Claudia Osna Geber is our newest Intead intern. Ms. Geber and her husband arrived in New York a few weeks ago to enhance their educational experiences and to live life abroad. As international students they are able to provide a unique perspective to our readers. This is Ms. Geber's first piece for the Intead Recruiting Intelligence Blog. Her experiences and insights can help to inform those who are in the business of international student marketing and international student recruitment.
Why would anyone want to leave Brazil in the middle of the summer with 86° weather, and move to New York, one of the most expensive cities, in the middle of winter with 10° and snow? I know it sounds a little weird but the reason is very simple. I wanted to study, increase my knowledge, meet new people and live a great adventure. And is there a better reason to change your life than to live somewhere totally new? For me there isn’t! That’s why when my husband decided that he would study for his doctorate abroad for one year, we did a lot of research and decided to move to NYC, the most challenging city in the world.
The first thing we thought was, “Let’s face this challenge!” First we researched universities. I used to work as a marketing manager, so I decided to take a business course, and since my husband works as a teacher and already started a doctorate in Brazil, he needed to find a place and professor who studies similar things and could increase his knowledge. After a lot of Google searches, I found a small place to study on Wall Street, and he found a great teacher and an excellent opportunity at NYU, one of the greatest universities in NYC.
So, on to the next step, contacting the colleges. This step was a little harder, since our English skills are good but not perfect. We sent lots of emails and finally I decided to move forward with my courses, but my husband had to wait to see if he has accepted by the NYU professor. So he took an English Proficiency Test, translated his resume, exchanged some emails and, after a lot of work, finally the answer we hoped: the professor accepted him!
Then we had to go through the Brazilian bureaucracy. After everything was ok with NYU, my husband started to ask for his sponsorship, a very common process in Brazil. After lots of emails and calls he finally got the approval, so everything was just fine for us to come.
And how about courage? When everything was defined, we felt afraid to move to another country, with another language and no friends and family at all. But suddenly we arrived and things started to happened.
We found a nice place to live by searching online, and the quality of life here is very good. Although is an expensive city, we are living in Queens, not such an expensive neighborhood, and have already found some nice places to eat and buy food, and the food is not so different from Brazil.
My business course is very good, and meeting new people is awesome. My husband loves NYU. He told me he feels so good there. The professor who is his sponsor is very nice and has already given him a small office so he could work. He also meets lots of people in his area and is taking some new classes, which he also thinks are very nice.
Despite missing our family, we’re enjoying the experience of living in another country and it’s been a great adventure. So far so good!
