SUMMARY KEYWORDS
student affairs, people, pandemic, international students, united states, field, international, working, philippines, master, thought, students, econ, program, studying, strength, weakness, friend, takeaways, orchestra
SPEAKERS
Kyoungah, Lixing Li
Lixing Li 00:01
Hello, everyone! Welcome to our global connection CGDSD podcast. Joining us today is Kyoungah Lee. Kyoungah is currently working as the international programming coordinator and advisor at the University of Pittsburgh. She was born and raised in South Korea. Her international journey started in high school in the Philippines and then she came to the United States for college and earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics from SUNY Buffalo. After that, she got a master’s degree in higher education administration and started to work in the higher education field. Today she’s going to share more stories about her international journey in in the United States. Hello, Kyoungah. How are you doing today? Welcome.
Kyoungah 00:45
Thanks for inviting me today. How are you doing?
Lixing Li 00:49
I’m doing well. Yeah, it’s very nice to see you today. Thank you again for joining us today. And from the introduction, we learned that you have very interesting living experience from South Korea to the Philippines and then to the United States. Could you share more about how that experience shaped your career changes to international education and student affairs?
Kyoungah 01:13
Yeah, sure. Thanks for the introduction by the way. I was born in [South Korea] and I’m my family’s still in South Korea. I was born and raised in South Korea. I graduated from Middle School in South Korea and then went to Philippines because I want to study abroad in the Philippines. It is pretty close to you know, only like three four hours flying there. So I didn’t really have any I didn’t really know anyone in the United States you know, I don’t I didn’t really have any relatives living in the United States but I knew someone in the Philippines That’s how you know that was a sort of living and studying in the Philippines. You know, I did my high school, it was kind of a stepping stone for me to come to the United States for college. So that’s how my study abroad journey started. And then yeah, I came to the United States in 2009. As a freshman international student, when I look back, it’s been more than 10 years time flies. So I stayed in Buffalo for seven eight years because I did my bachelor’s their masters here and I worked there for a year and then I got my current job in Pittsburgh and moved to Pittsburgh in 2017. So that has been my journey, studying and working. Yeah, I’m still in Pittsburgh working at Pitt
Lixing Li 02:37
I’m sure they must very enjoy when you’re working over there. How did you decide to go into Student Affairs and pursue a master’s degree in higher education and we learned that you were learning finance and economics for a bachelor’s degree?
Kyoungah 02:52
Yeah. So Student Affairs you know a master’s in higher ed that’s not a major that’s not a thing in Korea. I’ve never heard about them major in college and university in Korea we don’t have student affairs department or division at all. So my mom is still asking and my friends are still asking “Oh so what are you doing? So you’re working in student affairs, you do love programs and events, you go somewhere with your students for fun and you’re getting paid and that’s really cool. And why are you having all those fun programs ?” So you know, my friend like Korean especially Korean friends and my family don’t really get to what I do, but the reason that I got to know by so in in college you know, I was studying econ and finance. I actually as a international student, I saw a gap in support system so when I look back so for example, you know, when I when I arrived buffalo my first meal in the United States was a bread hard bread from the vending machine in my dorm because I didn’t know where to get my food on the first day there was no Uber it’s back then. I was like scared to go out and I kind of moved in because I was in one of the leadership house so in that hall I was only international student there so I think there was no RA and then you know, I didn’t know I thought it’s something that I really had to bear with it as a foreigner or international students. But when I you know, like junior or senior year I really saw that gap in support systems so I really want you to do something. And then junior year you know, fortunately I was able to work as a student ambassador at the International missions, and I really loved working with them for students I really enjoyed it but I’ve never since I was studying in I was majoring in Business, econ accounting stuff, and I’ve never thought of working outside of business field but upon graduation around like graduating time, I was thinking: what do I want to do for my life? What do I really want? Why do I really like to do because you know, I really like studying all the numbers and accounting finance econ stuff, but that I didn’t really see myself working in the financial Institute for 50 years or 40 years. I don’t think I had like strong motivation to do so. So I think I started, you know, thinking about it, and I really liked working with them for students, so.
