of modest means to improve their status in life.

I tell people that in your 30s, you Decide - location, career, and spouse. In your 40s, you Commit to the choices you have made (or start over again). In your 50s, you Excel, and in your 60s, you do Something Else. Aside from education, I am Chairman of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines (an environmental foundation), Maitre of the Commanderie de Bordeaux Manila, and Chairman of the National Golf Association of the Philippines, so I am also enjoying doing other things.

IES Abroad: We are grateful to you for your generous support of the IES Abroad Scholarship Fund. What motivates you to direct your philanthropy to support study abroad for today’s students?

GM: IES Abroad changed my life by helping me develop an international perspective. If I can do the same for someone else, then I will be happy to have helped.

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

GM: Life is experience, so stay curious and do as many different things in your life (while you can).

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for a student today who is considering studying or interning abroad?

GM: In your teens, you study. In your 20s, you should explore – first job, possible study or internship abroad, maybe live in a different country. It will change your perspective for the better, and teach you about situations and people that you can use much later in your life. Best of all, you will probably enjoy doing something different in another country. Technology is great, but human contact with all sorts of different people particularly at a young age will energize you. Finally, the world is yours, so help take care of the world—particularly with climate change.

Growing up in the Jim Crow South, studying abroad as a Merrill Scholar in Vienna was life-changing for Maxine Hayes. It was the first time she felt free of segregation and truly accepted as a person of color. After a year in Vienna, during which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, she returned to Spelman College to complete a fifth year and face a new world of opportunities available to African Americans. Taking full advantage, Maxine earned a medical degree from SUNY School of Medicine in Buffalo and a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University. From 1988 to 2013, Maxine served in various positions in the Washington State Department of Public Health, most recently as State Health Officer – the state’s top doctor for 16 years. In our interview, Maxine shares how study abroad impacted her approach to medicine and was pivotal in changing the course of her life.

IES Abroad: A science student at Spelman College, you studied abroad as a Merrill Scholar in Vienna from 1967-68. What led you to choose Vienna?

Dr. Maxine Hayes: The one thing about Vienna for me as a science major was the German language. I wanted to learn German, which was a pretty brave thing since I didn’t know German! I went to Vienna prior to the start of the academic year to take a very intense introduction to the language. I was assigned to live with a family who didn’t speak any English, which helped me immensely. The conversational German that I learned from the family, in particular, really gave me a jump start. So many of the classes I wanted to take were in German.

IES Abroad: What challenges did you face? In what ways did you grow?

MH: The biggest challenge for me aside from learning the language was the climate. This was the first time I had exposure to winter, coming from the South. It was a big issue! It was a positive for me, though, and I enjoyed it. I never did learn how to ski while I was there; I was afraid of falling! I do remember wonderful sleigh rides and seeing Salzburg and so many beautiful places in the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. Academically, I did very well. I had to keep up my GPA. Studying in Vienna gave me the opportunity, for the first time in my academic career, to not take any science classes. I used the opportunity to devote myself to the arts, culture, history, and international relations. That experience continues to profoundly impact a lot of my behavior, thinking, and choices today. 

IES Abroad: After studying abroad, you went on to attend the State University of New York School of Medicine in Buffalo and later earned a Master's of Public Health at Harvard University. What inspired you to go to medical school and pursue a career in public health?

MH: The thing that changed everything for me while studying in Vienna, which I didn’t realize the full impact until I came home, was that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated during the time I was in Vienna. Because their lives were taken, there were policy changes that opened the possibility for me to go to medical school. My time in Vienna as a Merrill Scholar delayed my graduation from college by one year. That delay proved to be life-changing both in terms of my career and in terms of my opportunity. Prior to going overseas, I couldn’t imagine ever going to medical school. African Americans were not accepted into graduate school disciplines. It wasn’t until Affirmative Action and quotas set by the Federal Government that doors of opportunity were opened for me to step through. This was divine destiny for my whole life. I was very fortunate to be out of the country – it delayed my graduation. I had classmates who would have given anything to have gone to medical school. They graduated on time and went to work in labs, and I was lined up for that future, too. That year abroad made all the difference! I was pursued by medical schools! I chose Buffalo because it had Roswell Park Cancer Institute. It had always been one of my goals to do cancer research. I went on to get a public health degree from Harvard. When I went to Vienna, I had no idea that this was going to happen. It was a divine gift. This is one of the reasons why I chose public health – it is more service-oriented. I felt that I was given the opportunity for a reason and that was to give back.

IES Abroad: In what ways did you change the most during your time in Vienna? Did the experience shape the way you think in a profound way today?

MH: I’m certain that having studied abroad made me that much more of a ‘catch’ for the medical schools. So many minority students didn’t have opportunities to go abroad. That would have made my application stand out. My time in Vienna changed me a lot. The biggest change was brought about by the introduction to the arts. I became a tremendous lover of the arts: the symphony, opera, plays. When I came back to this country, even though I was a science major, and continuing today, wherever I am, I always enjoy the arts. It has become part of my DNA! Vienna changed my DNA!

Another thing that study abroad did was to widen my worldview. You have to remember that in 1967-68, having been brought up with Jim Crow laws in Mississippi, the furthest place I had gone was Atlanta. That is not very far! Because of Jim Crow laws, we couldn’t really stay in hotels or eat in restaurants. My worldview was pretty narrow! In Vienna, I saw the world very differently than I had in the South. To go to Europe and to see how other people lived in the world and to actually be so accepted as a person of color, I didn’t feel that segregation. I didn’t feel that I couldn’t go any place because of my color. In fact, the people in my neighborhood, the 9^th district, I’d hear people say “Schokolade fräulein.” I understand that they don’t do that anymore. It was always a curiosity and an acceptance that I hadn’t experienced in the States. It was freeing for me! The rest of the world was not like the world I had come from. People really considered the color of my skin to be very beautiful. It was different and exotic. I was treated very differently than how I was treated at home. This really improved my image of myself. In fact, being considered exotic in Vienna led to many invitations to the balls! I wasn’t prepared for this. I had no ball gowns. My IES Abroad classmates dressed me for the occasions. I had nothing, but I had the invitations! It was wonderful! Incredible!

IES Abroad: When you think back over your many years in public health, what are you most proud of?

MH: I’m very proud of the fact that I provided leadership on diversity, cultural awareness, and cultural sensitivity. Going into public health after having studying abroad in Vienna helped me in my approach to health, emotion, and disease prevention and in understanding cultural differences and cultural awareness related to wellness. Vienna taught me the importance of understanding cultures. In fact, when I retired, they named a public health award in my honor focusing on diversity: The Maxine Hayes Diversity Award. I spent a lot of time raising awareness among people in public health about the importance of understanding culture and its impact on health and wellness, and also on embracing diversity and its importance in working with diverse communities. 

Today, that has really proved to be essential because we have a global community. The global world has come to America, and we have the influence of the global community everywhere. Ethnic minorities are becoming an important part of more and more communities. This is central to addressing health equities, and it is an important issue for Medicare and Medicaid. This focus is a big step for the Federal Government in providing health services. Culture and respect for culture is now being considered. I’m so proud of this. I am happy that I have been able to do work related to preparedness, whether it is in responding to epidemics or natural disasters, as well as immunizations and tobacco. I was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), now the National Academy of Medicine, in 2006 and am very proud of the work I have done with the IOM in the various policy committees related to children, early child development and the importance of early brain development and psycho-social, emotional, and physical health and wellbeing.

