International student sprouting new roots in Brandon

Business Administration student, Ana Ladanhi, is going into her second year at Assiniboine this fall where she'll specialize in Management.

All she was asking for was a little respect.

But despite having a university degree, Ana Ladanhi did not get the respect she felt she deserved from her employers in her home country of Brazil.

“I spoke three languages: Portuguese, English and Spanish. I wanted to be a manager. But because my degree was in administration, my ex-bosses could not see my skills and competencies to be a manager or supervisor,” Ana said.

In her search for further education, she supplemented her research on the Internet with the personal experience of a friend who is a graduate of the Business Administration program at Assiniboine Community College.

“She loved it... In her opinion, it’s a really complete program that deals with organizational behavior and how to manage staff. It gives the competencies and skills to deal with more important things,” Ana said.

“I hope to have classes which allow me to have a general overview of how offices work, to complement my first-year classes.”

Her Canadian diploma will help her get a better job if she returns to Brazil. But she would prefer to stay in Canada, if she can.

“Brandon and I are a perfect match. I would like to stay here forever. I love this city.”

Because she came from São Paulo, “a big, busy city, I thought it might be difficult for me to be accepted.”

To her pleasant surprise, she found her fellow students welcomed her into group discussions, while getting her own bank account, cell phone and Internet service was no problem, despite her lack of Canadian references.

“It’s very easy to make friends with Canadians. They’re very open to international students. We do our assignments together. We go to the cinema and shopping together.”

Ana lives in the student residence at nearby Brandon University. The university accepts Assiniboine students in its residence under an agreement between the two institutions.

The other students on her floor in the women’s residence elected her as their representative.

Ana has a summer job working in the Assiniboine International office, helping other international students. She will be able to continue working there part-time in the fall.

Her advice to others thinking about coming to Assiniboine is: Don’t wait.

“One of my regrets is that I spent a lot of time planning. It is necessary to plan, but I didn’t need to wait so long. Come right now and you will not regret it.”