Read a most recent article from a current MBA student, Teresa Hoelle, at the Belk College of Business. Teresa is second year student with a concentration in global business and marketing. Also, she is a Professional Development Scholar at the Belk College and Vice President of the Graduate Business Association.
A City Transformed: Internationalism at UNC Charlotte
In late February, I witnessed Charlotte welcome 102 individuals into the United States. I was not in customs at the Douglas International Airport. Rather, I attended a naturalization ceremony at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in south Charlotte. At this office, which performs bi-weekly nationalization ceremonies, I watched over one hundred people, representing 45 different mother-countries, swear to protect, honor, defend, and solely pledge their allegiances to the United States of America.
To commence that afternoon’s ceremony, an official with the Citizenship and Immigration office played a brief, yet emotionally powerful video. Images of immigrants from centuries past were projected alongside photos of recently naturalized individuals. Quotations from immigrants on the date of their nationalization raced along the bottom of the screen. Words spoken by Pelageya Ilchencko, an elderly woman who naturalized from Russia in 2004 in Vancouver, Washington, still echo deep within my heart and mind. She simply yet beautifully stated, “America is my peaceful refuge.”
As the ceremony progressed, I shifted my gaze to the young man towering in the front row of the overcrowded room: my fellow UNC Charlotte MBA colleague, Ali. While in the presence of this wonderfully diverse company of individuals, my classmate Ali was surrounded by his mother, father and two brothers. As a family, all five had emigrated from Lebanon five years ago, and on this special day, as a family, they stood shoulder to shoulder and accepted the U.S. as their newly adopted country.
As the ceremony concluded, I eased myself toward the back of the room to observe Ali celebrate with his family. I was moved by all of the initial interactions between the family and friends as they embraced and rejoiced. Through the hugs, tears, exclamations, and encouraging chatter in multiple languages I could not comprehend, I felt my body overcome with trembling as I considered the sacrifice, struggles, and hard work that Ali and his family, now my fellow countrymen, endured for freedom, the hope for a better future, and the promise of a peaceful refuge in America.
Just as the individuals I observed that afternoon, I too have moved several times in my life in hope of charting a brighter future. My motivations include educational advancement, career opportunities, personal growth, and life adventure. Most recently, I settled into Charlotte a year and a half ago, eager to experience this fast-developing southern city and to pursue one of my life dreams: earning my MBA.
I first met Ali when I began my studies as a full-time MBA student at the Belk College of Business at University of North Carolina – Charlotte. Meeting the many international students like Ali in my MBA program has dramatically changed my impression of Charlotte and significantly improved my quality of life. Each week, I learn alongside with fellow classmates from China, Israel, India, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and France. In fact, UNC Charlotte’s Fall 2010 MBA enrollment was comprised of 15% international students, and almost half of the students moved to Charlotte from another US city.
UNC Charlotte’s geographic and ethnic diversity offers me a unique opportunity to analyze business management cases and corporate governance issues in a global context. And, my engagement with the dynamic individuals in my MBA program extends beyond the classroom. In the past couple of weeks alone, I brainstormed over coffee with a fabulously gifted and intelligent Chinese student, shared dinner (speaking in German) with another MBA colleague, attended a professional speaker series with a student from D.C., and grabbed drinks after class with fellow students from Israel, Portugal, and Trinidad.
Though I had appreciated some aspects of the ‘cleanness’ of the uptown area when first arrived, I got the impression that Charlotte’s city planners were not motivated to embrace and showcase the regions’ abundant diversity. Therefore, I had toiled and questioned if my values and desires could thrive with what appeared on the surface as whitewashed, corporate city.
However, since starting classes uptown at UNC Charlotte’s MBA satellite location on Tryon Street uptown, I have been continuously inspired and revived by the diverse perspective and ideas that are openly shared and embraced. I feel genuinely welcomed as one of many from varying worldviews, cultural heritages, and even a less familiar accent. Belk College of Business has been the catalyst to help me feel truly naturalized in this evolving, international American city; it has become my “place of peaceful refuge” in Charlotte.
When the new Belk College of Business Campus on Brevard and Ninth Streets opens for classes this fall, it is my hope that UNC Charlotte continues to expand its reach in helping Charlotte to facilitate valuable, deeper connections between our growing international and business communities. If successful, I believe the implications could spark significant ripple effects for years to come.
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