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

MH: I love the arts! That is a constant. I learned to love the arts. Being a physician, this improves my sensitivity to the fact that medicine is a science and an art. I think that sensitivity to the impact that the arts have, even with the science, makes a true difference to how we apply what we know to humanity. One thing that I’ve learned is that the arts contribute so much to everything, no matter what it is. 

It never hurts to have a well-developed worldview. No matter what we do career-wise, studying overseas is transformational. Today, we have so many complex global health issues, and we cannot solve any of these problems in isolation. It is now a global community. Of course, now we have the World Wide Web—it is so important to be connected. We have one world. The concept of one science that draws us together rather than divides us—it brings all of our thinking and resources to excel in this new information age that we find ourselves in. The problems are challenging and complex, but they don’t have to be isolated in their solutions because diverse opinions guide us in how they will be solved.

Another constant is the love of travel, which was instilled in me when I was a student in Vienna. I went to Israel, Scandinavia, and so many of the European countries while I was a student in Vienna. And now, in the last six months alone, I have traveled to three continents: Australia, Europe, and Africa.  

IES Abroad: Why is study abroad so important?

MH: We are all global citizens. Some of us are just more aware of it than others. The importance of programs like IES Abroad cannot be over emphasized today. There is something to be said about the arts and their way of influencing the political debate and humanities and policy. Experiences like study abroad help prepare us to solve global problems.

Travel was nothing new to Gemma Sole when she studied abroad. Though she had wanted to study in China, her triple major prevented her from fulfilling the course requirements she would need. So she ended up in London where she could get the academic credit needed and be closer to extended family. Interning while there, she learned valuable lessons in cultural differences in the work place. Upon graduation, and finding herself in a tough job market at the height of the global recession, she got a grant from the Kauffman Entrepreneurship Foundation to start her own consulting firm working with small businesses. She eventually found herself at Startup Institute where she met her business partner and co-founder, and together they launched Nineteenth Amendment, an on-demand fashion platform that connects up-and-coming designers with fashion-forward customers and bridges the gap between design and delivery. Earning a myriad of press mentions and honors since its launch in 2012, Nineteenth Amendment is well on its way to being an interrupter in the fashion industry.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad in London? Had you traveled much growing up?

Gemma Sole: I traveled a lot growing up. I am a tri-citizen. My mum is from Australia and my father is from London, so I have U.K. (EU), U.S., and Australian citizenship. Studying abroad was an easy way for me to live, study, and work abroad while being closer to extended family.

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

GS: One of my sillier favorite moments from studying abroad was meeting Yoko Ono on the steps outside a market in South Kensington. Fangirling! On a more serious note, I had a great internship at a company called PSI and learned a lot about real world application of anthropological research and cultural differences in work environments.

IES Abroad: How did you become interested in being an entrepreneur?

GS: Good question. I don’t think I knew exactly what I was doing at the time. I was looking for i-banking and consulting jobs in the winter of 2008 and graduated in 2009, so it was a tough job market. Everyone froze hiring that quarter for the majority of those roles, but with the Kauffman Entrepreneurship Foundation Grant, I could learn, work, and help small businesses. So to me, it was a win-win and really taught me the value of sales skills and asking questions. A good entrepreneur should always ask questions and be the best listener.

IES Abroad: At Startup Institute you met Amanda Curtis and you two co-founded Nineteenth Amendment. Tell us more about how the idea came about and your role in the company today.

GS: I’ve always been passionate about creative industries and small businesses. I really think these are the organizations that make America what it is. Nineteenth Amendment came out of my co-founder’s experience at the time I met her – Amanda was an emerging designer, recently funded, but could not get picked up by buyers because she had no previous sales from past seasons. There is this huge issue where buyers want new fresh product they know people want, but they can’t take risks. Designers have fresh ideas but a hard time getting the cash flow to produce inventory and get it to customer’s eyeballs. Nineteenth Amendment is a marketplace and manufacturing service for independent, on-demand fashion, so it solves this chicken-or-egg problem by selling for pre-order. Customers get unique designs from local designers they love, designers don’t spend money on inventory they can’t get rid of, and retailers can de-risk young talent.

My role is Chief Operations Officer. I help make all these beautiful things come to life. I manage designers, production, marketing, and our software product to make all the pieces fit together. It is a lot of hats, but at the end of the day, I love helping people do what they love and bring something wonderful to life.

IES Abroad: What are some of the biggest challenges you face in the business?

GS: Fundraising is hard as a young, first-time, female entrepreneur. Also, with the stock market and recent retail track record, this particular year has seen less investment in startups. But we have been very successful in doing a lot with a little, as every business should!

IES Abroad: What is your vision for Nineteenth Amendment?

GS: Our vision is to grow to be the largest on-demand fashion platform in the world creating beautiful, ethical fashion in the most sustainable way possible – by producing for demand! I invite you to check out www.nineteenthamendment.com, comment on the designs, find something you love, and let me know what you think! We can’t do it without YOU, the shopper!

IES Abroad: Where there lessons learned from your study abroad in London that have remained vital to your work as an entrepreneur?

GS: Understanding that adoption of new technologies and business models is just as much about cultural attitude and buy-in as it is about the business benefits, behavior, and technology. Good implementations and relationships only work if you have someone on your team that has a knowledge or appreciation of that.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students today thinking about studying abroad?

GS: Do it! Plan ahead and go somewhere you wouldn’t normally go. I actually wanted to go to China originally but found out only London would work in my curriculum because I was triple-majoring and needed the credits to apply. If you have flexibility (and aren’t a crazy workaholic like me), I would devote a semester to really immerse yourself somewhere outside your comfort zone.

Having never met a French person before landing in France, Jim Pooley took advantage of his year in Paris to learn lessons in intercultural exchange and humility. He would soon come to understand deep-seated cultural nuances, like the linguistic debate raging over the use fin de semaine versus weekend, and experience French politics first-hand. After spending years as an attorney in Silicon Valley, little did he know, his study abroad would come full circle 40 years later when he was appointed by President Obama to serve as a Deputy Director General to the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations in Geneva. Now an intellectual property attorney back in Silicon Valley, Jim shares how his experience in Paris taught him to take risks and laid the foundation for his future success as an international diplomat.

IES Abroad: Why did you choose to study abroad in Paris with IES Abroad?

James Pooley: My mother had told me when I was in high school that it was her dream that I spend my junior year abroad. She actually died during my sophomore year. It wasn’t as though it was in her memory that I felt that I had to go; rather, she had planted the idea very strongly, and it sounded like it would be something good to do and a lot of fun. I was an International Affairs major and French was the language I had taken throughout school, so it made sense to go to Paris. I chose IES Abroad because, one, my college did not have a study abroad program, and, two, my fraternity brother who had gone the year before and had researched the available programs had chosen IES Abroad. I was following in his footsteps.

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

JP: Two big recollections were the nights that the Champs-Élysées filled with 100,000-200,000 people: first, with the resignation of Charles de Gaulle. That year he had demanded that the rules on elections to the Senate be changed, and to make the point of how much he wanted this to happen, he threatened to resign if the legislature refused to do it. They refused to do it, so he resigned. The night he resigned, the whole city celebrated. It was a big party! Of course, he had been the guy in charge during the students uprising the previous May. So, for all I know, everyone who was out there was a student. Then, after the election when Georges Pompidou won the presidency, it was the same thing – everyone was out there. 

IES Abroad: You were a student in Paris at the height of the Vietnam War for the U.S. How did this impact you?

