"I am from Cali, Colombia, but I studied in an American school in Colombia, so all of my classes were in English. And all of my teachers were American. If you're exposed to different cultures since you are very young, I think your mind just has no frontiers. For example, Colombia is a third world country and people think about things from a very rational point of view. Americans are maybe a bit more dreamy and they think that they can reach whatever they put their minds to. Colombians are so much more down to earth about certain things and they just think 'It's ridiculous. I will never do this. Why should they even try?' Just being exposed to [American culture] gave me [the sense of] 'Why not?' Go for it. Try it out see what happens.
I'm an MBA student that has been out in the real world getting experience and many full time MBA students here have not had that much real life experience. So I try to give a little bit of my experience, my real life experience. So sometimes when you think about things, the sky's the limit, right? But when I go into class and I try to drag everybody down to the earth. The most stupid example, it's like 'When do you think cars will drive by themselves?' And some people are like "Oh 5, 10 years, all around the world for sure!' I'm like 'No no no no no. In certain parts of the U.S, maybe. But like, come on, in Colombia? That's going to take them more than 10 years! That for sure is not going to happen. You've got to lower your expectations there.' It is interesting to see how our backgrounds shape us. Actually that's the most interesting thing for me as an international student to be here to see that open minded picture. But also it's interesting for the students that are here to have me as a classmate because they can see how I see life and how things are from a different point of view."
