Ana Carolina Freitas isn’t quite sure what she’ll do next, but in the meantime she is enjoying what CSI has to offer.

Some international students are just looking for a good fit for their future. That’s the case with Ana Carolina Freitas. She’s originally from Brazil and is currently studying Hospitality Leadership. She is taking classes through the hybrid program, where international students have the opportunity to take classes online and in person, making for a very flexible experience. When she has her on-campus class time, she attends the CSI campus in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

Healthcare vs. Business

Taking a Business Certificate Program was a bit of a change for Ana Carolina. Her background is in healthcare, “I was a nurse in Brazil,” she says. The Hospitality Leadership Concentration Program focuses on diverse segments of the industry. That includes hotels, restaurants, gaming, and event planning. Students are developed for industry specific skills in management and leadership. 

Even though it seems like a big difference going from medicine to hospitality, Ana Carolina says it isn’t much of a stretch, “For what I’m studying right now, I can kind of put it together with healthcare too. It’s kind of different because hospitality is about hotels and restaurants. But if you stop and think they are similar. The skills can be used anywhere. “

The thinking that hospitality can be flexible is why she chose this particular certificate program. In a lot of ways, both this field and healthcare really focus on customer service,  “I chose it because I enjoy helping people. With that I want to combine the care I have for people with strong leadership skills to grow in this industry.”

Certificate Programs for International Students

Ana Carolina has been in the US for a year but is currently in her second quarter at CSI. She enjoys the flexibility that the hybrid program offers. She’s likes the challenge of learning a new field. But she can’t really decide what she likes best,”The teacher, the classmates, the classes. It’s all good,” she says. 

She also says the homework isn’t too bad because the hybrid schedule allows her to stay on top of things, “Since it’s on Monday and Wednesday, I focus on trying to do all my essays and stuff. Mostly the balance is good,” says Ana Carolina.

But like many F1 visa holders, her international status means that English isn’t her first language, so sometimes that can be a struggle, “The challenge mostly is trying to understand the class. How to put it together and understand since English is my second language.” Ana Carolina has a little trick where she uses her mind to put herself into someone else’s shoes, “I try to picture myself as a professional or a manager in a place to understand that role so that I can do it better in the future.” 

It may not be too much longer before Ana Carolina has the opportunity to get work experience outside of the classroom. She is hoping to do Curricular Practical Training or CPT during her time at CSI. CPT is real-world training related to a student’s field of study and is done while a student is taking classes. Since a student needs to be enrolled at a school for one year in order to do CPT, Ana Carolina will likely be finished with her course work in hospitality before she is eligible. She could instead apply for Optional Practical Training or OPT to gain experience in the hospitality industry once she has completed her classes. 

Opportunities at CSI

Even if she can’t do CPT in her current field, she will likely have the chance to do it at some point since she plans to continue at CSI after she wraps up Hospitality Leadership. When asked if there are any other programs she’d like to do she said, “There are. There’s a lot, but the ones that I’m interested in are the Organizational Administration Concentration and the Clinical Concentration, that one is in the healthcare program.”

Students at CSI in Massachusetts have access to Healthcare Career Programs. There are two concentrations in that program, the billing and coding concentration and the clinical concentration, which Ana Carolina is considering. Both options prepare students to take the certification exams they need to pursue a variety of in-demand healthcare careers.

Ana Carolina still isn’t 100% sure if she will go back into healthcare in the future, “I don’t know yet. Anything can happen. I like the medical field, I really do. But, you never know!” she says. “I’m just grateful for having this opportunity to study CSI and to grow in the future as a professional.”

International students with a variety of backgrounds can explore what CSI has to offer. Contact us using the link and we’d be happy to send you more information.