Alumni Updates

• Aler Grubbs (University of Regensburg, 1990): Aler graduated from CU in 1993.  For several years, she traveled wherever she could and did odd jobs abroad -- this included: 1 year in Erlangen, Germany teaching; 1.5 years in Latin America teaching and travelling; and a couple months in West Africa. Then she got her M.A. in International Policy at Monterey Institute of International Studies, and in 2001 joined the U.S. Agency for International Development as a Foreign Service officer (USAID is part of the US government's foreign affairs framework).
  
  In the last 14 years with USAID, she’s been posted on longer-term assignments (1-3 years) to Egypt, Pakistan, Bosnia, South Sudan, and Central Asia (Kazakhstan), while also doing shorter-term assignments in Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Morocco, Lebanon, and Uzbekistan. She recently arrived in Nigeria in for her next 2-3 year assignment. She says it's a great career, an opportunity to both represent US policies and values while also trying to help other countries in their own aspirations.
   
• Alison Shlom (Institut Francais des Alpes (IFALPES) in Annecy, France, Summer 2012; CIEE Belgium: Brussels Business, Communications & Culture, Spring 2013; SIT Madagascar: Biodiversity & Natural Resource Management, Spring 2014): Alison is currently in Thailand, finishing up her first weeks as an English teacher in Northern Bangkok. She says every day is an adventure! She’s been getting started up again on her blog, documenting her adventures and thoughts, as she has done for years.
  
  She says she’s been itching to live abroad ever since her return from her last study abroad, in Madagascar. She jumped at the chance to join a friend in the opportunity to teach English at a large secondary school in Northern Bangkok. It's been less than a month so far since their arrival, and she’s already feeling at home. On weekends she travel to National Parks, and on weekdays she teaches, and then explores Bangkok. She says it's been a thrill to see the intersection at the push for development and the desire to hold onto tradition. The Thai are a peaceful and accommodating people, and she’s excited to continue incorporating the Thai lifestyle into her own. When things get overwhelming, she just remembers, "mai pen rai" (the Thai version of Hakuna Matata).
   
• Ileen Den Ouden (ISA Australia: Townsville Courses with Locals in Multiple Disciplines (James Cook University), Fall 2013; CAPA England: London, Spring 2014): Ileen is currently living in Norway, and is working at Holmenfjord Hotell outside of Oslo. She is also in the early stages of becoming part of the Red Cross in Norway. She will be working towards becoming an EMT. Ileen is originally from the Netherlands, studied at CU in Boulder (which she says she misses more and more everyday), as she continues to make new parts of the world her home.
   
• Matthew Nelson (CAPA Italy: Florence, Spring 2014):  Matthew arrived back in Florence in August and he’s working for a student travel company based in Florence that takes study abroad students on weekend trips all over Europe. He is a tour guide and also a salesperson for these trips. Having loved his time abroad and going on these same trips as a student made him want to return to give students a similar experience while abroad. He is doing his best to improve his Italian and embrace the culture.
   
• Henry Guyver (CIEE China: Nanjing Intensive Chinese Language & Culture, Academic Year 2014-2015): After graduating this past summer, Henry went to Shenzhen, China to join Hong Kong’s largest independent financial services company, Convoy, as an Independent Financial Adviser. He is the only non-native Chinese speaker in the Shenzhen office (he thinks there are less than 10 in a company of over 2,000). Also, he’s recently joined a local startup as CFO, they’re building an app to make life for foreigners in China easier. He’d like to add that he would not be there, typing this from his desk on the 11th floor of the Aviation Center in Futian district, Shenzhen, China, without the support, motivation, and instruction of Professors Weston, Hsu, and Chen. As a Chinese, not a finance major, his ideas and aspirations were more often met with more skepticism than encouragement, with the exception of those three, who always pushed him forward. Henry sends his best wishes to current CU students and cheers to fellow alums.