The World Bachelor in Business

Meet WBB: Nate Epstein My mother is Russian and my father is Azerbaijani. I didn’t realize how much of an impact my parent’s culture had on my upbringing until I left Plano, Texas, where I lived my whole life. When I met my WBB family, I was exposed to many cultures and have been enjoying the diversity. I am still exposed to different lifestyles and experiences as my WBB journey continues. There are a lot of intangible things you see as you grow. All these little challenges,... like having the courage to ask for something in the grocery store or constantly feeling out of place comes with a lot of tiny growth. Recently, I joined the rugby team at Bocconi University, but no one spoke English. As the weeks came along, I tried my best to be friendly and open-minded and I started to build great friendships and also have improved my Italian! In the summer before going to college, a couple of friends and I started a non-profit clothing brand. We made t-shirts with the drawings of child cancer survivors and then donated the money to Childhood Cancer Foundation in Dallas. Social Entrepreneurship was a way I felt instant gratification. I have a couple more startup initiatives. For example, over quarantine, I started a company called GreenRide. Carbon offsets for planes are very popular, where people donate their money to plant trees in developing countries around the world to compensate for their air travel. I was thinking there should be an interesting way to track and offset your miles with no environmental damage. I also got support from WBB alumni whenever I needed their advice on my startups. WBB has given me the open-mindedness and resilience to try new things, find my passion, and get support from our close-knit community. #MeetWBB #wbbfam #milano #WBB #italy Photo: Andy Ho Interview: Kellie Ling, Kaela Gallagher, Simal Gezer #MeetWBB | http://wbb.usc.edu | http://wbb.ust.hk | http://www.unibocconi.eu/wbb

Meet WBB: Daria Mikheeva "You know how they say on the plane when the mask pops out of the ceiling: put it on yourself first, and then on your child? Well, that’s just it: you have to care about yourself before you can care about anyone else in your social relationships. We form so many connections and friendships that we forget that there's this one person that we're always gonna see in the mirror. So, I started meditating, which is kind of a step towards a peace with yours...elf and a peace with others, or taking yourself out for maybe dinner or a coffee. These days make you realize that you are the center of your world; that you are the most important person. I don't like the term single; I'm not single, it’s self-partnership. A sustainable relationship cannot be created by individuals who are not comfortable, so for me, this focus on the self has really helped not only with my personal mental state, but also with my relationships with other people. Recently, I've been putting myself out there more. A lot of the things that I would have never thought that I would be doing, I’m trying because of this entire social experiment that is WBB. I didn't understand how to socialize in a way that was immediately beneficial to both parties. But because I had a chance to see how my friends here do it, well, I started doing that, too. And I secured an internship today because of this newfound kind of social consciousness. It was amazing being able to leverage all of these social skills in a way that felt genuine, and I have found this appreciation for talking to people about things that truly interest me and truly interest them despite having known each other for five minutes. It’s been a long, difficult personal journey from year one to right now. Where I've found the strength to shed my former preconceptions of what socializing should be like and to finally, truly internalize and understand what it means to be a global citizen. " Photo Credit: Sebastian Centeno #MeetWBB #wbbfam #hongkong #WBB #Russia #MeetWBB | http://wbb.usc.edu | http://wbb.ust.hk | http://www.unibocconi.eu/wbb

WBB takes on Halloween!

Meet WBB: Andrea Abriani "I was born and raised in a small town of 30,000 people called Vittorio Veneto, which is in the countryside of Northeast Italy. Up until I was 16 years old, I hadn’t gotten to see the world outside my small town. In fact, until I was 16, I had never taken a flight in my life. Despite that, I loved reading and learning a lot, which is one thing that people in WBB have in common an interest in learning about things we don’t know about. In WBB, it does...n’t matter if you’re a person who has lived in seventeen different countries. It doesn’t really matter where you come from or what your background is. What matters more is your personality, your interest in connecting with other people, and your readiness to learn from them. That is what makes you a good ‘WBBer’ or a good ‘world citizen.’ At the end of the day, WBB is a mentality. You live, you explore the world, and you share the same values... but you also have different ideas, different mindsets, and different ways of living. As long as you’re open to understanding perspectives from other people, you can only learn and grow as a person. At first, I was a bit intimidated by this interview. I asked myself, ‘What’s so cool about me? Why do they want to interview me?’ because I don’t have a ‘cool’ background. I’ve lived in the same place for my whole life. I still haven’t seen much of the world except for where I’ve been with WBB. But I think I can bring a different perspective. For the people who don’t think that they belong to WBB but feel that they could belong if they had a different experience growing up I want to tell them: if you think that you can do it, you belong. " #MeetWBB #wbbfam #hongkong #WBB #italy Photo Credit: Sebastian Centeno #MeetWBB | http://wbb.usc.edu | http://wbb.ust.hk | http://www.unibocconi.eu/wbb

Meet WBB: Facundo Martin Llamas For my whole life, I’ve moved around from country to country. I was born in Argentina but moved to Costa Rica, Mexico, Switzerland, and then Russia to complete high school. It’s not a crazy story, but one day my mum showed me the WBB program website and told me, You’re meant to be in this program! I experienced the biggest culture shock when I moved to Switzerland from Mexico. It was the first time I had to speak to people around me in a lan...guage other than Spanish. I would have to point to things in the supermarket and menu items in the restaurants It was a challenging but fun experience. I felt the same shock when I got to USC. I had never seen a university campus like that a town of students everywhere. Everyone was so welcoming and open. All the crazy events that occurred at USC throughout the year were overwhelming. I learnt that the first step to overcome culture shock is to accept this new reality. Then don’t shy away from it; go explore it to find the parts you enjoy the most. WBB made me realize how similar we all are by allowing me to meet people from many different cultures. It’s scary to go to a different place, and you think everyone is going to be completely different. You can always find something in common with people, and once you do, you can build a good relationship. WBB makes me want to push my boundaries to get out of my comfort zone. When we put ourselves out there, we are able to see how others live and think. It’s our job to keep moving forward and challenge our complacency. #MeetWBB #wbbfam #USC #Milan #traveling Photo Credit: Kaela Gallagher #MeetWBB | http://wbb.usc.edu | http://wbb.ust.hk | http://www.unibocconi.eu/wbb

A second year World Bachelor in Business student, Jenny Lee, shares her experiences learning through the Hong Kong protests and COVID-19! Her reflections will be a series of journals Check out her first one below! https://medium.com//world-bachelor-in-business-5d10f2d8ced0