This week I am joined by Sinafik who is originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is a Mount Holyoke Class of 2015 graduate. She currently serves as the Executive Director for Your Ethiopian Professionals (YEP), a 501(C)(3)non-profit organization founded in 2010, that aims to be a global connection point for the professional community. Outside of her tenure at YEP, she works as Account Executive, Assistant Vice President for Employee Benefits in Lockton Northeast's Washington, D.C. office and serves as the primary business contact for clients. She also founded and co-manages Birara Genet, a non-profit organization that empowers under-represented community members in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia through targeted and job-relevant skill training programs.

In this episode, we talked about how we each maneuvered the unique challenges we faced as international students and shared some tips that worked for us to successfully navigate the journey of being an international student. Major takeaways include finding belongingness in the space you inhabit, stepping out of the scarcity mindset, tapping into resources, diversifying your network and most importantly giving yourself agency and being kind to yourself as you discover what success means to you.

Tune-in to laugh, learn and appreciate the international student experience!

Please send questions and feedbacks you have to internationaliebyruth@gmail.com or DM on the Instagram page @internationaliebyruth