Craig Bossley, Rachel Beery, Ainil Khalid, Edith Chu, Xiaohan Huo, and Kimothy Wu
Meet the 2016-2017 GLI Executive Board
Rachel Beery
VP of Membership Development
Year: Junior
Major: Geography and International Studies
Minors: Geographic Information Science; Spanish
Hometown: Chillicothe, Ohio
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: I enjoy traveling, drinking coffee, eating lots of different foods, going for runs, and exploring nature. Last summer I interned at National Geographic with their education department. Currently, I work at the Columbus Zoo as a Camp-In Counselor and Animal Handler. I’ve held lots of baby animals but my favorite was a baby lion in Mexico.
Why is being globally minded important to you?
Ohio State is an amazing university where peoples from all over the world come together from all over the world to study at this university. In this process amazing things happen where people interact every day and share their culture with others whether intentional or not. Through the mixing of cultures and ideas I believe this connection will solve many of the world’s issues. For me, I believe that if others are ignorant to an issue or don’t have empathy for an issue it is because they haven’t experienced or communicated with someone who has experience in this issue. With a more informed and open minded public the generation of students graduating from OSU will work all over the world spreading their ideas and knowledge to others.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
The whole mission of GLI is to develop future leaders that realize their role as a global citizen. Knowledge is what drives a person’s actions, and to me a leader is someone who acts on issues or conflicts that arise that they truly understand and care about. Furthermore, so far in GLI I am realizing more about others and about myself as I change and develop throughout college. GLI has given me skills I will need to be an informed, passionate, and fulfilling leader. Now on Executive Board for GLI, I look forward to sharing my experiences as a cohort member last year and assist all of the members in whatever they need to succeed this year.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
GLI energizes me to work hard and accomplish my goals. Some things I am most excited about are the monthly dinners where we will have the opportunity to network with very successful professionals, and I’m also really excited to see everyone in the GLI Fam every week, and creating social outings and activities to learn from one another and grow closer together.
Craig Bossley
VP of Marketing
Year: Third Year
Major: Human-Computer Interactions
Minors: Design; Chinese
Hometown: Floyds Knobs, Indiana
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: I love thinking outside the box, asking hard questions, all things design, and have a soft spot for Taiwan and East Asian culture.
Why is being globally minded important to you?
From the Internet to air planes to trade pacts to big cities, the trend of technology and communication is from a world of isolated communities in adversity towards a cooperative global village in which every person is connected into being part of a bigger mutualistic ecosystem. With this mindset, it is important to involve every member of a big and diverse world in creating a welcoming places for those from other places and other ways of thinking.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
GLI has profoundly affected my mindset, interactions, and aspirations. Meeting and communicating with GLI members from cultures and lifestyles different from my own has inspired me to seek partnership and relations with those outside of my bubble and comfort zone. Working together through thick and thin over the course of a year truly humbles you to be a better communicator, team-player, and leader. Making new connections and hearing the viewpoints of prominent people in the global and Greater Columbus community always makes me rethink my own inhibitions, define my motivations, and broaden my horizons. Something I’ve learned is that for every one perspective and method, there are 2 more different ones just as equally worthy of attention.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I am excited to help in advertising and see the events planned by the cohort members come to fruition in the Spring semester. It’s always hard work but the results will be amazing and fulfilling!
Edith Chu
VP of Communications
Year: Senior
Majors: Accounting; Psychology
Minor: International Studies
Hometown: Huber Heights, Ohio
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: I like reading, traveling, playing tennis, and quoting Parks & Recreation. I’m also a taco enthusiast and a proud cat mom.
Why is being globally minded important to you?
