My name is Jessica Du and I majored in International Business and Trade at Ming Chuan University. After leaving MCU, I had mixed emotions between the joy of starting a new chapter of my life, mainly involving staying away from being a student, staying away midterms, finals, and walking up those tedious stairs every morning and the sadness leaving behind of all the great friends and teachers I've become so close to in the past 4 years.
Once I've said my goodbyes to my second home, I was instantly sucked into reality of the USA. My first stop was the City of Angels, aka, Los Angeles, California. After spending time away a little over 4 years, I felt the hard times quickly. I had no established credit, car, friends, or even a permanent place to live. At that moment, I felt I’ve lost the last four years of my life. It was time to build my life again. Luckily, after almost a month of settling down, I could live my life again comfortably. Two weeks later, I landed a job in a freight forwarding company called Nanix Express (California) Inc.
Nanix Express (California) Inc. mainly consists of ocean and air imports and exports. My job consisted of contacting via e-mail/phone calls to brokers, other freight forwarders, customers, truckers, documenting, sending arrival notices, freight bill, authority to make entry, collecting payment, releasing cargo orders, etc. to make sure each cargo arrived at its destination on time. The interesting part was that my bosses were from Taiwan! My boss’ wife was also a graduate at MCU. Therefore, I felt everything was coming into place. However, I never experienced the company as a whole as I wish I could. I started to have financial problems, as rent was unbelievably high, car insurance went up, gas, utilities, etc. I had to think of a better way to live and use my money ethically. After Airbnb-ing in 3 different places in a total of four months, and two and a half months into my job, I decided to quit my job and move to another state more affordable for a fresh graduate student making it on her own. I’ve appreciated my boss and the opportunity I had while there.
At this moment, I felt lost. I had so many questions coming to me. Could I possibly do this on my own? Am I capable? Could I still compete with this economy? What have I missed in four years? Has life always been this tough? Reality sucked.
My next stop after driving four in a half continuous hour was Sin City, aka, Las Vegas, Nevada. Who knew Las Vegas was so cheap outside of the strip!? So here I am living in the desert. After deciding to share rooms with my partner’s brothers and going house hunting, we signed a beautiful, spacious three bedrooms, two in a half bathroom house for a year. Finally! A place I can call home. What’s next? A job. After submitting my resume to many countless places, one in particular caught my eye: a well-known medical front desk office job. I know, it doesn’t sound fun being a receptionist around sick patients in your face. But, what’s more interesting than working with MD’s and helping people? I decided to take the job.
I currently work at Guo Li Yee MD family practice office. This office consists of three incredible doctors. Two who are husband and wife and one who is from Taiwan. The office is in a mixture of Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Spanish speakers. Some coworkers are also from Thailand. My job consists of interacting with patients, understanding what there needs are, documenting, preparing paperwork for the next day, answer phone calls, faxing patients records to other offices, referrals, knowing what medications are needed to refill, appointments, approving medical insurances, etc. These patients count on you. This office gets so busy that they have stopped taking new patients. The fun part is I get to wear comfortable scrubs every day.
In both cases, I was lucky enough to land unexpected jobs that dealt with mandarin speaking, internalization, and a Taiwanese boss. MCU has taught me about cultured consumer behavior, internalization, and teamwork with people who speak different languages to work together to produce the best outcome efficiently and effectively. My job also gives me the opportunity after a few more years of experience to be running the medical office as a manager.
After all the tough times really being on my own with my parents back in Taiwan, I am happy I decided to study at MCU. MCU offered a great amount of experience. Being part of MCU made me a stronger and more understanding person. I am proud to be a MCU Alumni.