Lixing Li 05:15
Oh, that’s awesome. Wow. And sorry, for the first experience wasn’t very pleasant. And then you later you see the gap, and you’ve got the support, and you’ve got the chance to talk with the students and also contribute yourself to make a difference to campus. That’s amazing. And do you have some of the takeaways or challenges when you first start there, your master’s program is us. Yes, the master’s program,
Kyoungah 05:44
Definitely reading your writing. Because, in business School, I wasn’t very used to reading a lot of like, you know, textbook, like reading materials, and then writing a lot. I wrote some stuff might not like master’s program like education major, so that was definitely challenging. And then student affairs was pretty new concept to me still, although I did my college in the United States. So you know, my classmates who are very involved, maybe since high school, they’ve been student leaders for a while. So you know, they have a lot of example, their experience, they are very familiar with a system, they have a lot of work experiences as a student. So what they share compared to what I know, was very challenging, actually, and a lot of them are very well spoken. They’re very good at, like sharing, and very good at free discussion, but I was like, really has to jump into the conversation, because I wasn’t really used to. So I think free discussion was pretty challenging, too. And then, yeah, but takeaways were I try to step out of my comfort zone to seek for opportunities. And now when I look back, like working in different offices really helped me a lot to see the big picture of, you know, what’s going on the process of stuffs. And seek for help to, talk to different people to get some advice, because, you know, surprisingly, a lot of people are very willing to help and give advice. If they can help, they are willing to help. So, you know, meeting different people getting some advice from them. I didn’t know I was networking, but somehow when I look back, that was part of like networking. So yeah, those were the takeaways that I had when I started my master’s program when I was in Buffalo.
Lixing Li 07:40
Ah, it’s great. It seems that you had a really good experience in your master’s program. Yeah. And you also mentioned, getting out of the comfort zone and seek for the help. And the networking is also very important part of studying this program and working in this field. And we’re both in the team of ACPA CGDSD, the DB team. So how did you get involved with a CPA and commission?
Kyoungah 08:06
Yeah, so I can’t really plan to join this committee, the commission, but then I just attended like, virtual ACP conference. And then I just heard about it somehow, I think my friend told me about it, or like one of the commission member kind of talked about it in a session, and then you know, okay, I’m going to go to like, you know, info session or something. And then when I joined the zoom session, I really like the people who were in the commission. I see a lot of like, commonality among us. And then, you know, it’s rare to find that a lot of people, not a lot of international employees are working in this field, we’re rare, right? So I was able to connect with a lot of people because we are going through like similar challenges. And also, you know, a lot of things that we can share. So I don’t know, I just really like the people in the commission. So I decided to join.
Lixing Li 09:03
So do I. I was also recommended by a friend of mine in master’s degree, and she just recommended: Yeah, you should try. And I just participated in one of the panel and later, the webinars, and I fell in love with it.
Kyoungah 09:20
Yeah. Yes.
Lixing Li 09:22
And speaking of the work, and we learned that you are working in the programming and fun things for international students, and you were also running a YouTube channel in Korean. And so what is your plan and the goal of being a YouTuber, and is this part of your career development? And how do you manage your time and energy?
Kyoungah 09:41
Yeah, I know I’m running the YouTube channel with my friend. I didn’t think about it. I always wanted to write a blog or do something because everyone is talking about: Oh, you’ve got to do YouTube YouTube. So I was just like thinking about it. But like during the pandemic, I’m I’ve been working from home and then my friend had similar thought. He’s in psychology field and we kind of chat: Oh why don’t we start let’s see how it goes? That’s how we just started because I mean International Education theories in psychology field and there’s like common errors that maybe we can talk about but interesting stuff. I invited like some of my friends who can share their experience because we actually wanted to show the world of through different because different people has different stories and I really hope that you know through those stories some people are encouraged, some people are supportive, some people are challenged sometimes. So that was our vision for this future. It sounds like really big but now you know, like I start like going to office and but we we’ve been doing in person programs in Fall this semester. So I got really busy my friend got really busy. So I we haven’t really uploaded the videos like for one or two months now. But we hope to do it again maybe during the winter break or something. But yeah, if you anyone if you have any ideas or let me know. Yeah, sure. Sounds verified audience.
Lixing Li 11:04
Anyway, we’ll take have some takeaways from and I personally really enjoy even though I don’t understand any Korean, I can tell from the English subtitle. I think has a really good interaction. Yeah, even though we cannot see you guys in person, but from the screen it was Yeah, it’s very touching.
Kyoungah 11:25
Thank you. Thank you.
Lixing Li 11:28
Yeah, and working in the higher education theory, as you mentioned, like during pandemic, the environment is absolutely different from the pre pandemic area. And we’re gonna have some questions about how to, like avoid burnout. And what is your self care routine? And do you have any advice for people in our field or anyone might be interested in joining us?
Kyoungah 11:56
Like joining us like commission?
Lixing Li 11:58
Joining us to be working in this field to be our colleagues.