JP: I remember a letter in the mail forwarded to me by my father. It was my draft notice from my draft board who had contacted my college to confirm that I was there. And, of course, they said, “No, he is not here this year.” That was the arrangement that I had with them—I’d go off and study abroad and then I’d come back and petition to have the credits accepted. So, the draft reclassified me as eligible cannon fodder and sent me the notice that I was now 1A. My father decided to put that into a new envelope, address it to me, and put a six cent stamp on it. It took over six weeks for it to get to me as a result. I remember that moment! It took a little while to get that cleared up. 

IES Abroad: Did the French ask your opinion as an American about the Vietnam War?

JP: No, the French more often would come up to me and give their opinions on Americans. I can just hear my French friends saying, “Well, of course, that is what the French do.” Many of them were worried about the suffocating advance of Western culture into their society, less so the younger ones than the older ones, perhaps. There were all these issues about protecting French culture and French language. There was a big fight over whether or not “weekend” would be accepted in the place of fin de semaine. I was amused when I got to Geneva five and a half years ago to discover that “weekend” had clearly won out. Nobody used fin de semaine!  

IES Abroad: In what ways did study abroad impact your career path?

JP: I was on one path to get back to Paris when I went to law school. I choose to go to a law school with a strong international law program, Columbia. My thought and assumption was that I would be heading back to Paris as an international lawyer, but I ended up going in a different direction – I began to work for a legal aid society, and I found out that I love litigation. I had visited California and discovered that this place is fabulous, and I blanketed the state with over 200 resumes. I got one offer from a little ten-person lawyer firm in Palo Alto. It was the summer of 1972. It would take until 2009 for me to come full circle and get back to this point, when my study abroad experience in Paris and my international perspective really paid off, though – when I was as offered an appointment to be in charge of several international treaties and run the international patent system as Deputy Director of the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

Having had that original experience in Paris was a foundation for being able to come back 40 years later and run a department of 400 people from 60 different countries. I had had the experience early in life of appreciating what it meant to come from a different culture and speak a different language, and the kinds of things that you need to do and need to think about in order to have a relationship with someone from another country. I was expected to be an international diplomat and I did that.

IES Abroad: How important has an international perspective been for you in your role at the World Intellectual Property Organization and now as you help your clients with international patent issues? 

JP: Sometimes it was specifically helpful. I retained enough French to carry on a short, polite conversation, and that would help break the ice. It allowed me to have a certain amount of credibility when it came to handling a case or two that had international connections. But it wasn’t until I started handling major patent litigation that had to be coordinated with litigation happening in other countries that my experience in Paris really paid off. In 1988, when I took my little law firm and merged it with a big international firm, I was prepared and recognized the value in doing so. Studying abroad contributed to my ability to think more broadly, not just about international affairs and international business, but about new adventures in general. Taking risks has a different perspective to it in general when you have taken a big risk as a young person to go live in another place for a long period of time. 

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

JP: The thing that comes to mind immediately is a sense of humility about one’s own position and perspective, and that humility drives a curiosity that has served me well. I don’t assume things, and I’m open. I took that and have carried that with me. Going to France was entirely new. I had never known a French person. I had never stepped foot in a country that spoke French. It was totally new! Of course, we were all from that generation in the 60s who were proud of ourselves and feeling very plucky and able to handle anything. So, getting a lesson in the significance of other cultures and the humility that comes with that is probably one of the most important lessons to carry forward.

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

JP: Apart from just do it? Absolutely do it! If you can, go for an entire year because there is a certain rhythm to spending the entire academic year that you miss out on if you are there for only a semester. Try to go to someplace that doesn’t speak your language. The main thing is, don’t overthink it. It is a great idea. Go for it! You will never be able to understand the depth of the adventure that is ahead of you and all the wonderful things you will get from it. Just pick the most interesting place to go and go!

James is also an author. His latest book, Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage, was published in June 2015. View his study abroad photos here: http://bit.ly/1MNB4oB

During his time as The Frugal Traveler columnist for The New York Times, Seth Kugel traveled across the world on a quest for authentic travel experiences. His passion for immersive travel first formulated when he lived with local families abroad: in Kenya during high school, in Paris during college; and in the Dominican Republic just after college. Through these formative experiences, Seth experienced local culture through the lens of his host families. And during his semester in France while traveling with a classmate, Seth realized the many cultural and linguistic benefits of traveling to small towns and the opportunity to really get to know the people. A proponent of frugal and authentic travel experiences, being invited into someone’s home is one of his top goals when traveling. He recently retired as the Frugal Traveler to pursue other projects. In our interview, Seth reflects on his study abroad experiences and his views on travel and shares what he is working on today.

IES Abroad: Why did you choose to study abroad in Paris?

SK: I was studying French, and I thought that being in a big city was appealing. If I could do it again, I would have gone to Nantes because I now appreciate the value of being in a small town in terms of language learning. But Paris is exciting! My mother loved Paris, and I guess that rubbed off on me. If somebody had said, “You can study French in Senegal,” I might have gone. Another reason is that I was a political science major, and I could take classes at the local university and earn credits that would count toward my major. Also, I was just really into French. I love languages. I was a very good French student. 

IES Abroad: What is one of your best memories from your time in Paris?

SK: In Paris, it was my homestay. I was very lucky. IES Abroad put me with a very traditional French couple. They were grandparents. The woman stayed at home and took care of their granddaughter. The man was a lawyer. They were extremely gracious. They weren’t doing anything special for us, but they had very French dinners: small portions of things I had never had before, that the woman made in her small kitchen. Their granddaughter was adorable. She was probably seven years old. We became buddies. One thing I remember is that I wowed her with my ability to write in reverse, mirror image, with my left hand. I showed her that if you held it up to the mirror, you could read it. She learned how to do it. It was like we had a secret language, the mirror language. We called it ‘la langue de la glace.’

At one point I had a little romance with one of the other members of the class. It was all rather innocent, actually, nothing untoward going on. One time my French parents went away for the weekend and I decided to have her over. They came back early. My bedroom had a balcony and we were standing out on the balcony. We were in no form of undress whatsoever, in any way, I stress, overlooking the Arc de Triomphe. They had completely forbidden anyone to come over. No one could come over. We heard them come in, so I told her that she had to stay on the balcony and hide from the window. I said “Hi, your home early!” and they said, “Who was that girl on the balcony?” I said, “What are you talking about?” Then I realized they had me, so I said, “Oh, she just left. Didn’t you see her as you were coming up?” There was an elevator and there were stairs, so theoretically, they could have missed each other. Meanwhile, I have her out on the balcony. They said, “Well, you shouldn’t have had someone over.” They went to bed, so I actually put her on my back and walked her to the door so they wouldn’t hear two sets of footsteps. It was absurd. It didn’t harm my relationship with the family. We were in touch for quite a number of years by letter.

IES Abroad: What was your favorite field trip?

SK: What I remember most were the trips I took with a classmate named David. We could have gone with one of the bigger groups, but when he and I traveled, we spoke only French together. We were both very motivated. The best trip was when we went to Perigord in southwest France. That was an experience of learning the value of going to a small town. Parisians are mean in a cultural way. No one is actually mean, but it is not the warmest place. I really didn’t make any friends in Paris except for my homestay family. When we went to other parts of France, we made friends. I remember being in a cool old restaurant and talking with the owners for a long, long time and feeling like, “Whoa, this is small town France!” I travel for a living and try to go to smaller towns that are not very touristy. When they are not used to foreigners, they are genuinely more interested in you – “What are you doing here? Who are you? Tell me about life in New York.” There is almost a rule: the fewer the tourists, the happier they are to see tourists. For pure language learning purposes, I recommend going to small towns where people will really want to talk with you. It was going on these small trips around France that I began to realize that.

IES Abroad: What was it like to view French culture from an American perspective?

