The Right College Can Dramatically Change One’s Life

Tiffany grew up in Voluntown, Connecticut. For a small state, Connecticut really has dramatically different environments. Hartford is not that far away from Voluntown but the urban versus rural lifestyles between the two may as well make each location half a world away. While she was not quite a farmer’s daughter, Tiffany’s family heritage was steeped in farming. She could trace back her American ancestors to the late 1600s, not quite off the Mayflower but pretty close. As far as she knew, her direct family line had stayed in or near Voluntown since the 1800s on various family farms. Those who went to college all went to state colleges in Connecticut.

Tiffany loved language study. Her love of different languages led her to be intrigued by international culture. This led to my suggesting that she target colleges in Washington, DC, among other cities. Neither Tiffany nor her parents had initially considered any colleges outside of Connecticut. Tiffany – and her parents – loved Washington, DC and eventually Tiffany attended American University.

Tiffany majored in Chinese. She loved her college experience, telling me that she made her best friends there, and that the experience of living in Washington, DC radically changed her understanding of the world.

After college, she secured a job at a English language training institute in Beijing. She met a guy from Australia. After living in China for a couple of years, they married and moved to Singapore. From there, they lived in Australia. Tiffany’s parents visited her in each location and grew to love foreign travel. Tiffany recently moved back to the US. They now live in New York where her husband has a job with an international investment bank. She called me recently because she wanted to tutor for the New York branch of The Learning Consultants and relayed all the above detail.

When she finished her tale, she said, “imagine if you never suggested looking at colleges in Washington, DC?”