Want to see something kind of amazing? Okay, here’s an ordinary American kid, out deep-frying a turkey for Thanksgiving at his brother’s condo near Seattle. It’s embarrasing to admit it, but that was me a couple of years ago, when I had never heard of Singapore or Dubai, and wasn’t even sure if Sydney was in Canada or Australia. I was working at Best Buy, and pretty much going nowhere in life.
Then something happened. I joined S P Jain’s BBA program in Singapore, spent two awesome years there, and then went with the rest of my college class to live in Sydney. I’m on track to graduate in April 2014, and hope to get a job in international finance.
So, see that guy in the suit? That’s me as a freshman at S P Jain, being the master of ceremonies with this cool lady from Nigeria for Dynamic Africa, a day-long celebration of African culture organized by the students in my class. How did the shy little guy from Best Buy end up talking to a giant room full of people from all over the world? Well, it was all part of the Jaguar experience.
My sophomore year, I went to Bali during spring break with a bunch of my homies – from Argentina and Paraguay. Crazy, huh? The reason I’m wearing that skirt thing in the temple photo is because they put a sarong around you when you visit temples there, as a form of respect.
Trekking in northern Thailand
Then last break, I went backpacking – solo—through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Here’s a picture of when we went trekking in Northern Thailand and we all rode elephants.
So, I’m not writing all this stuff to brag. Because this kind of transformation is what has happened to just about everybody I know at S P Jain.
I’ll tell you the truth. Not everything is perfect about S P Jain. (Is it at any school, or any place, for that matter?) If you come here, you’ll end up bitching about stuff sooner or later. But one thing you’ll never moan about – ever – is the way you grew into a truly global person by coming here. Sure, you’ll still love your home country. But you won’t think it’s the navel of the universe any longer. And that’s something I doubt you’ll get at any other college – and which we’re all hoping will help us get fascinating jobs all over the world for the rest of our lives. And you could too!
~Joel Silverberg, GBBA10
Okay, Jags. Your turn. If I can do one of these posts, you can too!