SK: It was fascinating to see how American culture manifests itself in other countries. The gameshow Family Feud, was on TV. I just loved it! Family Feud is the kind show where they survey the public, and then you have to guess how the public answered the questions. It is not only trivia, but it is about how people think in a particular place. It was very hard to answer because a hundred French people had been surveyed. “What is something you do right after breakfast?” Americans might answer, “Brush your teeth,” while the French might answer, “Go to the cheese shop and buy something for lunch.” It was completely different, which was quite fascinating. In a classic American way, I said to classmates, you guys have got to watch Family Feud in French! One of the IES Abroad professors got wind of this and arranged for us to be in the studio audience. A dozen of us went. I had never been in a studio audience before, so that was an experience. They let us go up on stage and take pictures pretending to be competing. My French family thought that it was peculiar that I had this interest, but a year or two after I returned from France, my host family sent me a newspaper clipping that Patrick Roy, the host of Family Feud in France, had died of cancer.

IES Abroad: What lessons in travel did you learn from your time in Paris that influenced your work as a travel writer? 

SK: There are lessons in just being in the house of a real person. Living with the family in France wasn’t the first time I had done that. When I was in high school, I went on an exchange program and stayed with a family in rural Kenya. Then, I lived with a family in Paris on the IES Abroad program, and right after college, I taught in a Teach for America program and went with one of my immigrant students and his family to the Dominican Republic for the summer. That is three formative experiences between the ages of 15 and 23 in which I had lived in the house with a family while abroad. The more interesting part of any trip is not so much the museums or even landmarks and cute little streets, it is inside people’s houses where you see the real differences. The best thing that ever happens to me when I’m on a trip is to be invited into somebody’s house. That, in a way, is my number one goal in travel. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it is always very memorable. I wasn’t really aware of the value of staying in locals’ houses until later when I had to stay in hotels.

Certainly, I also learned the value of picking your travel companions. I really enjoyed traveling with David because of our similar desires to really dive in and travel. One thing I remember about him was that he was a serious practicing Catholic. He always went to church on Sunday. We traveled on weekends a lot, often in some town in France or in Germany. He would go to church and, of course, I’d go with him. To this day, I always go to church…I’m Jewish. I’m not even religious actually; I’m not a practicing Jew. But to this day, I always go to church wherever I go, if I can. It is almost like being in someone’s house. Religious services, especially Christian services – no one is going to turn you away from Sunday mass if you are not Catholic. No one is even going to look at you weirdly. They are going to shake your hand and even hug you. It is another way to get into a culture. It is also one of the easiest ways to meet people, especially after mass. People are typically in a warm, generous mood. I’ll often ask people at church for leads on great things to do. That lesson comes from traveling around with David from IES Abroad!

IES Abroad: You have traveled to many interesting places as the Frugal Traveler columnist for the New York Times. What places are still on your bucket list?

SK: There is some controversy over the term “bucket list” and whether that is a useful way to plan your travel. Of course, there are some places that I would like to visit that I haven’t, like Southeast Asia or India. But I have a different philosophy. I’d rather get to know a place really well than just be there for a few days and leave. Right now, what I want to do most is go back to Brazil, France, or the Dominican Republic. Those are three countries where I have spent the most time and where I feel pretty comfortable and speak all of those languages. To go to a slightly different part of France or Brazil, where I know I will feel completely at home but where it will be different and I can talk with people – for me, that’s more appealing than seeing a new place. The best part of travel is when you can actually feel at home in another country. Once you’ve got that, then I don’t see any reason not to go to that place again, or to a place that is quite similar.

IES Abroad: Why do you think frugal traveling leads to more meaningful travel experiences?

SK: A lot of times, people are scared of being socially unsafe versus actually be physically unsafe. I am completely in favor of doing things that are socially unsafe, things like talking to strangers and putting yourself in situations where you feel very uncomfortable. Those are things that we don’t automatically force ourselves to do. I see this as one of the problems with all kinds of travel today. Everything has been made so much easier to have a comfortable, sanitized experience abroad, and you don’t ever have to make yourself socially uncomfortable. I noticed this on my last trip. I did half luxury, half frugal trip to compare the two. I hired a guide. This is something I never do in my real life. He took me to a market in Quito, and I love markets. You go around and talk to all of the vendors, and even if you don’t speak their language, you can express “What is this?” But because I was with this guy, he did all of the talking to the vendors. I didn’t do this on purpose – I speak Spanish! It was just the structure of having the guide there. It impeded my interactions with the people. The parallel, of course, is life with a family. Make sure you are get out there and meet as many people as possible. Don’t travel in a big group. Travel with people like you who want to really speak the language.

IES Abroad: You recently retired as the Frugal Traveler columnist. What’s next for you?

SK: I’m a bit of a workaholic, and I had three projects going on at once. I needed to give some priority to my other projects. One of the projects is a travel book that I am writing that will talk about some of the things we talked about today. It will come out next year, hopefully. The other is a fairly popular YouTube channel I have that is directed at Brazilians visiting New York. Up until the Brazilian economic crisis, Brazilians were the third largest group of tourists coming to New York. We did a channel that basically helps them visit New York better. Although we give tourist advice, it is mostly about fitting into New York and the cultural differences between Brazilians and Americans. In a sense, it is my vision of travel, which has been evolving over all these years. It is definitely just as important to know how not to offend people as it is to know where to go and what to see. More importantly, it is important to understand that there can be different ways of thinking about things in the world. Take my host mother in Paris. She never put cheese in the refrigerator. That is shocking to a twenty year old American. It turns out that there are real reasons NOT to put cheese in a refrigerator. At the same time, there are reasons TO put cheese in a refrigerator. It kind of depends on what you want from that cheese. This is what we are trying to do for the Brazilians.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for a student who is considering studying abroad today?

SK: It would be an incredibly dumb move not to study abroad. It is a unique time in everybody’s life, and it’s clearly beneficial to your education. There is no possible way that it wouldn’t be. I can’t imagine a better way to actually learn about the world in a far better way than you could possibly learn in your university. I guess that applies to working abroad as well as studying abroad. I feel like one of the more successful elements of my study abroad is that I did try to escape, to a certain extent, from the group of Americans who I was with. At the same time, I made some great friends while I was there. One of the dangers of study abroad is that it is easy to stay within the American group and not be adventurous or try to make local friends. I would just warn people that it is possible to go abroad and not really make the most of the experience. It is not automatic. You still need to work to have a great experience, even if you are given the opportunity to do this with a program as great as IES Abroad.

Denis Ring learned a lot about life during his year-long experience with IES Abroad Vienna. Through exposure to art, history, and the Catholic tradition, his experience led him to join the Jesuits where he spent seven years studying to become a priest. In what some would see as a 180 degree turn, he left the Jesuits to pursue a successful career in business, later working with Whole Foods to create their 365 private label brand. Now an entrepreneur, he has built an organic candy brand called OCHO Candy, which is becoming popular in the U.S. and abroad. In our interview, Denis shares how his relationship with two of the three IES Abroad co-founders, Clarence and Alberta Giese, changed his life and how he has drawn upon his study abroad experience throughout his career.

IES Abroad: What was the most impactful thing that happened to you while studying abroad in Vienna?

