Study Break: Vanessa Beary

[caption id="attachment_4556" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Photo by Martha Stewart"][/caption]

Program: Culture, Communities, and Education Tool for Change: Entrepreneurship education
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Vanessa Beary, Ed.M.'11, Ed.D. student, has an unconventional approach to her career: She's never had a trajectory in mind, and so, when interesting opportunities come along, she goes after them, even if they don't necessarily connect in an obvious way. "I'm open to thinking about all opportunities. I don't want to close myself off," she says. "I know I'm prepping myself for something."

That prepping has taken her all over the world: working as a research assistant for an author in Venice, Italy; getting a master's degree in philosophy at the University of Cambridge in England; helping on an archeological dig of Ancient Tiberias in Israel, where she unearthed a stack of ninth-century vases; working in Iraq as a public diplomacy officer and conducting research for generals; raising money for schools in Afghanistan for Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-OH); traveling to China to learn about how children of migrant workers access education; learning Arabic. Eventually, she'll be in Eastern Africa with her husband, a foreign service officer.

But for now? Thanks in part to a Fulbright fellowship, Beary has grabbed another opportunity. This past summer, she returned to the mountainous country of Tajikistan to study advanced Persian and Tajik in the capital city, Dushanbe. In the fall, she will move to Khorog, located on the Afghan border. There, Beary will start her dissertation research: looking at the effect of entrepreneurship education — a creative way of approaching learning — on students at the University of Central Asia.

Your favorite Persian word and why. Danesh-ju: University student. The word literally means knowledge-seeker. As a student of this world, it is my responsibility to always and unrelentingly be in pursuit of knowledge.

Things from home you had to take to Tajikistan: • My yoga mat
• The two new mathematics books that my husband purchased for me to indulge my side-obsession with the ordered beauty that underlies our seemingly chaotic world: one on the golden ratio and one on imaginary numbers

Country that you visited that has made the biggest impact on your life: Israel
China
Tajikistan
X Iraq

Iraq was challenging because . . . I was forced to deal with things I had not dealt with in my life. The base I lived at was getting shelled; sirens were going off all the time. In the beginning, I slept in my body armor.

Most nerve-wracking moment of your life. Climbing down a 60-foot temple in the middle of a jungle, an hour and a half drive outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia. I am not a fan of heights.

What inspires you? Really incredible leadership.

You'll know you've settled down when . . . My husband and I are living in the same country, and our books are on shelves, not in boxes.