>> I'm Bertil Lindblad and I'm, right now, working as senior advisor
for International Initiatives at Pomona College.
I left the United Nations system after almost 20 years to come to take
up a newly created position at this college to help create new connections, global contacts
and opportunities, bring speakers, and develop some strategic partnerships
with international institutions.
I love everything, actually.
I think it's quite unique to be able to come back here.
It's really coming full-circle, you know, to the college that I really --
that meant a lot to me and also was the root
or kind of the foundation of my career, to be back here.
But I think, you know, the students and the faculty is, you know,
that's what keeps you going here.
The combination of skills is very important.
So, for example, language is a great asset combined with --
it can be, you know, economics or international relations, but what's different now is --
compared to when I was a student -- that the world is a totally globalized environment.
So any discipline is global so to speak.
So if you're a neuroscience major, there are opportunities that could take you
to other countries and to work internationally.
So I think that's something -- that's a message I always give.
There was a lot of focus on the Cold War and so forth so I did some coursework related
to this then Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,
communism and so forth which was very interesting.
So that took me, after all of that, to my first job, which luck had it,
was at the Swedish embassy in Moscow.
And Pomona really strives to have each students have a significant international experience
that could also include an internship overseas.
So that's in the big things, the big ticket items.
But, then, also we have, you know, almost daily there is a lecture or a movie or whatever,
you know, to really try to benefit from this.
And then also course, I think, to try to explore what's around us here
in the greater Los Angeles area different ways.