Denis Ring: When I look back on the IES Abroad experience, the most salient, life changing, and most personally informing experience was my personal relationship with Clarence and Alberta Giese, two of the three co-founders of IES Abroad. Our friendship started because I was on the Student Council. This put me in contact frequently with Clarence, and what developed was a close friendship. It was enhanced by the fact that his birthday is one day away from my birthday, and we joked a lot about it. What struck me about Clarence and Alberta was that I had never seen a husband and wife team who had pioneered such an adventuresome, well-designed program in my life. I had never seen a married couple who had the courage to leave the United States, move to Vienna to try to help rebuild the city. The

mission of bringing American students into Europe to learn about European history and art, with all the cultural advantages of living in a city like Vienna, was brilliant. That sense of mission and their passion was really important to me. 

What I respect, and hope to achieve in my own life, is a similar sense of a commitment to a mission and the willingness to follow through on a vision the way Clarence and Alberta have. If I look at role models in my life, certainly Clarence is one of the most influential. I’ve always admired his courage to follow his convictions and to take steps to do something meaningful and honest. I love the way he challenges people. He’ll stay up until three in the morning and challenge everything that you say and everything that you stand for. Then, at the end of the night, he’ll close with an expression of heartfelt love and respect and reverence. That has been remarkably important to me. 

IES Abroad: What else about Vienna and Europe influenced your life?

DR: Being exposed to traditional Catholic heritage throughout Europe, from Vienna to Italy and Spain, France, and Belgium, was a deeply moving experience for me. When we went into Budapest and Prague to see the great Catholic cathedrals, it moved me because there was such strong governmental resistance to practicing any form of faith. To go into these cathedrals, sit in a pew and pray, smell the fragrance of the wet stone and candles, and see the light working through the building – it was deeply influential. It was so influential that when I graduated from Santa Clara, I entered the Jesuits and spent the next seven years studying to be a priest. Had I not gone to Europe, I don’t think I would have had the kind of emotional, spiritual, and intellectual awakening that I had for my own Catholic identity. And to this day, when I’m in Europe, I visit all the Cathedrals I can. My IES year gave me a sense of beauty, reverence, and history that I could not have gotten in the United States. 

IES Abroad: Did any of your coursework relate to this topic?

DR: I did take a course on the history of opera, and I lived in the first district a few blocks away from the Vienna State Opera. I could walk over and listen to the operas. This is the real beauty of the experience. There is coursework, and then there is the real education that takes place apart from the time in the classroom. For me it was the opportunity to go look at the work of El Greco, or to go down to Florence and see what Michelangelo had done and see the great works of art. You go to Rome, you look at The Pieta, and you think, "How could Michelangelo have created something so expressive and beautiful?" It wasn’t so much the classroom as it was the beauty and the educational benefits of being over there outside of the classroom.

IES Abroad: How did your experience in Vienna translate into your career later in life?

DR: It taught me how to behave in international business settings. One of the business classes I took in Vienna allowed me to research a paper on life insurance. I ended up going down to Trieste, Italy, to interview the CEO of an insurance company. I came in as an American student, and he was generous enough to give me some of his time. What I got was a sense of the gentility, respectfulness and the sense of personal time and tradition from Europeans that is so much different from Americans. In the U.S., business dealings are often curt, short, and straight to the point. I think what I picked up from my time in Europe, both in the classroom and outside, was an appreciation for listening and trying not to be an alpha-American, but rather being a gentleman doing business with other gentlemen – and that includes relationship building. You get some of that here in the United States, but it is different in Europe where, if the door is open and there is enough friendship, you can become very close friends. One of the greatest compliments I ever got in my life came from an Italian colleague. He said to me (with his Italian accent), “Denis, you are not like an American. The way you do business is like an Italian, and we feel really comfortable doing business with you because we know we can trust you.” I was flattered.

IES Abroad: How did you apply these skills to your career?

DR: The sensitivity I developed in Vienna worked for me when I was creating the 365 food line at Whole Foods. I had to go to Europe frequently to source my products. Whatever it was – cookies in Belgium, cheese in Holland, soda, pasta and balsamico in Italy, or jams and jellies in Spain – I brought an appreciation of the European mode of doing business. Most importantly, I spoke clearly and I spoke slowly, and I didn’t use idioms and colloquialisms. I remembered living Vienna, speaking only a little German, and not knowing what the heck was going on around me. In every single exchange that I have with Europeans, I remember what it was like to try to live in a society where the host country’s language was not my first language. Most recently, we were in Copenhagen with the OCHO Candy team to purchase a production line. Even though the Danes speak English beautifully and understand it, I pulled the team aside, and said, "Look, I know they speak really great English, but you have to be respectful of fact that it’s not their native language. So don’t use street lingo, and speak slowly and clearly just to eliminate any confusion." I left Vienna in 1977 and now, almost 40 years later, I’m still practicing those lessons I learned about being [culturally] sensitive.

IES Abroad: Is there anything else that you can point to from study abroad that changed the way you think?

DR: I didn’t take art history classes in Vienna, but I went to every museum that I could from the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum to the Tate in London and everything in between. I went to Venice a lot because you could sleep on the overnight train, get into Venice in the morning, and you’d have a weekend of Italian food. I could go from museum to museum to cathedral to church, and along the way I might stop off at Padua or Bologna. I got to see so much good art, whether it was in Florence, Venice, Rome, Athens, Milan, Paris, Madrid, London, Amsterdam, or Munich. I would go and look at all the masterworks and just absorb it. I talked to Clarence a lot about art and what was going on in this painting and that painting and what was going on with Klimt when he was using his brightly colored gold on the kiss. Why was that included? Why was it so graphic? What was this challenging? Why was this good art? What was happening for me was that I was connecting a lot of dots around color value composition. I gained an understanding of why one painting or artist was challenging the status quo and advancing the next evolution of art as an expression. I got to see many of the great masterpieces. What I didn’t know at the time was that these museum visits were shaping my own sense of what is visually beautiful.

IES Abroad: Did this perspective impact your approach to work?

DR: When I started to do design work for products under the 365 label at Whole Foods, I realized I was tapping into this tremendous experience of visual information regarding balance, color, and composition. Whether packaging was designed in Europe or the United States, whether the product was a cereal box, a box of soymilk, or a tray of frozen enchiladas, it had to have visual appeal. I ended up overseeing those designs because I had a strong sense of what was going to be visually appealing and ultimately successful. In the early days, the 365 logo was much more brightly saturated and appealing to the eye and it was given awards for design. I never did that actual graphic design, but I worked with designers to refine the packaging presentation and to keep a sense of continuity among categories of products. I was really passionate about making sure the label was appealing. Today, I oversee package design for OCHO Candy and it, too, has won awards for design. I’m certainly not an artist or a designer. But the work I’ve collaborated on is the work of a guy who was fortunate enough to spend time admiring great art.

After a long and impactful career in medicine, retiring as Associate Dean of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine is only one of Dr. Ruth Covell’s many lifetime achievements. Others include founding the Academic Geriatric Resource Center within the UCSD Health System, establishing The Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSD, creating “Introduction to the Health Care System” course required of all UCSD medical students, and helping to found San Ysidro Health Center and Community Health Improvement Partners. Dr. Covell is an active board member for the Epilepsy Foundation, Project Concern International, and Mental Health America among others. She partially credits her transformative year in Vienna in 1955-56 for instilling in her the confidence to take on any initiative and talk to anyone, of any background, in any situation, a skill she has applied throughout her professional career and personal life. Sixty years after studying abroad, Ruth reflects on her decision to study in Vienna and see the world.

IES Abroad: How did you choose to study abroad in Vienna, and was it unusual for a woman to study abroad in 1955?