Having such a diverse community here on campus is wonderful because there’s always an opportunity waiting around the corner to meet someone of a different background. With so many students (and faculty!) hailing from different countries all over the world, it’s a daily reminder of the importance of being globally minded and to take advantage of the opportunities to learn and increase one’s cultural awareness in a world that is becoming more globalized every day.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
Being in GLI has allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and grow as a person, both personally and professionally by developing my communication and leadership skills and getting to network and learn from a diverse group of people. Programs like GLI introduce students to people from all over the world at Ohio State, while also celebrating the importance of embracing other cultures.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I’m excited to see the projects the groups come up with, as well as how the members themselves will grow throughout the year. I’m also looking forward to getting to know everyone in this year’s cohort #GLIfam
Xiaohan Huo
VP of Public Relations
Year: Junior
Major: Accounting
Hometown: Beijing, China
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: I am a big fan of Harry Potter. It’s a legend. I love reading and photography. A fun fact about me: I took the written test four times to get my driver’s permit.
Why is being globally minded important to you?
I love traveling and I am curious about the world. I love to share my own culture, while listen and learn from other cultures. Ohio State is such a big, diverse campus with people from all over the world. It’s like Disney World: you just cannot have enough with all the opportunities, diversity and mix of culture around you here.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
Because of the diverse and global environment GLI provides, it helps the members to gain a broader global view and a unique perspective in thinking. The interaction between students with different backgrounds equips GLI members the skill to approach to and communicate with people who have a different background than them. Something special about programs like GLI is that, they focus on creating an international involved community for students who embrace diversity and have interests in culture exchange opportunities. It’s definitely a great program for students to gain cross-cultural perspective and be aware of culture difference.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
For this year in GLI, I am looking forward to meet all the awesome people and work with them together. Hopefully, I will make some life-long friendships and bonds with my GLI members. Also I am really excited to grow and develop my leadership and communication skills with everyone else through the program.
Ainil Huda Mohd Khalid (Ainil)
VP of Project Leads
Year: Senior
Majors: Logistics Management; Marketing
Minor: Popular Culture Studies
Hometown: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: Traveling, playing volleyball and cheering on the Buckeyes! Watching Netflix soothes me – I cannot go a day without watching at least one episode.
Why is being globally minded important to you?
Diversity and globalization is important to me because students from all over the world come to Ohio State. Being open-minded and accepting differences are crucial because it gives people the chance to experience different things outside of what they are normally accustomed to. As an international student, having such a diverse group of students at Ohio State makes me feel accepted and welcomed to be part of this community.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
GLI is a great platform for me to step out of my comfort zone and willing to take risk even though it may have failed me. However, learning from mistakes are a good way of growing up and be a better leader. Getting involved in GLI also means getting involved in global oriented events. These events open a platform for cross-cultural exchange and dialogues involving the importance of diversity and inclusion.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I am excited to see all the great works the members will do for the year-long projects.
Kim Wu
VP of Project Leads
Year: Senior
Major: Strategic Communication
Hometown: Pretoria, South Africa
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: I’ve played violin since I was 8, the animation world still delights and intrigues me, I have a Facebook art page (“Kimothy Wu Artworks”), and I have a deep, inexplicable phobia of fish. I also have a photograph with Michael Jackson from when I was 4 years old.
Why is being globally minded important to you?
I think great achievements are done when people cooperate. Ohio State is a huge mixture of international and domestic students. There are outstanding students in both groups – it is important to me that we are identified not by our origin, but by what we can do and how far (literally and figuratively) we can go with that.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
GLI has a fantastic way of showing or reminding people of their strengths and provides opportunities to figure out how to use those strengths to influence the people around them. I don’t want to be the one leader leading a group of people – I believe in using my strengths to help others see the leadership potential in themselves and collectively work together on global issues. GLI really pushes you to think outside the box, be resourceful and most importantly, appreciate and learn from the achievements of others.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I’m super excited about all the people I’m going to meet (or have met)! I’m also absolutely determined to see the projects succeed!
Also be sure to meet our Program Advisor!
Megan Lawther is the program manager for Global Engagement at The Ohio State University and received a B.A. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in African Studies and Political Science before receiving her M.A. from OSU in African-American and African Studies.