graduate campus becomes world class
By Christine Neuberger
Becky Zhang carries a cell phone and relies on computer technology to nurture the company she started last year. The high-tech conveniences of her life in suburban Fredericksburg contrast sharply with the poverty of her upbringing halfway around the world on a rice farm in rural China.Zhang, a master of business administration student at University of Mary Washington’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies, is among a small yet growing group of CGPS students who hail from other countries. Fourteen non-U.S. citizens were enrolled in CGPS degree programs in fall 2005, according to Director of Institutional Research Mathew Wilkerson. That’s up from the six enrolled in fall 2004.
These figures don’t capture every “international student.” One is Nazli Egemen, a graduate student and dual U.S.-Turkish citizen who has lived mostly in her native Turkey.
These students increase the diversity of a campus that attracts adult students employed in varied fields and who range in age generally from their 20s to their 50s. The presence of international students enhances classmates’ knowledge of and ability to work in a global economy and a multicultural society, said Sallie Washington Braxton, director of advising and student services at CGPS.
“We have people from all over, and the diversity they bring from living in another culture is fantastic,” Braxton said. “We have an international society now, and students need to prepare for that or they won’t be as effective in the work world.”
Hari K. Pudasaini, 34, holds a master’s degree in statistics from Nepal, where he taught high school math and college statistics, all in English. Now living in Northern Virginia and hoping to teach high school math, Pudasaini drives to CGPS for graduate education studies.
Until he’s licensed to teach, he’ll make ends meet in other ways. For now, Pudasaini works as a motel clerk and as a gas station cashier. Two years ago, he and his young family left Nepal’s capital city of Katmandu in search of better work opportunities in the United States: “The USA is a big and very rich country. It has a lot of resources, well-equipped facilities, great development of technology, and a lot of development in various fields. We might get a very good opportunity. I can make a better life here than what I used to have in my country.”
Becky Zhang’s journey began in a village that often lacked electricity and that she describes as “very backward.” Zhang’s family ate mainly rice and vegetables. “We owed lots of money,” said Zhang, whose first name, Guojiao, is pronounced “Go-Jow.” She uses the nickname “Becky.”
Every year, debtors descended on Zhang’s family home, seizing cookware and anything else of value, even the roof. Young Zhang and her older siblings hiked daily into the mountains to collect firewood for cooking, their shoulders heavily loaded for the trek home.
The hardships contrasted sharply with the affluence that Zhang’s father knew as a child. Well-educated, he grew up in a prosperous household – until the government took his family’s extensive land holdings in the 1940s.
Zhang’s father supported his family as a carpenter and rice farmer. His wife sold homemade tofu and raised chickens and pigs in order to sell eggs and piglets.
Now 25 and married, Zhang draws inspiration from her childhood difficulties and her hard-working family. She singles out her mother, who had no education but instilled in her children deep conviction about its importance. “My mother was always thinking that education could help the family,” Zhang said recently. “She hoped it could change something.”
So, despite objections from others, Zhang’s mother sent her brood of six – five of them girls – to school. From age 6, Zhang walked four miles round trip to receive her education. She did her homework by candlelight.
Zhang summed up her previous existence: “It was not so nice, like [it is] here.”
The family’s fortunes improved dramatically in the 1990s. Zhang’s second oldest sister left home to look for a job. Her hard work in Hong Kong eventually paid off; she opened her own real estate business and found phenomenal success. “She was a millionaire in U.S. dollars at age 25. That’s when she changed the family,” Zhang said.
With her sister’s support, Zhang satisfied her yearning to venture beyond China. Denied a visa to attend a university in Iowa, Zhang headed to the Marshall Islands, armed with $12,000 that her sister provided for housing and tuition. “I never asked for money again,” Zhang noted. “I wanted to be independent. I wanted to see the world.”
Zhang polished her English while managing a restaurant and bar. On the job, she met a U.S. Department of State administrative officer whom she married two years later. By 2003, Zhang had earned an associate degree and relocated with her new husband to Virginia.
“Especially in my hometown, no one else went overseas to go to school, and only a few of my classmates got a university degree in China,” Zhang said, describing with pride the personal significance of the bachelor’s degree she earned from Strayer University in 2004. “It’s a lot of prestige.
“School is most important to me,” said Zhang, who was recently admitted to CGPS’s MBA program. “I’m looking for education to extend my knowledge of business practices. There are so many things I don’t know.”
What Zhang does know is how to start a business. During a visit to China last year, she opened a beauty shop in Shenzhen, where her parents live. A friend manages the shop, which specializes in nails and makeup. Back home in Stafford, Zhang has incorporated Any Trading Inc. She imports women’s purses made at her brother’s plant in China. Zhang plans to offer cashmere sweaters, shawls and more. She believes her understanding of Asian and American cultures gives her a competitive edge.
The Turkish-born Nazli Egemen, too, has firsthand knowledge of cultures outside the United States – and she delights in sharing her insights during MBA class discussions. While Egemen doesn’t have as much work experience to share as some classmates, her observations about life and cultures overseas prompt other students to listen.
“Maybe they’re trying hard to hear and understand me,” Egemen said, smiling. “But people are very interested when I talk about what I know. I’m learning a lot, but I feel I’m contributing, too. I am bringing in what I know about other countries.”
Egemen knows a lot. She lived most of her 25 years in Turkey, which is widely regarded as the country that bridges the West and the Mideast. She became enamored with the United States as a foreign exchange student.
After earning a high school diploma in California, Egemen returned to her hometown, the Turkish capital city of Ankara, to complete her bachelor’s degree.
She longed to return to the United States, though. She got her wish when a Turkish company sent her husband to work in its new U.S. office in 2003. Egemen and her husband settled in Stafford, and she found work as a seasonal tax associate for H&R Block. Having completed internships at Turkish banks, she knew she wanted to enter the field of banking.
Egemen eventually was hired at a bank branch in suburban Fredericksburg. She realized that a graduate business degree would help hone her managerial skills, so in 2005 Egemen enrolled in the MBA program at the Stafford campus, located just minutes from her home.
With English her second language, Egemen has worked hard, especially at preparing papers, and she’s relied on the CGPS Writing Center for support. Egemen feels the extra effort she invests in her courses has paid off. She recently was promoted to assistant branch manager of the bank, where she said she applies lessons she’s learned in the classroom.
“I enjoy every second of class,” Egemen said. “You think you’ll never use what you learn. But almost everything I learn makes a difference on the job. I can feel the difference.”
It’s not easy to work full time while carrying a heavy class load, but Egemen has done just that in hopes of graduating in May. Her demanding schedule takes a toll, she said. “It is very stressful. My days involve getting up and going to work, then going to school and I’m home about 9:45 at night.” She usually spends every weekend working and studying.
She credits her husband with helping her maintain such a hectic schedule. “He cooks and he cleans. And he is my emotional support especially since the rest of my family is so far away. He gives me courage, a reason to smile and keep going even on the most stressful days. He is wonderful.”
Egemen’s parents plan to travel from Ankara this spring to see her graduate. Her mother is an attorney and her father is a neurosurgeon and professor. Like Nazli, her father holds dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship. Egemen has a brother who works as a mechanical engineer in Philadelphia.
The perspective and insights of students such as Egemen can serve to instruct others in the University community, said Elizabeth P. Harper, associate dean of admissions for adult programs. “They help us learn by being here,” Harper said. “They bring an incredible perspective to our classrooms. Whether our students are in education or in business, they pull other students out of their Americentric perspective.”