Ruth Covell: Going on the IES Abroad program was probably the most important decision I have ever made. It opened the world to me and gave me a "one up" in sophistication and self-confidence. It was unusual for anybody, not just women, to study abroad in 1955. It was a big deal to cross the country and take a ship to Europe. I didn’t know anybody else who was studying abroad, versus nowadays, when students are encouraged to take flight and have many options – with IES programs still among the best. I was very close to my grandfather – his favorite of 28 grandchildren. He traveled all the time, and planted the travel bug in me. So, when I saw an ad for IES Abroad in the Stanford Daily to study and travel in Europe for a year for less than it cost to be at Stanford, I thought, “Wow! Here’s my chance!” I was already studying German as a pre-med, so it all fit and sounded fantastic!

IES Abroad: What are one or two very special memories you hold from your time in Vienna?

RC: My best memories were of the friends I made. Many of my memories are related to it being a post-war era. Being in Vienna for the reopening of the Opera House after it had been destroyed in World War II was very special. The opening performance, Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, was broadcast into the street. All the streets leading toward the Opera House were packed with people listening for as far as you could see. The occupation of Vienna ended several weeks before we arrived, and virtually nothing in Vienna was rebuilt until after the occupation. The entire city was in a time warp. We saw a lot of bombed out buildings. The Amalienbad, Vienna’s public swimming pool, didn‘t have a roof while we were there. But it did have a wave pool where you could surf every hour and swimming substituted for taking a bath! The city was so poor and cold. It was difficult and expensive to get coal. This didn’t mean people weren’t having a good time. We frequented a little gasthaus in our neighborhood and chatted with one another and the locals and enjoyed life. We felt like we were part of the community.

IES Abroad: What were some of the challenges and opportunities that you faced while studying abroad and how did you make the most of them?

RC: I never thought of this as a challenge. In retrospect, I didn’t have much money but didn’t seem to inhibit me from doing anything. The biggest opportunity was being immersed in a different culture and being exposed to music and the arts in a way I hadn’t before. I was already a self-starter, from the age of two when I told my mother I would be a doctor. When I left for Vienna, my parents were living in the Philippines, and I hadn’t seen them in a year and a half. My sense of self-confidence increased while in Vienna when I was able to see what I could accomplish on my own. I saw that I could relate to other people with very different backgrounds, who were speaking a different language and had different customs, different historical backgrounds. I knew this was something I would do the rest of my life. I loved seeing how much the Austrians enjoyed life, despite the enormous adversity they had endured. The resiliency of this entire nation was quite remarkable after what they had been through in the war.

The extensive travel study trips were a kind of exposure to the world that I knew was out there, but it was quite different to actually experience that in person. And to this day, that is why I travel. I have visited over 80 countries. You take away something very different from being on the ground rather than reading about it or seeing it on CNN. I think every student should travel abroad somewhere and get out of their comfort zone.

IES Abroad: What skills that you developed during study abroad have you applied to your career in medicine and to your many avocations outside your professional career?

RC: The ability to be completely independent, to not be afraid of any situation, and to talk anybody. I worked regularly in the ER at the University of Chicago sub-interning my senior year. As a result, I met many of the gang members on the Southside of Chicago. I would not allow the police to be in the treatment room when I was suturing their wounds because I felt they aggravated the situation. It got to the point that some of these gang members would ask for me when they came to the ER. My name got known around the neighborhood, and I felt safer on the streets, which I’m sure was just folly on my part. I could deal with just about anybody, no doubt in part as a result of fending for myself for a year at IES. 

IES Abroad: To what country or countries will you encourage your grandchildren to study abroad and why?

RC: Asia is very important, and I would recommend study abroad there to anyone. My grandchildren have already spent much time there, so I concentrate on introducing them to Europe and its history, literature, music, and art with some emphasis on Italy (and of course Ireland!).  European culture is still very relevant to our own country. Understanding the roots of our civilization – European and indeed world history and geography is critical for an educated person and is brought to life and greatly enhanced by in depth travel. I’ve enjoyed all my travels, so it is hard to choose a favorite.

After developing a passion for international travel while volunteering in Peru and Thailand during high school, Lauren Kolodny went on to study abroad in Barcelona as an International Relations major at Brown University. Interested in the role of technology in economic development, Lauren launched a non-profit while still in college to bring alternatives to firewood cookstoves to communities in Tanzania. Upon graduation, Lauren moved to New Delhi, India, to work with the Clinton Foundation on clean technology partnerships and became the youngest member to serve on the Board of Trustees at Brown University. Seeking to explore her interest in technology further, Lauren returned to the U.S. to work in product marketing at Google, before transitioning to her current role supporting startups and entrepreneurs as Principal at Aspect Ventures. Read on to find out how the global perspective she developed abroad has contributed to her success and what she’s planning next.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad in Barcelona? Had you traveled much growing up or studied abroad previously?

Lauren Kolodny: I grew up in San Diego and spent a fair bit of time traveling in Mexico as a kid. I think the proximity to Mexico really made me curious about other cultures and international travel from a very young age. That curiosity led me to seek out opportunities to spend time abroad in high school. I managed to convince my parents – through a fairly well researched PowerPoint presentation – to let me do volunteer programs in Peru and Thailand after my junior and senior years of high school. Those experiences really opened up my world and gave me an insatiable desire for international travel. I ended up studying International Relations at Brown.

When it came time to choose a study abroad program, my priorities were to get to know another region of the world and improve my Spanish. Spain was the obvious choice since I’d already spent a little time in South America and Mexico. I’d heard fabulous things about Barcelona: beautiful coastal city, great art and culture, easy access to the rest of Europe, fun night life. It was really a no brainer. The one thing I didn’t totally internalize was the prevalence of the Catalan language in Catalonia. But I spoke my fair share of Spanish and had an amazing time.

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

LK: My experiences were, first and foremost, colored by the opportunity to meet interesting people with really diverse backgrounds and get to know them through the process of exploring a foreign environment together for the first time. As for some specific memories, I remember loving the IES Abroad orientation where we took a weekend trip through Catalonia. We visited the medieval town of Girona, explored the beaches and surrealist museums of Cadaqués, crossed the Pyrenees mountains into France - I remember feeling as though my European history and literature classes were coming alive.

In Barcelona itself, I loved strolling through the Gothic Quarter and stumbling upon a new gallery or cafe. I would often hit up the Boqueria, an open air market in the city center, for its incredibly fresh produce and cheese, and I would host dinner parties using all local ingredients. And I loved spending time at Parc Güell and at the other Gaudi installations, philosophizing with my friends about what the heck he must have been thinking.

IES Abroad: In college you started a non-profit organization offering alternatives to firewood cookstoves in East Africa. How did that come about?

LK: I mentioned I majored in International Relations at Brown, but my focus was really around the role of technology in economic development. I was particularly interested in the ways in which technology – both basic and advanced – could help accelerate economic development in the developing world. Through my research and courses, I was shocked to learn that millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa develop severe or fatal illness every year due to inhaling the smoke from firewood cookstoves. Furthermore, women and children spend significant time collecting firewood everyday that could be spent on income generation and education. In some regions, women and children are also victim to rape and attack when they’re out collecting firewood. It occurred to me that a simple alternative to firewood cookstoves could help address a number of these issues. I put together a team and built biogas digesters and solar cookers throughout the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. We partnered with some local organizations and trained them in building the technology so they could teach their communities how to construct and use the stoves more widely. It was a trying experience and I decided to pursue other things after graduation, but I will say that my prior experiences living abroad gave me a comfort in navigating all of the ambiguity that we faced in this effort.

IES Abroad: How did your study abroad prepare you to work for the Clinton Foundation on Clean Tech Partnership in New Delhi, India?

