Alumni Spotlight - Nicoletta BumbacWhat are you doing?I work with JetBlue as an Airport Operations L

Alumni Spotlight - Nicoletta BumbacWhat are you doing?I work with JetBlue as an Airport Operations Lead at JFK, though currently I’m on tour for a special assignment as JetBlue’s J.D. Power Tour Ambassador. I was chosen to represent the face of our 11th J.D. Power Award which JetBlue won consecutively for “Highest Customer Satisfaction” among North American low cost carriers. My job is to bring our award to every airport we fly to- and right now I just finished my 88th visit in Liberia, Costa Rica out of 92 cities on my list! I ask the Crewmembers we work with across our vast network to celebrate however they see fit by bringing our award to local spots representative of their culture and energy. This is my 103rd day on the road and it’s been an incredible experience. Yes there’s lots of travel…but I love it!How did Friends World prepare you for it?Friends World/LIU Global instilled in me a desire to go beyond typical tourist travel and really spend time with the persons I meet, getting to know subjects on a deeper level. Our Crewmembers come from all parts of the world- we have a Supervisor in Lima who’s family is from the Amazon region, and we have a Crewmember in San José from the same part of Heredia (San Pablo) where I lived with my host family during my first year at Friends World. Since JetBlue is concentrated in the Caribbean and our international routes encompass several Spanish-speaking countries and territories, Friends World prepared me for this tour drastically throughout my first year of studies in Latin and Central America.  Although I’m only in each city for a short amount of time, I make it count by sharing the award with the Crewmembers in their community and by enforcing our “Fun” Value in creative ways! The tour has been a great success so far, I’ve been invited to speak at and participate in several events within our company (and gently made fun of our CEO who announced he’d be visiting 50 cities this year on a work tour of his own, whereas I completed my 50th visit in 52 days!!!) I’m thrilled to be speaking on an all female panel tomorrow at JetBlue’s JFK Hangar to promote women in aviation careers for youth. J.D. Power & Associates (the marketing research firm) recently found out about my tour and they loved it…they’ve been actively retweeting my tweets and stated they can’t get enough of it!What did you love the most about your experience?The best part of my tour was during our inaugural route to Quito, our Corporate Social Responsibility team wanted to make our mark in the community by donating hundreds of books to youth at an organization that helps Ecuadorean street kids and their families. As it turns out, I was last in Ecuador 10 years and 20 days before the inaugural flight during a field trip with my Friends World class. It meant so much to be back in one of my favorite countries, and to read the books we donated to the children in their classroom-it really felt like I was back at Friends World connecting with the community and giving back while learning so much from the experience.What advice would you give current students?Congrats on being a part of a life-changing educational experience! Every time I tell others about my years at Friends World I realize how lucky I was to visit the world and be up close and personal to experiencing the zeitgeist of our times. Anyone could read about the state of the world in a textbook or news magazine, but it takes a certain type of individual to confront the realities of the world and see what’s happening up close and personal. Listen to the stories of everyone you meet along the way- whether it’s an elderly lady sitting next to you on a bus ride to Panama or a teenager you meet in Nicaragua. Everyone can teach you something beyond the classroom. Open yourself to each opportunity presented along the way that you feel good about, and even when things don’t turn out as planned (it’s an inevitable part of travel/living aboard), take what you have and run with it. You may end up learning a lot more than you expected in the best way possible. It’ll be an emotional experience, but it will stay with you forever. -- source link

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