Kyoungah 12:02
Okay. Um, I think so far I’ve been really enjoying working in this field because as a former international students, I always thought I have disadvantage of being international just because of a language barrier and culture barrier, like cultural differences, but once I chose this field, you know, my weakness, the oldest challenges barrier actually became my strength. Because of those challenges that I face I’m able to help international students better. Because of those experiences that I had, I am able to do something like broader and my more carefully you know, so I’ve been really enjoying the things and I really hope you’re just like people who have like passion helping students who really enjoy you know, working in this field as well. Now you asked about like self care routine as well?
Lixing Li 12:53
Yea, how to avoid burnout and passion fatigue something like that.
Kyoungah 12:57
Yeah, I try to exercise I tried to build a habit of like exercising at least like three or four times a week. You know, before a pandemic, I kind of signed up Zumba classes with my colleagues so I am forced to exercise because if I just do it by myself, you know, oh, maybe sometimes being lazy, not wanting to go anymore. But signing up, like, you know, fitness class with my colleagues were was helpful, you know, I play violin and then I’ve been always an orchestra only, like, the main reason that I mean orchestra is, you know, if I’m not, I won’t practice anymore. So I’m just like, I tend to put myself in programs where I am forced to do so, like even like exercise plus, like orchestra. And then especially during the pandemic, I tried to walk around a little bit every day. So that kind of helped, like build a habit and like system routine schedule, really helped me to not to burn out. And also sometimes you know, you have put so many stuffs on your plate to take care of, but once the big wave is gone, I feel like you know, I intentionally have to take a break, you know, turn off everything really, you know, away from those things. And then at least you know, a day off will be helpful intentionally. And then really try to be aware of what condition is, you know, mental health and the well being so you know, you’re not going to so you can control and manage yourself too.
Lixing Li 14:29
Awesome, it seems that you really have a good balance of your work and life and really take good care of yourself.
Kyoungah 14:40
It’s not. It isn’t easy to say, but I’m not doing that everything honestly.
Lixing Li 14:47
Oh, I’m sure you did a great job. And as we are wrapping up our episode for this part, do you have any words for the incoming international students because I know you work a lot with the students, you have any good wishes, or maybe any advice for the students, who are going to start their international journey in the United States?
Kyoungah 15:13
These are the things that I always tell my students: everyone has different strength. I really hope all students focus on their strength. There’s no way that one person has only weakness. Because themselves are really valuable. I remember as a freshman year, I really want to do well, you know, my parents are putting me putting a lot of effort and money to send me here, you know, I’m, I’m, you know, spending time and do do well in the United States, and I wanted to adjust well, do well, have a successful college life. So I was struggling, whether should I be more Americanized, so I can… you know. There is like, American way to be successful. That’s what I thought: So should I be more Americanized? But I was thinking I want to keep my own identity. So I was really struggling in between that. But that’s later you know, after thinking a while, I can be myself but at the same time, be harmonious with other other people too. So I really want to tell incoming students that you yourselves are very valuable, and you have your own strength. And even if you’re you have like some challenges, and challenges and disadvantage that you’ve not been you have, but that can be an advantage. So for example, you know, I’m very introverted, sometimes. In student affairs, you see a lot of extroverted people. So I may think: oh that is a disadvantage like weakness, but it has seemed a weakness can be strength. That means I can be calmed person who I can maybe I can be more relatable to people who are introverted. I have strength that extroverted don’t have. So I think weakness can be there’s like two sides of like, all traits.
Lixing Li 17:07
Yeah. So you, you have really good point of everybody has strengths, and we don’t really need to just meet other people’s expectation, and especially international students bring the unique diversity to the population. Yes. And yeah, I really appreciate you mentioned, like, should we follow the American way Americanized style to be successful, and that is also something I am exploring right now. And also, yeah, I’ve also been in the United States for so many years. And identity is also it’s always something I’m exploring. And like something as my strength and it’s my weakness, like the language. Yeah, I always also talk to myself and my students, that English is not my first language. And sometimes I struggle that I cannot speak just as perfect as my American peers. But that’s just part of my identity. Maybe my students feel more close to me just because I don’t speak perfect English and I can relate. And I can relate word of my experience with them. So yeah, I can be blessing. Thank you so much for all the sharings and we really enjoyed listening to your stories today. And I’m pretty sure the audience is very excited to hear your story here. So in order to wrap up I wish you have a wonderful life working in the University of Pittsburgh, and I also wish the audience have a really good time and enjoy the week!
Kyoungah 18:50
Yeah, thank you, everybody. Have a good one.
Lixing Li 18:53
Thank you.
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