LK: My time living in Barcelona for a summer got me excited about the idea of living and working in a foreign country after college graduation. I developed a confidence during my time in Spain and elsewhere that made me think I could handle and enjoy the unknown of another country for a longer period of time. Right after college, I moved to New Delhi, India, to work with the Clinton Foundation on accelerating the development of utility scale renewable energy through partnerships with technology companies, the government, and finance institutions. While I faced an entirely new set of challenges during my time in India, I was far more prepared to navigate those challenges because of my past experiences abroad.

IES Abroad: When Brown University created its young alumni trustee position, you were elected as the first and youngest trustee of the Corporation. Were there lessons learned from your study abroad and foreign work assignment that were valuable as you held this leadership position?

LK: The variety of experiences that I had working, studying, and traveling abroad certainly equipped me with a much more global perspective that had a lot of relevance on the Board at Brown. I think it goes without saying that in today’s world any top tier university needs to have a strong global presence and strategy to maintain relevance. There were many conversations on the Board about Brown’s role internationally that I felt more equipped to contribute to because of my experiences. I think what was even more important, though, was that each of my experiences abroad gave more and more confidence to navigate seemingly intimidating situations. While the Board of Trustees at Brown was an entirely different type of intimidating situation – I was a 22 year old without a lot of work experience surrounded by extremely successful professionals at the top of their games – I think that confidence in myself still translated and allowed me to be successful in that role.

Interestingly, one of the people who I found most impressive (and initially a little intimidating) was a GP at Accel Partners, Theresia Gouw, who I ended up working with on a number of projects for Brown, including a redevelopment of career services. She went on to found Aspect Ventures where I now get to work with her everyday.

IES Abroad: After the Clinton Foundation, you worked for Google in product marketing before going on to earn your MBA from Stanford and then transitioning into investments. Tell us about your career journey and ultimately why you decided to go into investing?

LK: I had a great experience in India, but I was the only person from my team on the ground and was learning on the fly. As I began to think about next opportunities, I knew I wanted an experience where I could continue to explore my interest in technology more broadly, build on my experience in partnership development, and learn from great managers and peers. Google was a fantastic place to do those things. I spent most of time there in product marketing for the Google at Work team and led the go to market strategy for a number of new products and features including Google Drive.

My first real lens into venture capital came from my interactions with Theresia on the Brown Board while I was still in India. I remember thinking how awesome it was that she got to help so many great entrepreneurs across lots of industries to build exciting businesses. As I got more exposure to the early stage startup ecosystem in the Bay Area, venture capital became increasingly interesting to me.

When I got into Stanford Graduate School of Business, I used my time there to explore my interests in entrepreneurship and venture capital. As I was gearing up to graduate, I learned that Theresia was partnering with Jennifer Fonstad, another very successful venture capital investor from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, to found Aspect Ventures. The opportunity to join Aspect as the third member of the investing team was an incredible alignment of my interests—investing in great entrepreneurs solving hard problems with technology, learning from very accomplished mentors, and helping to build a new organization from the ground up.

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

LK: One of my most satisfying accomplishments to date has been helping my partners, Jennifer Fonstad and Theresia Gouw, to build Aspect Ventures. Even though we invest in startups, we are, in many ways, a startup ourselves. As a collective team, we have a lot of experience in venture capital investing, which we’re combining with a fresh perspective to build a new kind of venture capital firm – with a culture that’s more akin to our portfolio companies than traditional venture. I’m really proud of what we’ve built to date in our team and in our partnerships with awesome portfolio companies like Chime, The Muse, Dejavuto, and Hobnob.

As I think about where I’ve come from, I feel very lucky for the path I’ve taken thus far. It would have been very hard for me to predict ten years ago during my summer in Barcelona that I’d be sitting in San Francisco investing in startup companies today, but every step of my path has been an additive learning experience and helped to define what’s come next. I’m pretty confident that my most satisfying professional accomplishments are still ahead of me at Aspect. Talk to me again in ten years, and we’ll see.

IES Abroad: Why do you feel studying abroad is important for students today? 

LK: Studying abroad is extremely valuable for students today. We all know the world is increasingly interconnected, but that doesn’t mean we all live the same way. I think the best future leaders across industries will be the people who have an understanding for diverse perspectives and cultures. Silicon Valley is a great example of this. I won’t deny that Silicon Valley is a bit of a bubble, but people in this community are building technology that is used globally. I think the companies here that will be the most successful long-term are the ones that can figure out how to build products that are accessible and useful for people all over the world.

David Wild jet-setted to London in 1983 in order to keep tabs on his then girlfriend studying at Oxford, but what he discovered was a rich literary and music scene that would help launch his future career. Indulging in the British music scene, David skipped class to go to record stores and attended almost the entire Elvis Costello Punch the Clock Tour of England. With a passion for music and writing, David landed his first job as an on-the-road journalist writing reviews for shows in London for college newspapers. With this foundation, David went on to work for Esquire and Rolling Stone, where he remains a Contributing Editor. Today, David primarily writes for television, working with celebrities and writing for awards shows including The GRAMMYs, The Emmy Awards, The CMAs, and The Academy Awards. In addition to being a two-time Emmy nominee, David has authored numerous New York Times Best-Selling books and has contributed to CNN’s Emmy-winning series, The Sixties, The Seventies, and The Eighties. Read on to find out how studying abroad helped lay the foundation for David’s career and why getting out of his comfort zone continues to be one of the most valuable lessons he learned in London.

IES Abroad: As a student at Cornell University, what motivated you to study abroad and why did you choose London?

David Wild: My college girlfriend got into Oxford for the year. I didn’t know that she was going to get in, and I thought, “She is very attractive. I had better go to England.” It was really self-preservation. Secondarily, there was the desire to have the educational experience of being abroad: a) I’m a music fanatic and wanted to spend more time in London, and b) it was as close as I could get to Oxford without having applied there. It’s true, I spent a lot of time going back and forth between Oxford and London. But I remember I studied Dickens, and I remember also studying Shakespeare, because occasionally my then girlfriend would get busy so I would spend a weekend at Stratford-upon-Avon seeing Shakespeare. All around, it was a very good literary experience for me.

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

DW: Relatively-speaking, I think I was probably an intellectually curious, smart kid, but I had absolutely no living skills whatsoever. I was a spoiled kid who had gone to prep school and didn’t necessarily know how to live in any other way that wasn’t a regimented, organized world. So when I got there, it was totally different. I have very strong memories of the living situation. A lot of it, for me, was having to get my own apartment. I have vague memories that maybe some of the others lived together in groups, but I lived by myself the whole time. I remember my first apartment in Earl’s Court area. The bathroom was in the hall, which was an educational experience with a bunch of strange people. And I remember, it was obviously pre-cell phone, just trying to get the coins to make a phone call home from a train station. I ended up making a British friend and living in his house eventually. But I had to find my own apartment and get my own utilities at the outset, and considering the British system, that was crazy. I grew up a lot during that time in London because I had to, because I literally didn’t know how to do anything.

Beyond that, I remember the classes on Dickens were great. I think we read the entire body of Dickens’ work. I learned a lot and enjoyed it. But in my mind, it’s all mixed up, the classes and the sneaking out to record stores and going to concerts. I think I managed to ditch enough classes to go on the entire Elvis Costello Punch the Clock Tour of England. That was one of the highlights, and I told Elvis that when I got to know him. I went to like fourteen straight gigs that semester. I was also there for the Everly Brothers Reunion at the Royal Albert Hall. So, a lot of my memories, the reading and the music, are mixed up, and that’s the way it is with me and life.

IES Abroad: Did studying in London impact your career, particularly early on as you got started writing for Esquire and then moved over to Rolling Stone?

