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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Enacting change starts locally. Sitting in the classroom, senior Mary Ghazarian’s ambition to create a unified world has been stirring since she began her career at �������ϲʹ���ֱ��. Majoring in human resource management and leadership and business strategy, Ghazarian is determined to take her learning experience into her own hands.

“What excites me the most about my field is how to enact change in an organization,” she says. “What types of barriers stand in the way? How can I ensure that the change is successful?”

Undaunted by the fast-paced nature of an adapting world, Ghazarian wants to combine her values rooted in advocacy and leadership in her work. On Western’s campus, she is the president and director of digital marketing of the Refugee Outreach Collective, an organization whose mission is to provide educational networks, resources and opportunities to the Kalamazoo community.

“One of my current career goals is to combine my passion to aid in the displaced migrant crisis by being an advocate in a for-profit company,” she says. “I’ve been able to gain connections and build relationships during my experiences as well as get a better understanding of how I can contribute to the refugee crisis as a working professional.”

Ghazarian has participated in five different internship programs over the last few years at Western, but it was during her time at Amazon as a recruitment intern where she saw in-depth what leadership looked like.

“As an emerging leader myself, I learned how taking initiative and being curious has an impact on the workplace. I’ve mostly done this at Amazon where I helped my co-workers approach company leaders with conversations about emotional and cultural intelligence.”

With her dedication to diversity and inclusion, Ghazarian has been able to learn about working with different backgrounds and cultures outside of the United States. Studying abroad in Germany, India and Portugal has allowed her to gain a global context for business.

“I’ve been able to get a clearer cross-cultural understanding of how people work and what their values and norms are like in the professional setting, as well as learning their culture while building connections with people from across the globe,” says Ghazarian. “Since I plan on working alongside people from diverse backgrounds, it was helpful for me to learn and understand those differences and similarities.”

The network of people Ghazarian has created is vast, from around the world to right here in Kalamazoo. But while she finishes her final year at Western, she remains inspired by her mentor, Western alumna Sarah Hamilton, B.B.A.'20, who is  a GOglobal HR trainee at Merck KGaA.

“Sarah was the one who introduced me to the Society for Excellence in Human Resources and encouraged me to join. She answered all my questions about the human resource program, and I will never forget the advice she offered before my first internship! She inspires me to go above and beyond by setting an amazing example and I feel lucky to have met her!”

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