Page 340 - Keys to College Success

Thriving in a Diverse

Global Community

HOW CAN YOU COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY

AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

What Would You Risk? Lauren Ward Larsen

THINK ABOUT THIS SITUATION AS YOU READ, AND CONSIDER WHAT ACTION YOU WOULD TAKE.
THIS CHAPTER EXPLORES HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD BY RELATING EFFECTIVELY
TO DIVERSE PEOPLE, TAKING ACTION AS A GLOBAL CITIZEN, AND FINDING YOUR OWN RECIPE FOR
LEADERSHIP.

Despite the sudden death of her father when she was six and that of her daughter. Baby Clare
years old, Lauren Ward Larsen had a fulfilling childhood recovered quickly, but Lauren spent six
and did well in school, earning an undergraduate degree weeks in intensive care with multiple
from the University of Arizona and a master’s of business organ failure, seizures, and a coma, dur-
administration from UCLA. She held management positions ing which time she required 203 pints of
with companies such as Pepsi-Cola, Simon & Schuster, and blood, all given by volunteer donors she
3DO, a video game company. didn’t know. Finally, the transfusions and
In her mid-thirties she married, and several years later surgeries proved successful, and Lauren was able to leave the
was pregnant with her first and only child. Her workplace hospital. However, she needed to learn to walk again, rebuild
savvy, she thought, had prepared her well: “I had a hard- her ravaged body, and get to know her baby—who, at six
core success mentality from the business world that I days old, had been sent to live with Lauren’s brother’s family
planned to simply transfer to motherhood.” In hindsight, 400 miles away. She could not imagine any reward coming
and due to a major life detour, Lauren came to understand from this challenge. “I felt like this carefully constructed life
the saying: “We plan, God laughs.” my husband and I had built together had crumbled into a
Her unforeseen risk came in the spring of 2000, when a big pile of rubble before our eyes,” Lauren says.
pregnancy-related disorder, preeclampsia, nearly took her life To be continued . . .

A NEAR-FATAL ILLNESS
MADE LAUREN AND HER
HUSBAND REALIZE THE
PRECARIOUS NATURE OF
LIFE AND THE PRECIOUS-
NESS OF TIME. SIMILARLY,
AN UNEXPECTED DETOUR
COULD TAKE YOU PLACES Working through this chapter will help you to:
YOU NEVER IMAGINED.
YOU’LL LEARN MORE • Define and develop cultural competence P. 305
ABOUT LAUREN, AND THE • Communicate effectively across cultures P. 309
REWARD RESULTING FROM
HER ACTIONS, WITHIN THE • Define global citizenship P. 312
CHAPTER. • Take action as a global citizen P. 312
• Understand what constitutes leadership P. 314
• Investigate ways to lead P. 315
• Explore how you will use what you’ve learned in this course P. 317