DW: Definitely. In fact, I was reviewing for some sort of conglomerate of college papers. I was sending my reviews of shows in London then, and so it was my first experience as a roving, globe-trotting journalist. I reviewed a lot of shows for a number of college papers, and I got real experience being a writer on the road, a journalist up for hire. I’m sure it helped. I think it made me feel more comfortable anywhere I was thrown. Now, I’m mainly a TV writer for all these event shows. Like last night I was working with Justin Timberlake. Today, I am meeting with a movie star, and I have to write something for a TV show for him this weekend. That’s mainly what I do now. But for the first fifteen years of my career, I was mainly a journalist. Even what I do now – I write the GRAMMYs – it involves being thrown into situations, finding a way to be comfortable, and making others comfortable. That is the sort of thing I learned a lot about back in those days, just getting out of your comfort zone. To me, that’s what it was. I guess I wasn’t an idiot, but my comfort zone was very limited. I had been coddled to a certain degree, which was great for me, it was a nice supportive environment, but at least the way I experienced study abroad, definitely living on my own, I had to do a lot of growing up at that point.

IES Abroad: What has been one of your most fulfilling assignments? 

DW: On CNN’s The Eighties series, the music show is coming up. It is interesting because I did think about being in England then. When Tom Hanks and his company Playtone asked me to be involved in The Sixties, I was like, “Guys, you’ve got to get me to the Seventies.” Just age-wise, I don’t remember the sixties. Then we got to the seventies, and I was much more in my comfort zone because that was my high school years. But the eighties, the early eighties, I experienced in London. I remember seeing Wham! on TV early on, and I remember one of my favorite groups of all time, The Smiths, I remember very vividly seeing them early on. I caught the post-funk, post New Wave British music scene because I happened to be there and saw as many shows as I could.

But the most fulfilling assignments are those when you can reach a little bit outside yourself. For example, being the head writer for the Tribute to Heroes telethon after 9/11, that was a big experience. I have been a part of a number of those events that have raised millions of dollars for important causes. I actually sort of came into TV doing that, and then gradually realized that I cannot not get paid all the time. I volunteered my time for the Emmy nominations, and now everyone asks me to do all their charity events. And I was like, “Guys, if I am going to become a writer, I have to take some shows where I get paid.” And that stuff comes up, like this morning at 7am I got a call from the publicist of one of the biggest actors in the world, and because they had seen me last night at this event helping Justin Timberlake, they said, “Can you help X today?” They said, “This actor worked with you, but you probably don’t remember when,” and I realized that it was at an event 10-15 years ago. But all these charity events end up living on because you generate not just a lot of money but a lot of goodwill in the world.

IES Abroad: Despite being Jewish, in 2001, you were awarded the Muslim Public Policy Award with Cat Stevens, and in 2015, you wrote for Pope Francis’s Mass event at Madison Square Garden. In what ways has your work transcended religious barriers?

DW: In truth, religion has never come up in any of those circumstances. In the case of the Muslim Public Policy Award, it was for a documentary when Yusuf (Cat Stevens) decided to return to public life to a certain extent. I was the interviewer because we talked music and spiritual journeys and everything. We are still in touch. We tweeted to each other a few days ago, and we have always remained in touch. We actually did those interviews in London. I remember in-between interviews, at one point, I snuck over to try to find some of my old London apartments. And in the case of the Pope, well, I have fallen into this very weird world where people need to speak at any sort of gathering, and they often need someone to help in different ways. I was writing jokes for Justin Timberlake at the same time that I was working Martin Sheen’s kick-off to the Pope’s Mass in Madison Square Garden. I started out as a journalist. You start out and sort of explore your own voice. But then I found out that if I have a gift, it is that I can listen to people or know people’s persona and then write to their voice. That is the feedback that I get for why people hire me, that I’m a good listener. I try to capture the way someone is good. I remember years ago, I went to speak at Berkeley, and I had just written a Christmas special for Christina Aguilera, and someone asked, “How can you write the Christmas stuff?” and I was like, “Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas.” I remember almost everyone on that Christmas special was Jewish. Religion has never been a big issue for me. It is really about helping people, and you work with different people in different ways.

IES Abroad: What excites you the most about your work?

DW: I like the range of it. It gets incredibly complicated to balance everything and never knowing what’s coming next. Everything gets complicated, but I do like the range of it. I go on one of the big comedy podcasts nearly every week, The Adam Carolla Show, and the reason I do things like that or go on a lot of TV shows is that I like the idea of keeping stuff agile, in terms of jokes or having a point of view. In TV, that has served me well. My first year with LL Cool J doing The GRAMMYs, the first year he hosted, Whitney Houston died the night before. He was friends with her, the executive producer was friends with her, I knew her a little bit, but we had already come in that day, rehearsed the show, done the monologue, done all this stuff and were fixed. He called me at 5pm and said, “David, tell me we are locked and loaded because I’m going to go to bed to prepare for tomorrow.” About 20 minutes later, we got word that she had died, and I had to call him and say, “We’re unlocked, and we’re are unloaded.” I had to write a whole new open, and I needed to get it to him. And that actually had another religious moment. He loved the new open, and he called me and said, “I love it, but I think we need to write in a prayer.” I was like, “Wow, I don’t particularly write a lot of prayers,” but we did it. We made it sort of secular and as universally welcoming as possible, and it ended up being perfect.

I think that’s what I’ve learned – I learned it in London, I’ve tried to continue to learn it ever since, I probably learned it going away to prep school a little bit, and definitely going away to college in general – to try to listen to other points of view and then pull it together and incorporate it into whatever you are doing. In that instance, a lot of people, the network and others, they said, “Tell him no prayer.” But what I have learned, like working with Yusef and Islam and doing the documentary, I think at least at a professional level, is that I’m good at trying to hear other points of view and take what’s best of them. And that is probably a lot of what international study is about – it’s finding out what you think is foreign is actually just part of a bigger picture that you should take a good look at.

IES Abroad: What’s next? Do you have any upcoming projects that you can tell us about?

DW: Nothing in particular to brag about. A lot of these things are annual, like the CMAs or The GRAMMYs. Then there are books that I do when there is time, when the spirit moves me. Some of that is writing, like working with Brad Paisley on his book that we co-authored, and writing with CeeLo for his book. I did a book on my own called The Showrunners about TV. I’ve written a few books about TV shows, like the Seinfeld book. I did some Friends books that became very popular because the cast went on Oprah and promoted it the day the show ended. I’m just a writer. It’s funny, when The Sixties started on CNN, they called me and said, “What do you want for your description because we don’t know whether to put best-selling author or journalist or television writer.” This comes up a lot. There’s people that know me from having been on TV. There’s people that know me from being on the podcast. And there’s people that have no idea, I just sound familiar. So, when they asked what to call me in The Sixties, I said, “Just call me ‘Writer’.” Because that’s really what it mostly comes down to. And I was very happy because in the British Invasion episode, I think Tom Hanks and I were the first two speakers. His name came up with “Actor” and mine said “Writer – David Wild”, and I thought, “I like that. I’m in excellent company there.”    

IES Abroad: Why do you feel studying abroad is important for today’s students?

DW: The world has gotten a lot smaller in certain ways, the connections have gotten a lot more complicated in certain ways, and the world had gotten a lot scarier, or at least we are more aware of what is going on. But none of that precludes the fact that we are better off knowing more about each other. We are better when we connect with one another, when we actually know something based on personal experience as opposed to reading someone’s version of history or life. It is invaluable. It’s a big world, and so eventually, people should experience some of it.