When Sofia Javed was in high school, her newspaper advisor showed the staff pictures from his work in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, Africa. This sparked her interest in going abroad, which grew when she went to college.

“I had been in Chicago most of my life,” Javed said. “I met kids who lived in other places, and they had different perspectives, and I felt boring. That was initially why I signed up to study abroad.”

Javed is an instructor in the journalism program at the National High School Institute. But her career has taken her around the world and allowed her to work in countries like Israel, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Uganda. She said some people do not believe she is American because she is not Caucasian.

“It is very interesting to be a non-white American and travel to places where they do not meet Americans and have impressions that all Americans are white,” Javed said. “They don’t accept that I am non-white and from America.”

Javed said she has been mistaken for a Bollywood star.

“The popularity of Bollywood everywhere in the world has made it very difficult for me to be inconspicuous,” she said. “People will sing songs and ask me to do a dance and it is kind of funny.”

A person does not have to work abroad to have experiences change them because every person, conversation and situation can change them, Javed said. But working abroad did change her perspectives.

“I didn’t come form a very affluent family, but after living abroad I definitely appreciate the relative privilege I did have growing up,” Javed said.

Javed said when people listen to her talk about her experiences, she hopes they gain a new perspective and open up to other cultures.

“I wanted to impress that going somewhere with a purpose and immersing in a culture is a whole different experience that offers more than just being a tourist for a few days,” Javed said.

James Bourne, of Los Angeles, said listening to Javed’s lecture took his dream of going abroad and “lit it on fire.”

“She fell in love with individuals she met, not just the country,” Bourne said. “You realize that you make connections with people and that is what it comes down to.”

Catherine Choi, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., said Javed’s lecture made her consider working abroad either in Peace Corps or with a wire service such as Reuters.

“I would really get to learn a culture, especially if I were writing articles on it,” Choi said.

Javed said that as a journalist she hopes working abroad gives her the ability to write a story for an American newspaper without having a completely U.S. perspective.

“I hope that now I have this ability to see every issue from the perspective of other people,” Javed said. “I can imagine what they are feeling because I have seen their world.”

She also said she hopes the students learn never to turn down an opportunity to go anywhere. 

“I hope that they understood a lot of the things I did, I just did,” Javed said. “I might have been worried, scared or nervous, but I hope they have the courage to learn, explore, leave home, get out of their comfort zone and immerse themselves in another culture.”